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Life Among the Hindus. 
 
 BEING A JOUENAL OF DAILY EXPERIENCES AND OBSERVA- 
 TIONS DURING TWO YEARS OP LIFE, LABOR AND 
 TRAVEL AMONG THE PEOPLES OF INDIA. 
 
 BY — 
 
 / 
 
 Rev. p. M. JOHNSON, M. A., 
 
 MISSIONARY TO THE TEIiUGUS. 
 
 ST. LOUIS: 
 
 C. B. Woodward Company. 
 1893. 
 
 ^JaN ^21894 
 
 c . 
 
 
 h 
 
Copyright 1893, by 
 r. M. Johnson. 
 
 All rights reserved. 
 
 
 b 
 
To my wife^ whOy far more than m,yselfy has had 
 to suffer for Christ, this little volum-e is m-ost affec- 
 tionately dedicated. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 Chapter I. 
 
 The Departure and Voyage 9 
 
 Chapter II. 
 Introduction to Life in India 15 
 
 Chapter III. 
 Language and Customs 25 
 
 Chapter IV. 
 A Hindu Wedding : Hot Winds 41 
 
 Chapter V. 
 Across the Burning Sands: Famine 49 
 
 Chapter VI. 
 Origin of Idolatry : Religion of the 
 
 Hindus 59 
 
 Chapter VII. 
 Degeneration, the Fruit of Idolatry 75 
 
6 CONTENTS. 
 
 Page. 
 Chapter YIII. 
 
 Persecution: Mohammedanism 87 
 
 Chapter IX. 
 The Telugu Mission : Its Beginning and 
 
 Struggles.-: 105 
 
 Chapter X. 
 The Break of Day: Triumph of the 
 
 Gospel 111 
 
 Chapter XI. 
 Shadows begin to Deepen : Sickness and 
 
 Death 125 
 
 Chapter XII. 
 The Sad Farewell : Homeward Voyage : 
 
 Storm at Sea 143 
 
 ►^I'-f-r^ 
 
INTEODUCTION. 
 
 The substance of the following pages has 
 been delivered in the form of lectures a num- 
 ber of times since our return from India. It 
 has been thought, if put in book form, it might 
 reach hundreds of people more than would 
 ever have opportunity of hearing the lectures, 
 and so impart that information which would 
 lead to a far deeper interest in the great cause 
 of the world's evangelization. In the compo- 
 sition, with reference to both the style and 
 the arrangement, an effort has been made to 
 make it a volume of practical information, 
 especially for those who may not have the 
 opportunity of reading more extensively 
 concerning the things mentioned in these 
 sketches. 
 
 We hope these pages may be used of God 
 to bring our people nearer in prayer and in 
 
8 INTRODUCTION. 
 
 sympathy to the millions of their Hindu 
 brothers and sisters; and we earnestly pray 
 that, if it be God's will, some who read here 
 may be led to go in his name, "To give light 
 to them who sit in darkness and in the shadow 
 of death, to guide their feet into the way of 
 
 peace." 
 
 P. M. Johnson. 
 August 11, 1893. 
 
CHAPTER I. 
 The Departure and Voyage. 
 
 The last farewell had been said, and we 
 walked somewhat restlessly up and down the 
 deck of the " Scythia," waiting for the signal 
 of departure from the homeland. Just at 1 
 o'clock, p. M., October 4, 1890, we moved 
 slowly out of the Boston harbor into the 
 Atlantic. We watched the last dim outlines 
 of our native country go down in the western 
 horizon, and then turned to look through our 
 silent tears upon the broad ocean before us. 
 
 The mingled hopes and fears, joys and sor- 
 rows which then filled our hearts, no one can 
 ever tell; and none, save those who have ex- 
 perienced them, may ever know. But the 
 Lord who said to us '' Go," was indeed with 
 us, was our strength and comfort. The 
 voyage to Liverpool was, altogether, very 
 pleasant; there being a number of other 
 missionaries with us. That unmerciful mon- 
 ster, sea-sickness, would insist on keeping us 
 
10 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 company, and very often we had to leave a 
 richly laden table to pay our respects to him. 
 As we had to wait two weeks in England, 
 the time was very pleasantly and profitably 
 spent in sightseeing in the great metropolis, 
 and other historical parts of the wonderful 
 old island of Britain. Among other things, 
 we shall never forget the hour spent in* 
 ^Spurgeon's Tabernacle, listening to the 
 "wonderful words of life" from the lips of 
 the greatest preacher since the days of the 
 Apostles. He, in fact, preached with the 
 power and demonstration of the Spirit. We 
 sat in the midst of an audience of six thous- 
 and, when Spurgeon came forward, he 
 said in a loud voice: **Let us worship 
 God," and began his prayer: *'Our Lord, 
 make us abundant in that child-like spirit 
 which submits to the will of the Father," 
 The whole character of the man was certainly 
 revealed in those words. 
 
 For this the secret fountain of his wealth, 
 He sought to know and do his Father's will. 
 
 This good man whose heart ever yearned 
 for the lost of his people, sleeps now in 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 11 
 
 The grave of England's greatest, noblest child, 
 And he that trusted, leaning on his God, 
 Shall speak, though dead, and dead, shall yet outlive 
 Ten thousand of his fellows living yet. 
 
 October 25th, we boarded the '*Clan Mc- 
 Arthur," headed for India. Our course was 
 southward through the Bay of Biscay and 
 thence through the Straits of Gibraltar. A 
 magnificent scene in passing this strait. We 
 entered near midnight, 
 
 And there we saw in moonlight pale 
 Old Afric's northern mountain crests 
 Like hugest ghosts in somber vail, 
 Rise up from that dark continent. 
 Gibraltar's famous rocks arose, 
 Like monuments divinely built ; 
 Sought in the moonlight to disclose 
 The solemn grandeur of the hour. 
 Here dimly burnt the beacon lights, 
 Out in the hazy distance shone ; 
 And weird and solemn all the sights 
 That moved the hearts upon our ship. 
 
 Onward over the Mediterranean Sea sighting 
 Algiers, we came upon the island of Malta, or 
 Mileta, where Paul was shipwrecked. A 
 half-day was spent in looking over this 
 interesting island. Our next landing was 
 Port Said, the entrance to the Suez Canal. 
 
12 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 Here we get our first sight of real heathenism. 
 Men and boys crowd around us, some with a 
 kind of loose sack thrown over their bodies, 
 suspended by a draw-string around the neck. 
 The people here, as in most of northern 
 Africa, are chiefly Mohammedan in religion. 
 
 The passage through the Suez Canal, about 
 a hundred miles, is very interesting. Passing 
 on through the sandy desert, constantly 
 traversed by camels between Assyria and 
 Egypt, we came to the Bitter Lakes. They 
 are supposed to be part of the northern arm 
 of the Red Sea, when it extended much 
 farther north than it now does. The passage 
 through the Red Sea would be delightful 
 were it not so exceedingly hot, as it usually is. 
 Off to our left, in Arabia, was the Sinai range 
 of mountains, while on the right, the African 
 hill tops, near sunset, are lit up by the rosy 
 tints from the gorgeous array of clouds that 
 surround the sun in his going down, and 
 reflect a beautiful sheen over the waters where 
 once, upon dry land, the chosen of God 
 passed safely over. 
 
 Through the Red Sea, the Gulf of Aden, 
 the Indian ocean, we landed next on Ceylon, 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 13 
 
 the island of spices and of Buddhist idolatry. 
 Truly this is one of the most beautiful islands 
 of the sea. Luxuriant vegetation, the best of 
 tropical fruits, and beautiful flowers, abound 
 every where and all the time. And all this 
 beauty of nature is only marred by the 
 numberless Buddhist temples, over which the 
 soft, scent-laden breezes mingle with their 
 rustling music the din of heathen worship. 
 Truly the poet hath written : 
 
 What though the spicy breezes 
 Blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle, 
 Where every prospect pleases, 
 And only man is vile? 
 In vain with lavish kindness 
 The gifts of God are strown ; 
 The heathen in his blindness, 
 Bows down to wood and stone. 
 
 Three days more brought us to India ; and 
 here we are, after two months of travel, sight- 
 seeing and waiting, worn and weary, at our 
 journey's end. 
 
CHAPTEK II. 
 The Introduction to Life in India. 
 
 We came into the Madras harbor at night, 
 and had to wait for morning dawn to go 
 ashore. The sun rose clear and bright over 
 the Bay of Bengal. With great eagerness 
 we rose to get the first sight of the country 
 which was, henceforth, to be our home. The 
 harbor was already filled with small boats, and 
 men and boys crying out the sale of their 
 goods, or inviting us to go ashore in their 
 boats. They were as dark as the Indians of 
 the West; having, most of them, long, coarse 
 black hair, clearly outlined features, medium 
 height, or smaller, and with little or no cloth- 
 ing on their slender bodies. The city of 
 Madras lay out before us, not very inviting. 
 There are a few nice government and other 
 buildings, but the native city is a continuous 
 number of mud huts set closely together. 
 The streets are narrow and very filthy. 
 
 We were met on the steamer by Revs. Drake, 
 Downie and Heinrichs, who greeted us with a 
 
16 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 hearty welcome. They brought us letters of 
 welcome from most of our missionaries in 
 India, and assisted us in getting ourselves and 
 baggage ashore, and our baggage through the 
 Custom House. By this time we were feeling 
 the heat of the sun and were glad to arrive, 
 at last, in the pleasant Perambur bungalow, 
 where a good breakfast was awaiting us. It 
 will be remembered that in India it is custom- 
 ary among missionaries to have four meals a 
 day. A very light meal, called chotta hazaree, 
 at six or seven in the morning; breakfast at 
 ten or eleven; a cup of tea with English 
 biscuits or fruit at three o'clock, and dinner 
 at six in the evening. This suits the hot 
 climate better than our American style. Mr. 
 and Mrs. Drake, by their kindness, made us 
 feel quite at home, and we enjoyed two days' 
 rest in their house. During this time we 
 looked over the city a little, and acquainted 
 ourselves with some of the polite tradesmen. 
 Enter a shop to buy a topic, or sun hat, and 
 ask the price of it. The answer will be : 
 "Twelve rupees, master, twelve rupees; this 
 is a first class topic, sir." ''O, I can't pay so 
 much for this topic." *'How much, master 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 17 
 
 give, sir; how much give?" " Tell me proper 
 prices." "Give me nine rupees?" *'No, I 
 can't give so much." " Well, tell how much 
 give; master knows price." ''I'll give you 
 four rupees." *'Can't take four rupees; good 
 topic, sir; see." *'Well, I'll go somewhere 
 else and buy." ''All right sir, take sir, never 
 mind." And thus you have your hat after 
 wasting enough time and talk to have bought 
 forty acres of land. But such is Hindu custom. 
 Though in Madras, we were yet a long way 
 from Ongole, the station to which we had been 
 appointed. After a little rest, much needed 
 and greatly enjoyed, we then took the train 
 for Nellore. The whole day was occupied by 
 the journey of about one hundred and fifty 
 miles. A little after dark we walked into the 
 Nellore compound where we were greeted with 
 a song of welcome from the school children, 
 and were made at home with our dear friends, 
 Mr. and Mrs. Heinrichs, who were then 
 temporarily stationed in Nellore with Dr. 
 Downie. We spent Sunday with them, and 
 enjoyed our first privilege of speaking, through 
 an interpreter, to the Telugus. The mission 
 houses, with flowers always in bloom, yards 
 
18 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 shaded by evergreens, casurina, margosa trees 
 and tall mangoes, were, indeed, resting places 
 in a weary land. From Nellore to our next 
 stopping place we are fully initiated into the 
 native style of travel in India. We had about 
 forty miles to go this stage and, as the days 
 are too hot for travel, we must make the 
 journey at night. About four o'clock our 
 man, Chinniya, whom we had engaged to be 
 our cook, brought up the cart in which Mrs. 
 Johnson and myself were to make the trip to 
 Ramapatam. A cart of two wheels, a kind of 
 frame covered over with bamboo matting, 
 inside of which we were to make our bed of 
 straw. The thing was crowded nearly full of 
 our baggage, and then we were to wedge our- 
 selves in the best way possible. All was ready 
 at length, and the *'bandy man" tied up his 
 two little oxen to the cart and we were off, 
 jolting and jigging along. We fared splen- 
 didly until late at night when we were tired, 
 and it began raining. Our covering was not 
 sufficient to turn all the rain, and our bed was 
 not more pleasant than a Pullman sleeper. 
 The rain was slightly chilling to the driver, and 
 he was inclined to crawl back as far into the 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 19 
 
 cart as possible. Then, occasionally, he 
 would get sleepy and, while nodding, the oxen 
 would stop. 
 
 We knew only one word in Telugu, and had 
 learned that for the special occasion. So I 
 would rise up and call out to the driver, 
 "poni," which means, let them go. He would 
 jump like he was shot at, utter a sleepy groan, 
 and then mutter something to the oxen ; so on 
 we would go for a little while. But the force 
 of my *'poni" would not last long. About 
 the time we began to doze a little the cart 
 would stop ; and hour after hour in the rain 
 and mud, I had to get up and urge the 
 procession on, until my little word ''^poiiV^ 
 was nearly worn out. When the novelty of 
 the occassion didn't amuse us, I really wished 
 for a few more Telugu words to express certain 
 thoughts of tenderness toward that sleepy 
 man and his oxen. You know I could but 
 sympathize with them. Morning dawned and 
 we were yet ten miles from even a rest house 
 where we could stop, sheltered from the burn- 
 ing rays of the sun. But the rain had ceased, 
 and we had better control of the oxen. So 
 about half-past ten we came into Cavili, a 
 
20 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 village yet twelve miles from Ramapatam. 
 Mrs. Johnson was almost exhausted, and I 
 fancy I resembled a Comanchee just off a long 
 hunt. We had begun to despair of our future, 
 when, as we drove up into this village, we 
 heard a voice in clear English, "Is Mr. and 
 Mrs. Johnson here?" It sounded like the 
 voice of an angel. We looked out from our 
 close quarters and there was Miss Cummin gs, 
 the lady missionary from Ramapatam. She 
 had anticipated our troubles and had come to 
 meet us. She had brought for us Dr. Boggs' 
 English phaeton, drawn by eight strong men. 
 O ! what a relief from the old cart. But when 
 rested we were glad of the experience. After 
 two or three hours in the rest house and a good 
 lunch, we started, as it was cloudy, on our way 
 to Ramapatam where we arrived about ^ye 
 o'clock in the evening, thanking God that we 
 were alive. 
 
 After a day's rest in Ramapatam, we must 
 make one more stage ere we reached the 
 end of our journey and rest in our own house. 
 But this stage was quite pleasantly made, as 
 we had the phaeton the rest of the way. 
 Chinniya could speak a little English and. 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 21 
 
 through him, we changed coolies, or men; as 
 in such travel we have to pay the old company 
 and get new men every ten miles. We pay 
 them four annas each, or ten cents a stage. 
 As it was cloudy we made this run to Ongole 
 in the day time and arrived there a little after 
 dark. Dr. Clough gave us a most hearty 
 welcome, and we remained in his house until 
 our own was arranged and ready for occupancy. 
 Dr. Clough 's mission house is a real pleasant 
 one. A large yard, well shaded with margosa 
 trees, a number of other buildings, including 
 the chapel, two small bungalows and the girls' 
 boarding school. Here, also, is the beautiful 
 baptistry, or pool, where so many have been 
 baptized. The high school bungalow, about 
 a quarter of a mile to the southeast, was to be 
 our home. It was considerably dilapidated, 
 and we had to wait till it was partially repaired. 
 By and by, everything was arranged and we 
 moved in. Now comes the interesting 
 experience of hiring servants. We know 
 nothing about it, don't know how many we 
 need ; but the missionaries all tell us we must 
 have servants. We can't do our own work 
 in that hot country. But we already" have a 
 
22 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS, 
 
 cook, and as he can speak a little English and 
 seems rather shrewd, we put him in the lead 
 and ask him what we must do. A dozen or 
 more men and women have already gathered 
 around the house, applying for positions. 
 Chinniya assumes an air of importance, as only 
 a Hindoo in authority can do, and demands of 
 each one of the applicants what he can do, and 
 how much their former masters paid them. 
 They all rise as quickly as if a cobra was after 
 them, and make their salaams and bow nearly 
 to the ground two or three times. Then each 
 comes forward with his papers, if he has any, 
 and I read them. They are most likely from 
 missionaries whom they have served. Many 
 of them have but little idea what is written on 
 their papers; some of them are pretty good, 
 and others not so flattering, and some actually 
 mentioning the misconduct for which they 
 were discharged. But they fancy because it 
 is a paper it must be all right. Out of the 
 number we select first a **matey," a young 
 man to assist the cook, and wait on the table. 
 Next an ''ayah," a woman to wait on Mrs. 
 Johnson, and assist in keeping the house 
 straight; then a water carrier, and lastly, a 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 23 
 
 sweeper. We announce to the company our 
 selections, and the chosen make a nice bow 
 while the others begin to fall down on their 
 faces and cry *' aygah, timdree^ tuiidree! 
 naku puni ladu!^^ (Sir, father, father, I 
 have no work. ) But give them a small present, 
 five cents, to buy their rice for that day and 
 they go away quite happy. Now, we must 
 agree on the salaries of those selected. But 
 we look at the ^vq standing before us ; we 
 remonstrate against having so many servants. 
 Two men could easily do all our work. But 
 no, sir; they each have their separate work, 
 and all the gold of Ophir could'nt hire a cook 
 or a matey to sweep. It is not their custom, 
 and that settles it. We must have a separate 
 man or woman for each department of the 
 work. And everybody says we must have 
 them, can't live in India and have our health 
 without them. So how much does the matey 
 want per month? Well, the story of the sun 
 hat must be repeated. He thinks he can do 
 better work than anyone else and declares he 
 never will steal, like all others do ; he is the 
 only perfectly honest man in his country. 
 He wants nine rupees. But we have antici- 
 
24 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 pated these difficulties and informed ourselves J 
 
 about salaries. So, to make matters short, we 
 say, '*Five rupees is enough for you; if you 
 can't work for that we will call some one 
 else. ' ' ' 'Very well, sir. ' ' The same experience 
 is gone through with all the others. The 
 experienced ayah gets six rupees a month, the 
 water carrier two, and the sweeper two. They 
 all always board themselves. (The govern- 
 ment rupee is worth about forty cents.) Now, 
 our housekeeping machinery is set in motion. 
 
CHAPTER III. 
 The Language and Customs. 
 
 The experience of a missionary on his 
 arrival in India, is rather amusing. The 
 native Christians miist crowd around him 
 almost everytime he steps out of the house. 
 They all make their polite salaams and have a 
 thousand questions to ask. So they begin 
 with their bombardment of questions, never 
 thinking in their excitement and joy that it is 
 all Dutch to the missionary. There he stands, 
 after he has said his salaam, and can go no 
 further. By and by, some one happens to 
 think that the missionary doesn't know 
 Telugu, and in a voice above all the others, 
 announces his discovery. Then both the mis- 
 sionary and the Telugus enjoy a hearty laugh 
 at each other's awkwardness in the situation. 
 
 After the housekeeping is arranged, the 
 next thing is the employment of a '' munsJii,'' 
 or native teacher. You will already have had 
 a number of applicants with their papers, if 
 they have ever been employed in the work 
 
26 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 before. You make your selection, agree on a 
 salary, usually ten or fifteen rupees a month, 
 and begin work at once. Your teacher, next 
 morning., enters the room, in new cloth, and 
 pompously addresses you, "Good morning, 
 your honor ; I hope your honor will be quite 
 well this morning." He then comes down 
 from *'your honor" to assume that you know 
 absolutely nothing — and maybe you don't 
 know very much — and begins with joii like 
 you were a four year old child. After he has 
 talked on for fifteen or twenty minutes, using 
 all the swelling words in English he can com- 
 mand, you are getting a little tired and tell 
 him you understand all that, to come down to 
 business and give you an introduction to the 
 Telugu alphabet. Then you must teach him 
 how to teach you, or he will talk for a whole 
 day all around the subject, going off into 
 Sanscrit and trying more to display his own 
 learning than to impart instruction to you. 
 The alphabet is the most difficult part of the 
 Telugu, excepting, perhaps, the pronunciation 
 of words of Sanscrit origin. There are in 
 common use in the alphabet forty-eight 
 primary characters, thirty-five consonants and 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 27 
 
 thirteen vowels. These characters are so 
 combined as to make over four hundred and 
 fifty letters. Besides these, there are enough 
 signs and letters in all to make over five 
 hundred characters in the Telugu alphabet. 
 But the alphabet once mastered, as each letter 
 has only one sound and each word is spelled 
 just as pronounced, the spelling and reading 
 is quite easy. The Telugu is a beautiful 
 poetic language; called the ** Italian of the 
 East." It is of Dravidian origin and is much 
 mixed with Sanscrit. The following hymn, 
 '' Nothing but the Blood of Jesus," in Telugu 
 and Roman characters, is given as a sample of 
 the Telugu, the language spoken by about 
 seventeen millions of people on the eastern 
 coast along the Bay of Bengal, between 
 Madras and Vizagapatam and extending west- 
 ward toward Goa — about half the peninsula. 
 
28 life among the hindus. 
 
 '* Nothing But the Blood of Jesus." 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 29 
 
 1. Adi papum thesunu, 
 Yasa racthum mathrum ; 
 Adi swastha partsunu, 
 Yasu racthum mathrum. 
 
 Chorus: Ha devyah racthamu! 
 A bugga vinnaha! 
 Vwarami laduga, 
 Yasu racthum mathrum, 
 
 2. Ikabali tsalunu, 
 
 Yasu racthum mathrum; 
 Naku samadhanamu, 
 Yasu racthum mathrum. 
 
 3. Papiki ashrayamu, 
 Yasu racthum mathrum; 
 Papa pari haramu, 
 Yasu racthum mathrum. 
 
 4. Adi shudha chasunu, 
 Yasu racthum mathrum; 
 Adi shantha partsunu, 
 Yasu racthum mathrum. 
 
 Tliis language is not at all hard of 
 acquisition, if one takes up its study in 
 earnest and continues it a few months. By 
 and by it will come quite easily. It usually 
 requires a year or eighteen months to be able 
 to discourse at leno^th in Telusju. 
 
 During the study of the language we can 
 do but little else. We often go out with the 
 
30 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 native preachers evenings and mornings, and 
 though we cannot command the language to 
 preach, it encourages the native Christians 
 and affords the new missionary an excellent 
 opportunity to study the people with their 
 peculiar manners and customs. As we start 
 out along the narrow, dirty street, the people 
 eye us, some with amazement and some w4th 
 disdain. Some respect us heartily from a 
 sense of our personal and intellectual superi- 
 ority, while others in the pride of their caste, 
 would not come near a Christian for fear of 
 pollution. Thirty or forty years ago, a 
 Brahmin meeting a Christian in the road 
 would walk a great distance around him, and 
 if a Brahmin met a low caste native, whether 
 Christian or not, the poor, unfortunate man 
 must leave the road entirely, even if he had 
 to go into a ditch or mud hole. This caste 
 system is a most formidable thing. It is a 
 gigantic wall of defense around Hinduism, 
 the most troublesome barrier in the way of 
 Christianity. It is the strongest chain with 
 which the devil could bind a nation, and with 
 it the Hindus have been so bound for 
 centuries that naught but the Almighty hand 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 31 
 
 can free them. Caste separates the people 
 into numberless sects and classes, it precludes 
 brotherly love ; it fills all classes with preju- 
 dice which ripens into hatred one against 
 another; it forbids progress, leads to crime 
 and dwarfs or destroys all the finer sensibilities 
 of the soul. So we find them at last a nation 
 of slaves, slaves to one another and to them- 
 selves, slaves to the vile passions which rule 
 them. There are among the Hindus four 
 principal castes, viz. : the Brahmins, or 
 original priests; second, the Kshetryas, or 
 rulers; third, the Yysias, or merchantmen; 
 and fourth, the Sudras, or laboring classes. 
 This latter class is divided into a great 
 number of sects, each having its name 
 according to its occupation. Hindu law or 
 custom forbids these casts from intermarry- 
 ing, or even from eating together, and the 
 penalty for breaking these rules is total 
 abandonment by all the relatives, even wife 
 and children. If a high caste man becomes 
 a Christian, he must at once leave all his 
 family, home and relations, go out into the 
 world a vagabond, covered with shame and 
 disgrace ; and there is no hope for his return 
 
32 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 to his family unless they should become 
 Christians also. It is easily seen, therefore, 
 what it costs a Hindu to be a Christain, and 
 what a formidable barrier is caste. 
 
 Besides the caste people, there is a fifth- 
 class, who are considered by all others as 
 outcasts. They are divided into two sects 
 called Madagas and Malas. They have no 
 caste, really, though they are full of caste 
 pride and have but little to do with each 
 other. Madagas are shoemakers, and Malas 
 are weavers of coarse cloth, though now they 
 do a great deal of farm work, since English 
 merchandise has shortened the demand for 
 native made goods. 
 
 The Hindu merchant sits lazily in the midst 
 of his goods and calls out occasionally to the 
 passers by. If you want anything and he 
 can't reach it from his seat, he will often say 
 he hasn't got it when you know he has, and 
 you must insist on his getting up and looking 
 for it. A thousand and one dirty things, 
 fruits and sweets, are exposed for sale and 
 for the flies. Women sit in rows along the 
 shaded side of the streets, busily engaged in 
 searching each others heads and when the 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 33 
 
 mischievous animals are lifted, sometimes 
 three or four at a time from the hair, they 
 are as carefully set off on the ground as we 
 would place a helpless babe on its bed. The 
 Hindus never kill anything. It is contrary 
 to their religion to take any kind of animal 
 life. They can't kill a poisonous reptile^ a 
 scorpion, or even the smallest insect. Hence 
 the Hindus never eat meat. They live strictly 
 upon a vegetable diet. But the lowest classes, 
 or outcasts, will not only eat meat, but are 
 often the very vultures of the country, eating 
 the loathsome carcasses found dead about the 
 fields. This is very common, especially in 
 famine times. There is a vast difference 
 between classes of people. Perhaps this 
 difference of nature and habit is the origin of 
 caste, and then caste itself has driven the 
 people further apart and degraded them still 
 more. The Brahmins are a very cleanly class. 
 They bathe their whole bodies every day, and 
 wash and robe themselves in clean clothes 
 very often. It can be said also to their 
 honor that they never debase their bodies 
 with poisonous intoxicating drinks. They 
 are total abstainers from all intoxicants, yet 
 
34 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 the Christian (?) English are trying to 
 impose their destrojdng liquors upon these 
 better Hindus. Certainly the heathen will 
 rise up in the day of judgment and condemn 
 them. The lowest classes are the opposite of 
 almost every virtue, good principle or habit. 
 They are filthy, licentious, base in the 
 extreme and very ignorant. I have passed 
 by great crowds of them late in the evening, 
 lying and sitting around the ^'cullu'' (toddy) 
 bowls. Then they often . go staggering 
 around, men and women together, quarreling, 
 fighting, pulling hair and keeping up a 
 ojeneral rabble until nine or ten o'clock at 
 night, when, if they don't happen to be at 
 home, they just tumble down most any where 
 in a drowsy, drunken stupor, until next 
 morning. On occasions of their annual 
 festivities — and they are many — thous- 
 ands of these people gather around the 
 favorite idol or temple, usually in some shady 
 grove, and there they mix with their worship, 
 two or three nights and days of revelry in 
 drunkenness and vice. Here is depravity 
 unbridled. It has become so awful in some 
 instances there has been talk of the British 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 35 
 
 government prohibiting such festivals. It is 
 a scene to make the devils blush, and a 
 wonder that humanity could go so low. O, 
 how greatly they need the elevating, saving 
 power of the gospel ! 
 
 An idol procession is common on all such 
 occasions. The favorite idol is placed on a 
 kind of frame on a two wheeled cart, the 
 oxen dedicated to the worship of the temple, 
 or those consecrated for the occasion, are 
 yoked up to the cart, strung with wreaths of 
 flowers and their regalia variously painted. 
 The idol is usually some rude figure and near 
 it, just in front, is a kind of receptacle or 
 box to receive the offerings. In the van 
 goes a native band, consisting of one to three 
 drums and a number of pipes, horns, and 
 the like, with which they make the music. 
 It is a dreadful din and they seem never to 
 weary in their ceaseless marching, piping and 
 thumping. 
 
 Following in the rear is a great crowd 
 of all the lower classes (the higher caste are 
 now often ashamed to be seen in these 
 processions), making their various offerings 
 of rice, cocoanuts, fruits, etc., and lastly 
 
36 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 follows on a train of poor, miserable beggars, 
 ready when the procession is over to get what 
 has been offered to the idol. Laro^e numbers 
 of the poor and friendless are almost wholly 
 supported in this way. That custom is about 
 the only system of public charity known to 
 the Hindus. In India, beggars, poor and 
 helpless, are most numerous. Almost daily 
 they come to the missionary's house, some- 
 times six to a dozen at once, and present 
 themselves for assistance. If the missionary 
 is busy, they will sit down in the yard and 
 wait. - When he comes out, or they get sight 
 of him even through a window, they will all 
 quickly prostrate themselves on their faces 
 and hands, and repeat the most pitiful words 
 in the most pitiful way they have ever 
 learned. The missionary must go out, or 
 they will just stay with him. Going out on 
 the veranda, there they are; widows and 
 orphans, old men and women, decrepit, 
 leprous, deformed and distorted, until they 
 scarcely resemble human beings. 
 
 Pity them ; pity them ! We must give 
 them a little, yet were we to give them much, 
 we would soon dispose of all our living. 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 37 
 
 Traveling through the streets of an average 
 city, crowds of these unfortunate sufferers 
 gather around us and cry for help. But 
 there is in India another class of beofo^ars, 
 
 Oct ? 
 
 and sometimes it is difficult to distinouish 
 them. 
 
 Begging is an honorable profession in 
 India. All Brahmins are accustomed from 
 time immemorial to make their living; 
 altogether by begging. They are ashamed 
 of outright begging now ; but there are some 
 of the lower class who do nothing but beg. 
 They go about in rags, assuming the air and 
 tone of the poorest mendicant, when, in fact, 
 they may have bags of money buried away 
 under some rock. Missionaries in India 
 often long for the promised land where there 
 will be no more mosquitoes or beggars. 
 
 Hindu etiquette is rather amusing in some 
 of its peculiarities. When a Brahmin gentle- 
 man visits a missionary, he usually sends some 
 one ahead to announce his approach. The mis- 
 sionary then returns word for him to come in. 
 As he is about to enter the door, he sees that 
 his turban or hat is straight on his head, and 
 carefully removes his shoes. Rather the 
 
38 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 opposite to our customs. He will then stand 
 all the time if you do not first sit down and 
 and tell him to be seated. Then if you rise 
 for any cause he will also rise and remain 
 standing so long as you are not seated. Thus 
 regularly he will rise and sit with his host. 
 When the host has talked with his guest for 
 a reasonable time, and has work to do, he 
 rises and tells his Brahmin guest he may 
 take leave and call another time. He con- 
 siders it his duty to wait for an invitation to 
 go, and he will just stay with you if you 
 don't tell him to go. If such were the rule 
 of society in America, it would often be a 
 great relief to those who have duties besides 
 entertainino^ visitors. The usual method of 
 greeting, corresponding to our *' Good morn- 
 ing," '*Good evening," etc., is to say 
 *' Salaam," and at the same time make a 
 polite bow, touching the forehead with the 
 inside of the open fingers of the right hand. 
 The word salaam is used for '^ good morning," 
 **good evening," "good by," and ''thank 
 you." The Hindu considers it bad etiquette 
 to come into your presence while you are 
 eating, and he will never put anything into 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 39 
 
 his mouth while in your presence. It is 
 customary when a white person, or native 
 of rank, visits a high caste Hindu or Moham- 
 medan, when the guest is about leaving, his 
 host takes a bottle of rose water and sprinkles 
 him well all over; sometimes if he has a 
 wreath of flowers he hangs them around the 
 neck of his guest. This shows his good will 
 and a desire to honor him above the common 
 rank of his fellows. 
 
 "The world is full of strangely acting 
 men." 
 
CHAPTER IV. 
 A Hindu Wedding: Hot Winds. 
 
 « 
 
 Before we left Ongole we had the exceptional 
 privilege of attending a wedding among the 
 hio:h caste Hindus. To describe it in detail 
 would be impossible. It required ten days to 
 complete the ceremonies and festivities of the 
 occasion. Imagine an American couple ten 
 days in the marriage ceremonies; ten days, 
 compared to two or three minutes ! Some 
 would probably dread it more than they do, 
 and old maids and bachelors would be at a 
 discount. Don't imagine we attended all 
 these ten days, but only about three hours, 
 during the principal part of the ceremonies. 
 An old Hindu gentleman, who was in truth 
 very favorable to Christianity, and which 
 accounts for our presence, was having his 
 grand-daughter, aged seven years, married to 
 a boy ten years old. We must remember, 
 however, that this is quite an old couple for a 
 Hindu wedding. They are usually married 
 between the ages of four and six. At the 
 
42 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 same time and place, this groom's father, 
 aged forty, was married to a girl of thirteen, 
 which was quite an unusually old age ; but she 
 was the second or third wife. So this was a 
 double wedding. It saved time and expense ; 
 for high caste Hindu weddings are very 
 expensive, sometimes costing as high as two 
 thousand dollars. Bands to make music, such 
 as it is, must be hired ; dancing girls must be 
 employed; all the relatives in the country, 
 besides a host of Brahmins, must be fed for 
 the whole ten days; and fruits and ornament- 
 ations by the wholesale are required. Then 
 the parents of the bride and bridegroom must 
 fit them up with a rich attire of silks and 
 jewelry, amounting often to a thousand dollars 
 worth on each one. This jewelry consists in 
 heavy gold and silver bracelets, anklets, finger 
 rings, toe rings, ear rings, nose rings, hair 
 clasps and broad gold and silver belts, besides 
 a number of silver cups. The jewelry is often 
 the consideration of the marriage, and is 
 henceforth kept in the family and handed 
 down from generation to generation, and is 
 worn and brilliantly displayed on all special 
 occasions. When the most imj)ortant of the 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 43 
 
 ceremonies come, about the fifth day, the 
 bride and groom, with all their attire of silks 
 and jewelry, are brought out and seated under 
 a booth, all around and above which hangs an 
 abundance of fruit and flowers, to represent 
 the wishes of the friends, that they may 
 always have plenty and be ever so happy. 
 Before them burn the candelabra of oil, and 
 the priest takes his seat by them. He then 
 takes a cocoanut, goes through with a number 
 of ceremonies, chiefly in the Sanscrit language, 
 the meaning of which he often has no idea ; 
 makes, as he supposes, a real God out of the 
 cocoanut, lays it down and requires the couple 
 to clasp hands and bow to it. He now lights 
 a bundle of sticks, pours grease upon them 
 and requires the couple to bow a number of 
 times in worship to the fire. He then takes a 
 piece of gold, perhaps as large as a gold dollar, 
 pierced with a single hole, performs his mun- 
 thrums over it till he is satisfied it has become 
 a real live god. They are compelled to pay 
 the most solemn and profound worship to this 
 piece of gold, whereupon it becomes, hence- 
 forth, the guardian deity of their united life. 
 They then hold out their hands toward the 
 
44 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 flame of the burning oil, and their parents, or 
 some near relatives for them, make the most 
 solemn vows and promises of marriage, saying 
 them over after the priest. Some of those are 
 in Sanscrit, and the meaning is wholly unknown 
 to either priest or people ; but they must be 
 said. Then comes the most solemn and 
 important part of the whole affair. The 
 priest reverently takes this piece of deified 
 gold, which has a string in it, hands it to the 
 groom and instructs him to tie it around the 
 neck of the bride. If he is too young to know 
 how to tie it, he is assisted, and with the tying 
 of that knot they become husband and wife. 
 The girl becomes the property of her husband, 
 and should he die at any time after that knot 
 is tied, she is doomed to the fearful disgrace 
 of a lifetime widowhood. To be a widow in 
 India, means to be the lowest menial servant 
 in the family, subject to the abuse of all who 
 may meet her, and to live on the refuse of the 
 rice bowls of others. 
 
 After this chief act of the ceremonies, all 
 the relatives gather around and take handsful 
 of rice and throw it over the couple, wishing 
 them showers of blessings. It has taken two 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 45 
 
 or three hours to perform these prmcipal acts 
 in the ceremonies, and we go home very tired 
 of it. Then follow numberless munthrums 
 and acts of worship, dancing and piping and 
 drumming, eating and revelry, for nearly a 
 week longer, until everybody is worn out and 
 all go home. The married couple returns 
 with their parents, as before, until the girl 
 reaches her maturity, from twelve to fourteen, 
 when, with some additional festivities, the 
 young husband takes her to his own home. 
 Then she must implicitly obey her mother-in- 
 law as well as her husband, and the slightest 
 transgression on her part may bring down 
 upon herself a severe flogging. The husband 
 considers it his duty, as well as his privilege, to 
 whip his wife, if she displeases him in any 
 way, and she receives it more meekly than 
 children often receive the correction of their 
 parents. 
 
 In India we begin to feel the heat quite 
 sensibly in February. It increases in intensity 
 till May, when the climax is reached. The 
 hot winds are the dread of Europeans and 
 natives. In April the southwest monsoon, 
 winds sweeping up from the Indian Ocean, sets 
 
46 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 in. These winds, laden with moisture, strik- 
 ing the cooler tops of the western Ghauts, 
 are condensed and fall in torrents of rain on 
 that side of India; but long before these 
 winds reach the eastern coast, sweeping over 
 burning sands and under a vertical sun, they 
 are converted into a hot steam. We have a 
 puiikah, or fan, made of a board a foot and 
 a half wide and eight or ten feet long, with 
 cloth tacked to the under edge of it, swinging 
 from the roof by means of ropes, and kept in 
 motion by a native outside. He draws a rope 
 attached to the punkah and drawn through an 
 aperture over the door. By throwing water 
 about in the room we can keep tolerably cool. 
 Or a better wa}^ to cool the room is to open 
 one of the shutters toward the wind, hang up 
 in the door a kind of coarse matting, generally 
 made of fine grass roots, and have a native to 
 carry water and keep it pouring on and con- 
 stantly dripping down through the matting. 
 The wind blowing through this is moistened 
 and cooled, and the room is made quite 
 pleasant. During this time the furniture will 
 often dry and crack open with a report like 
 that of a pistol. The temperature often 
 
LIFE JPMONG THE HINDUS. 47 
 
 reaches 110 to 115 degrees in the shade. The 
 bare limbs of tlie natives frequently become 
 rough and glazed over as with a hot iron. 
 Throughout the month of May these hot winds 
 cease not to wither and parch the green earth, 
 and to be the bane of the inhabitants. The 
 Telus^us dread them so much that the Christ- 
 ians often mention among the joys of heaven, 
 the blessed fact, that there will be no hot 
 winds there. For the natives, however, this 
 hot season is the healthiest. There is no 
 malaria or poison in the air. But in June 
 these winds give way to a heavy rainfall, 
 usually, and the native houses being poor 
 protection from the four or six weeks incessant 
 rain, they take cold, are filled with malaria, 
 and then come chills and fever with a general 
 onslauo^ht. Followino^ the rain is a season of 
 damp, sultry weather, during which time 
 cholera often makes great ravages. The 
 principal causes of cholera and other deadly 
 diseases and epidemics are the great filth in all 
 the cities and towns, poor protection from the 
 weather, and bad or scanty food. The poor 
 live in poorly covered mud houses, having only 
 dn't floors. If the habits of life were in 
 
48 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 harmony with the laws of nature, the natives 
 of India might be measurably freed from 
 cholera and enjoy a degree of health, perhaps 
 as good as in any other country. But the 
 heat is so oppressive to an American that once 
 the strength and vitality of health has given 
 way, it is almost impossible to restore it in 
 India. 
 
CHAPTER V. 
 
 Across the Burning Sands : Famine, Etc. 
 
 Dr. Clough had returned to America in 
 March, and Mr. and Mrs. Heinrichs were 
 called to Ongole to conduct the affairs of that 
 great mission. With those dear friends, who 
 were at all times as our own brother and sister, 
 the summer was spent quite pleasantly, and a 
 fair knowledge of the language was gained. 
 In October we were requested to go to 
 Cumbum, a mission station sixty miles west of 
 Ongole. To make this journey we must either 
 take the ox cart or a four wheel conveyance 
 drawn by men. We chose the latter for our- 
 selves ; as the weather was so hot we wanted to 
 get through as soon as possible. Our house- 
 hold goods were all packed, put on carts, a 
 few of which were sent on ahead of us, while 
 two were left to follow. All our little neces- 
 sary accompaniments were placed in the 
 phaeton, and by the time our bedding, Mrs. 
 Johnson, our baby and myself were all 
 
50 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 crowded in, we had quite a load. At six 
 o'clock p. M., we rolled out of Ongole, with 
 eight stronoj men as our. team. We aimed to 
 reach Cumbumby ten o'clock the next morning. 
 But a little before daylight we missed our new 
 set of men, who should have been waiting for 
 us, and we were delayed three or four hours. In 
 such travel we always get the native officer in 
 charge of that district, to write ahead and post 
 men for us. But we failed to find men this 
 time. Now, the sun was rising hot upon us 
 and we were yet thirty miles from Cumbum. 
 Our poor little baby was nearly exhausted, and 
 Mrs. Johnson was very tired; for neither of 
 us had slept any during the night. We 
 stopped and ate a little breakfast, which we 
 had brouofht with us, and then had five miles 
 to go before we could get to any place where 
 we could be sheltered from the heat of the 
 sun. We reached the rest house about ten 
 o'clock and there dismissed our men, for they 
 had drawn us already over two regular stages, 
 and they were very tired. Here we ate the 
 last of our food, as we aimed to have 
 been in Cumbum by that time. But we hoped 
 to reach Cumbum by eight or nine o'clock 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 51 
 
 that night. Our supply of water was also 
 growing low; for we must, -in India, carry all 
 our drinking water with us. We now started 
 out with new men. Before us lay seven miles 
 of burning sand. Had we had anything to 
 eat and drink we would have waited till nis^ht 
 to cross this desert. The men could not ao 
 faster than a slow walk. The sun poured 
 down in hot fury, and the reflection and radia- 
 tion from the sand were very painful. How 
 much we all suffered I could not tell, but the 
 worst fell upon our poor little baby, only five 
 months old. For him we were very much 
 alarmed. At one time there was but little 
 hope that we could carry him across the 
 desert alive, and, in tears, we urged the men 
 on. But the Almighty hand that made the 
 desert was there to comfort and strengthen. 
 By his blessing we reached the foot of the 
 mountain, over the plain of sand, and the 
 evening shades brought relief from the awful 
 heat; But now we were to confront a new 
 trouble. It was four miles to the nearest 
 village, and our men refused to go any farther. 
 By paying them two days' wages, I induced 
 two of them to go away to the village and try 
 
52 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 to get a new set of men to come and take us 
 over the mountain. We waited there, without 
 food or water, until late at night for their 
 return. But, they finally returned, saying 
 that no one would come with them. The 
 mountain was steep and rough, and full of 
 robbers and tigers. There we were, many 
 miles from Cumbum, in a wild country, with- 
 out food or water. The men had a few 
 handsfull of rice, but not more than they 
 wanted. To stay there we could only suffer. 
 The men were about to leave us, and I could 
 not think of leaving my wife and only child, 
 all that was dear to me on earth, alone in such 
 a place, to walk four miles to get men to come 
 and take us on. We must go on that night. 
 So I offered all the men double wages to take 
 us on ; but they refused. I offered them three 
 and four times the regular wages to go on, 
 but still they refused. It was then becoming 
 plain to me that they realized they had me in 
 their power, and were going to make use of 
 their opportunity. I offered them, at last, 
 six times the regular pay, but still they 
 refused. I could stand it no longer. I 
 stepped to the phaeton, and told Mrs. Johnson 
 
4 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 53 
 
 to be comforted, that we were going now, but 
 told her nothing of the real circumstances. 
 I then took out a lantern and my revolver and 
 told the men to lay hold of that phaeton and 
 start out, and not to let loose of it till I told 
 them to. They obeyed at once, and we were 
 soon going over the rugged mountain. I 
 walked right by their side and watched 
 each man. I knew it was only about five 
 miles over the mountain, to a village where 
 lived a number of Christians. So on we went 
 till nearly two o'clock in the morning, when 
 we came up to the village. God was to be 
 praised for his deliverance. Some may be 
 disposed to criticise my course, but I have 
 only to say, in reply, let them be placed in 
 similar circumstances, and see what they would 
 do. The men were paid, at last, a little more 
 than double wages, and they went away, 
 apparently glad that they were so lucky. 
 We waked some people, called for the village 
 officer, found where the Christians were, and 
 a number of them were glad to come to our, 
 assistance, and take us on our way. We 
 obtained a little dirty water, and drank it at 
 the risk of getting the cholera; for the 
 
54 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 country was full of the disease. We were 
 tired, sleepy and hungry, almost beyond 
 endurance, but never mind, the God of heaven 
 was with us, and we should have plenty soon. 
 A little after sunrise we sighted the mission 
 house about two miles over the prairie fields. 
 Now and then, little groves of cocoanut and 
 palm trees, rose up in the morning light, as if 
 to welcome us, and, ere long, we were with 
 our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Newcomb, who had 
 been, for eighteen hours, anxiously looking 
 for us. And before us was spread a breakfast 
 of plenty. "O, give thanks to the Lord; for 
 his mercy endureth forever." 
 
 We arrived in Cumbum in the midst of a 
 distressing famine. The monsoon rains for 
 the two preceding years had failed of their 
 usual quantity. No crops could be made. 
 The poor people had nothing to eat, and no 
 work to do. Though not so distressing as at 
 other times, there was much suffering in the 
 land, and some were actually starving. We 
 went out among the villages, at one time 
 with a government officer to investigate the 
 condition of the people. As we passed along 
 the road, from village to village, it was most 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 55 
 
 pitiable to see the suffering people following 
 after us. Poor women, carrying in their arms 
 their starving little ones, running after us and 
 begging for help, until their strength gave 
 out. We had nothing to give them, but tried 
 to comfort them by pointing them away from 
 their dumb idols, to the living God, who could 
 hear their cries. We secured an appropriation 
 from the government for some roads and 
 other public relief works, and on these several 
 thousands were employed. It is a fearful 
 religion that will allow a poor old widow to lie 
 out in the streets and starve to death, when 
 the wealthy have plenty in their store-houses. 
 Yet such was the case in India. As we 
 passed through a village, our Christians called 
 our attention to an old woman lying on the 
 street. We went to her and she could not 
 raise herself up ; but she made us understand 
 that she had had nothing to eat for several 
 days, and the merchants, who had plenty 
 stowed away, had need to walk by her several 
 times a day, as she lay there in her helpless- 
 ness. We called ^ome of the village officers, 
 reproved them severely for their wickedness, 
 and had them to get the poor woman some- 
 
56 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 thing to eat. The reader will clearly see by 
 this that there is not among the heathen 
 Hindus, the first principle of charity or 
 brotherly love. Though from unworthy 
 motives, they occasionally help the poor. 
 They seem more like brutes ; when one is 
 down they are only ready to gore him. O, 
 how much they need our Savior's example of 
 unselfish love ! In famine times thousands of 
 the poor often live for weeks on prickly pear 
 apples, with, perhaps, some leaves gathered 
 from the trees. These prickly pears grow 
 very large and in great abundance in India, 
 and, by a wise Providence, they are as plenti- 
 ful in famine times as in seasons of rich 
 harvests. If they have rice, at all, it is quite 
 an ordinary thing, even in common seasons, 
 for the poor to have only one meal of rice a day. 
 They do well to have that, when we consider 
 that they are wholly dependent on their daily 
 wages for their living; and the common 
 laborer's hire is from five to seven cents a day. 
 On this pittance he must feed and clothe him- 
 self and family, however large his family may 
 be. Their clothing, however, is not much of 
 an item. The common laborer wears only a 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 57 
 
 half yard or yard of coarse cloth tied around 
 the body. The upper classes dress more 
 neatly. The Brahmin wears as a lower gar- 
 ment, a ^^puncJia,'' or sort of skirt, suspended 
 from the waist, and a *'pi batta," or upper 
 cloth, thrown loosely over the shoulders and 
 let hang down around the body. The women 
 of the upper classes dress very neatly. They 
 also have a cloth gathered and hung from the 
 waist, in the form of a neat skirt, and then a 
 second piece is thrown over the left shoulder, 
 crossed under the right arm, wrapped around 
 the waist, brought over the right shoulder, 
 crossed under the left arm, and is then often 
 held in place by a nice silver belt. Many of 
 the men, especially Christians, are now adopt- 
 ing a light sack coat for the upper garment. 
 
 Our sojourn in Cumbum was only a month. 
 The Hanamakonda station, in the Nizam's 
 dominions, was then vacant, and a missionary 
 urgently needed to take up the work there. 
 The journey was made very comfortably on 
 the railroad. The brethren of the Deccan 
 were in conference in Hanamakonda when we 
 arrived. Mr. Maplesden had been in charge of 
 the work there, but could give it only 
 
58 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 occasional visits, as his own station, eighty 
 miles away, demanded his best attention. 
 Our introduction to the work in Hanama- 
 konda was very favorable. The few Christ- 
 ians there were very thankful that God had 
 answered their prayers and sent them another 
 missionary. 
 
 Our stay in Cumbum, though short, was 
 very pleasant and profitable. Mr. and Mrs. 
 Newcomb, are greatly loved by their people. 
 While there, we saw much of the native 
 character, and became better prepared for our 
 work. 
 
CHAPTEE VI. 
 
 Oeigin of Idolatry i Keligion of the 
 
 Hindus. 
 
 Far back in the morning of history, when 
 the human race was yet in its childhood in- 
 nocency, there were none on the earth to 
 worship idols. The living God, Creator and 
 Father, was known of all men. But the seeds 
 of sin were beginning to burst and put forth 
 their buds. The enemy of the race was 
 stealthily at work in the garden of mankind, 
 and he was determined to seduce the human 
 heart. The wicked seed choked out the good 
 and brought forth its deadly fruit. Cain went 
 forth with the seeds of depravity in him and 
 the marks of sin upon him ; with the shame 
 of the guilty fleeing from the upright. Hence- 
 forth the race, receded from the light and 
 knowledge of God into the shades of moral 
 and intellectual darkness. Depravity led on- 
 the downward march. Men in their sinful 
 course thought little of God ; they neglected 
 
60 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 to mention his name to their children. There 
 was no written history of God's early dealings 
 with man. The story of the creation, of 
 man's sin and fall, became more and more 
 mixed with fable and uncertainty ; the outlines 
 of true history became more and more dim, as 
 men grew old in age and in sin; until finally 
 truth and God were unknown, and foolish 
 man was groping his uncertain way and chasing 
 the phantoms of his vile passions in heathen 
 darkness. There are to-day many traces among 
 heathen races of this downward course ; mile- 
 stones marking the stages, one by one, as man 
 went down. Among nations where the Bible 
 has not been heard of, are mythical stories of 
 the creation and fall of man, bearing a sem- 
 blance to that of the Bible ; among the follow- 
 ers of Confucius, Buddha and Brahma are the 
 faint echoes of ancient prophecy of a great one 
 rising up by divine power to deliver his people. 
 This old Bible idea of a Savior has taken on 
 different forms as it went on further into the 
 darkness of heathendom. There are many 
 traces of it to be found in nearly every heathen 
 creed; but thev bear upon their faces the 
 marks of inconsistent fable, and stand as 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 61 
 
 proofs to the intelligent that the Bible record 
 is the only true one and they are but the 
 shadows, or distant and indistinct echoes of 
 the original, floating along down through the 
 dark ages until the dull ears of men could no 
 longer understand ; but their depraved imagi- 
 nation caught up the blank and filled it out as 
 they chose. They changed the image of the 
 incorruptible into corruption itself. Sin led 
 on to sin, until the father of sin possessed the 
 kingdom. Millions of the human race now in 
 total f orgetfulness of God, must worship some- 
 thing, and so make them gods after their own 
 likeness. O, how fallen ! Man was created 
 in the image of God ; but now depraved man 
 is making gods in his own image. 
 
 How kindred is this human spirit to that 
 which in open rebellion sought to displace the 
 Almighty from his throne and set himself up 
 instead ! Seeing this near kinship, we may 
 say, with sorrowful solicitude, of all idol 
 worshipers, **Ye are of your father, the devil." 
 Men, by their own actions, locate themselves. 
 They bear the likeness of their father. Poor 
 fallen man must worship, and if he doesn't 
 know the true God, the devil is always there 
 
^2 LIFE AMONa THE HINDUS. 
 
 to claim his devotion. TJius millions of our 
 fellow men fall down before demons and devils, 
 and know it not. Proud men in our own 
 country know of God and the devil both and 
 choose themselves in preference to either ; yet 
 the heathen knows better than to worship 
 himself. 
 
 In ignorance of God, the worship of some 
 was directed toward the sun . This great giver 
 of lio^ht and heat was seen to have so much 
 influence over all the earth, insomuch that 
 all animal and vegetable life was dependant on 
 him ; the people knew not to look beyond the 
 creature to the Creator, but supposed the sun 
 to be god and worshipped it. There are to- 
 day many sun-worshippers. In the same way 
 they believed the moon, planets and stars to 
 be smaller gods, and worshipped them. There 
 is a tradition among some that the sun is the 
 father of the divine family, the moon the wife, 
 and the stars the children. So when they see 
 a shooting or falling star they say it is one of 
 the children being cast out for his wickedness. 
 Seeing that wind, fire and water hold or exert 
 a mystic or incomprehensible power, men, in 
 their moral darkness, concluded that these 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. , 63 
 
 elements were possessed of divinity, and wor- 
 shipped them. The Parsees are devoted fire- 
 worshippers to this day, and the Hindus are 
 more or less worshippers of fire. The most 
 sacred oath or obligation a Hindu can take is 
 performed over fire. At this stage of sin, 
 ignorance and darkness, into which a great 
 portion of mankind had degenerated, we open 
 the first pages of Hindu history. We here 
 find them with a religion called Vedism or 
 worship of the elements. The Vedas, th€ 
 oldest sacred books of the Hindus, is a collec- 
 tion of songs and prayers addressed to these 
 different elements in nature. 
 
 But by and by there seemed to occur a sort 
 of reform, and Vedism gave way to Brahmin- 
 ism. Brahminism is one step higher. It looks 
 beyond the mere elements and conceives of a 
 general agency or power, a supreme motor 
 that keeps the machinery of nature in motion, 
 and names this power, whatever it may be, 
 Brahma. Brahma, then, becomes the supreme 
 god and claims the highest worship. But 
 Brahminism in its purity was not long the 
 common faith. Here man makes a blunder 
 too common to all classes and nations. He 
 
64 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 begins to reason from self outward and says 
 that Brahma can not be alone as the only 
 inhabitant of the realm of diety, and so he 
 must have companions to break the cheerless 
 solitude. Now come two other gods, and we 
 have the Brahmin triad : Brahma, Vishnu 
 and Siva. Brahma, the creator; Vishnu, the 
 preserver, and Siva, the destroyer. But pas- 
 sionate man could not be satisfied with three 
 gods. Like men, they must have wives. So 
 wives they created for their gods, and as they 
 do yet, the priests performed the wedding 
 ceremonies. Then there must be more gods 
 and goddesses. Any number were created; 
 one to preside over every distinct feature of 
 nature, one for the giving of every separate 
 blessing to man. Then there must be evil as 
 well as good ones, and so a great number of 
 bad gods were created and they must have 
 wives ; so the manufacture of gods and god- 
 desses goes on, ad infinitum^ until in the laws 
 of Manu, an old Hindu sage, we have enume- 
 rated no less than three hundred and thirty 
 millions of gods and goddesses. Wonderful ! 
 India, with more gods than people ; a land 
 overflowing with gods, and yet so godless ! 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 65 
 
 This is Hinduism. ''Hinduism," as said by 
 another, *'is Brahminism gone to seed." 
 Hinduism is tlie present religion of the masses 
 of the people of India. It is gross idolatry. 
 Every man has his idol ; almost everything is 
 an idol. Nearly everything in nature is wor- 
 shipped — animal and vegetable. The sacred 
 bull is a special object of worship, and all cows 
 are looked upon as sacred beings, insomuch 
 that the people take the excrement of the cow, 
 make a very thin paste and cover the walls of 
 their houses with it to purify the air and keep 
 away disease. The cow is worshipped devoutly 
 by many. All the meanest animals are wor- 
 shipped, even the deadliest serpents. 
 
 The cobra is the worst snake in India, as it 
 is the most vicious and deadly poison. No 
 cure is known for its bite, and its victim 
 usually dies in a few minutes. It will attack 
 any one who disturbs it. They are numerous, 
 also, but not very large, their length being 
 usually from four to five feet. The poor 
 natives, always afraid of being bitten by 
 them, go to their holes with cocoanut milk 
 and rice, pour them down into their holes 
 and offer prayer to the cobra, beseeching it 
 
66 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 not to bite them or any of their family. 
 Their religion teaches them that it is murder 
 to kill any animal; hence no snakes, scorpions, 
 or other dangerous animals, are ever killed. 
 It would, in fact, in the eyes of some Hindus, 
 be a greater sin to kill a cow than to kill a 
 woman. For, in truth, a woman is about the 
 only thing in creation that a Hindu will not 
 worship. 
 
 Because of this fault of religion, India is 
 full of all kinds of dangerous wild animals, 
 reptiles and insects. It has been estimated 
 that in India twenty-five thousand persons are 
 destroyed annually by snakes and wild beasts. 
 The Bengal tiger is the dread of the country. 
 Not a man, woman, or child, who does not 
 dread the name of a tiger. 
 
 Panthers, leopards and bears are quite 
 numerous. The Mohammedans are the only 
 class who would kill any thing, and they have 
 never had sufficient firearms to cope with 
 "these larger animals. The religion of the 
 people destroys its own subjects, both soul 
 and body. Of course the high caste Hindus 
 never eat meat of any kind, and the mission- 
 ary in India, if he has any meat, must obtain 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 67 
 
 a little mutton or chicken from the Moham- 
 medans. The Hindus believe also in the 
 transmigration of souls , but not to the extent 
 Buddhists do. This belief accounts, in part, 
 for their indisposition to take animal life ; for 
 in killing a dog, they might be guilty of 
 murdering an uncle or grandfather. Their 
 souls are said to be born again into higher or 
 lower animals, according as they have been 
 good or bad. If bad, they will, next-birth 
 enter into the cattle herd; if bad there, they 
 will next time, perhaps, be a dog; if a bad 
 dog, they may next time be a snake, and so 
 on down to the lowest insect. But if a good 
 man he will next be a wealthy officer ; if still 
 good, next time he will be a king, and if a 
 good king, he will then enter the realm of 
 inferior deity; then a superior god, and 
 finally, according to the Buddhist theory, if 
 he holds out faithful, he reaches the blest 
 Nirvana, or the state of annihilation. After 
 he reaches that state, there is no more fear 
 of his ever becoming degenerated into a lower 
 being. 
 
 That is the highest happiness, and the 
 most inspiring hope this poor religion has to 
 
68 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 offer to suffering mankind. How dark! The 
 mere hope that after thousands and perhaps 
 millions of years of perseverance in good 
 works and self torture, the poor soul may 
 have the bliss of going out of existence as a 
 safeguard against further evil ! But the 
 Christian, after a few years of conflict with 
 sin and sorrow, during which time he has the 
 support and comfort of the unseen but ever 
 present Spirit, leans confidently, in the hour 
 of death, on a merciful and forgiving Savior, 
 and with him at last, enters into mansions of 
 resplendent glory; there to be at home 
 forever ! Joy, bliss, and endless praise ! ! 
 O, how different! How much these people 
 need Christ ! Dear reader, could you go and 
 make Him known to them? 
 
 On every hill top, under every green tree, 
 their temples and pagodas stand. Crowds of 
 people may be seen in the early morning 
 making their way out from the villages, 
 gathering around the public wells for the 
 purificatioja baths. These are taken by 
 pouring water over their bodies out of earthen 
 pots; and then in their blindness, they 
 gather around the temples. The larger 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 69 
 
 temples have an inner small chamber where 
 the idols are kept ; then an inner and an outer 
 wall. There will be, perhaps, a very large 
 idol to which the temple is dedicated; then, 
 associated with it, a nmnber of smaller ones. 
 The worshippers enter the gate of the outer 
 wall, approach the inner gate, confront the 
 idols, and then with clasped hands, bow to 
 the earth, calling on the name of the idol. 
 Rising, they walk slowly around the temple, 
 until they reach the same front again, when 
 they repeat their worship. Depending on the 
 nature of their troubles, they may keep up 
 this process of worship from one hour to all 
 day. Mothers carrying their children around 
 the temples, teaching the helpless innocents 
 to fall down before an ugly block of stone. 
 
 The Hindus have only two reasons for 
 their worship. First, because they are in 
 need and want something; and, second, 
 because they fear some approaching danger 
 or disease. To obtain the one and keep away 
 the other is the object of all their worship. 
 How different from the Christian's worship! 
 As well as trusting God for those things 
 which we daily need, and to protect us from 
 
70 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 all evil, we worship our God because he is 
 our Creator. Legions of angels cease not 
 neither day nor night to worship Him, and, 
 should not mortal man, in spirit and truth, 
 worship God ? We worship Him because he 
 has shown us such depths of love. He has in 
 great mercy prepared for us a way of eternal 
 salvation, salvation through a wonderful 
 sacrifice, which He himself has laid on the 
 altar for us. Shall we not lay upon the altar 
 of His worship the deepest affections of our 
 hearts? O, we look into the love-beaming 
 face of a Christ who saves us ; and we 
 worship ! We look confidently on to the 
 blissful home of the soul which he has pre- 
 pared for us and we worship. But the 
 heathen, in his distressing need, goes out to 
 his dumb idol ; he stares famine or disease in 
 the face, and tremblingly turns to the cold 
 stone for protection. With a dreadful sense 
 of guilt and foreboding of a dark and awful 
 future, he flees to the dead image that 
 mockingly, only echoes his cries. And when 
 his body is tired, he returns to his lonely 
 hovel more distressed and shrouded in dark- 
 ness than ever before. Yes, "Why do the 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 71 
 
 heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain 
 thing ? ' ' The heathen beclouded in spiritual 
 darkness, convinced of the vanity and folly 
 of his worship, sits down in dispair to die, 
 and be numbered with his forefathers. Lost! 
 lost!! LOST!!! 
 
 O, sad and awful death! 
 
 No hope of God; beneath the sod, 
 
 His mortal body lies. 
 
 No hope of heav'n, no sins forgiv'n ; 
 
 So with his dying breath, 
 
 To sink to hell, and there to dwell, 
 
 In endless pain and sighs. 
 
 Rarely do we find in India a man who, 
 feeling the burden of sin, desires inward 
 peace and seeks relief of his gods. But one 
 notable case of this kind deserves special 
 mention. He was a rajah, or king, of a 
 small district lying northwest of Ongole. 
 During a great many years he had made 
 many pilgrimages to the noted shrines of 
 India, and each time was only the more 
 burdened. He tortured himself and suffered 
 many privations in his fruitless endeavors to 
 obtain that peace for which the soul was 
 longing. And when at last, he heard Dr. 
 Clough pre^^ching Jesus as the healing balm 
 
72 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 of the soul, he clapped his hands and shouted 
 before all the people, "Praise to the God of 
 peace ! Jesus, the Savior ! That is what I 
 have been hunting for for fifty years, and 
 found it not till this happy day ! " So he 
 embraced Jesus as his Savior, and from that 
 time till his death, ceased not to preach that 
 gospel which was indeed to him such good 
 tidings of great joy. 
 
 The heathen in their worship are very 
 devoted, if they are in trouble or in great 
 need. During the famine in and around 
 Cumbum, in 1891, the people were daily 
 around the temples, and carrying their chief 
 idols in triumphal processions up and down 
 the streets. The Christians told us an 
 amusing story which will illustrate the extreme 
 of heathen folly. After several weeks of 
 fruitless efforts to induce their gods to send 
 rain on the parched earth, they became 
 enraged and declared, if the gods would not 
 be persuaded by kindness, they would compel 
 them to grant their desires. So they took 
 them out of the temples, and abusing their 
 majesty most terribly, threw them down into 
 a ditch, and pelted them most furiously with 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 73 
 
 'ilods of dirt; saying to them, that may be 
 next time they would pay more attention to 
 their prayers and send rain and plenty in the 
 land. 
 
CHAPTER VII. 
 Degeneration, the Feuit of Idolatry. 
 
 Looking over the moral condition of India, 
 we are reminded of an old field which has 
 been neglected for a great many years, and is 
 now grown up with great wild weeds, briers 
 and bushes, and having an occasional old burnt 
 tree stretching forth its bare limbs into the 
 sighing winds. Blossoms and fruit are all 
 gone, and in their places stand the wild, rank 
 growth of a depraved soil. 
 
 What may have been the former condition 
 of India, we cannot tell ; but there is abundant 
 evidence of an ancient civilization much higher 
 than anything now found among the Hindus. 
 In many parts of India are now to be found 
 massive ruins of old temples, and pieces of 
 statuary, rivaling in taste and beauty of 
 sculpture anything produced in modern times. 
 There are, in Hanamakonda, the ruins of a 
 once magnificent temple, having originally a 
 thousand pillars. The most of it is of black 
 
76 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 marble, and the excellence of art thereon 
 displayed is truly wonderful. In other places 
 in India there are beautiful palatial temples, 
 all cut out of the solid rock of the mountain side. 
 These things all speak silently, but distinctly, 
 of a lost art, of a civilization somewhere 
 buried in the decline of the past. Despite the 
 evolutionist theorv, the masses of the human 
 race have gone down rather than up, and in 
 place of a constant development, degeneration 
 and decline mark every page of human histor}^ 
 Only a small portion of the race has escaped 
 this dark and downward current, and has only 
 by the light of the Bible risen to the eminence 
 of which we boast. From the Jewish race, 
 and their scriptures, a small, but constant 
 stream of light has shown along down the 
 ante-christian ages. Then, the great light, 
 which blazed out over Syria, lit up, for a 
 while, nearly every nation of the Levant, and 
 all the East felt it. But men, because their 
 deeds were evil, loved darkness rather than 
 light, and so closed their eyes to its radiant 
 beams, until it almost ceased to shine in their 
 borders. Then all along through the dark 
 ages, like stars through the midnight clouds. 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 77 
 
 burst out only occasional flashes of pure 
 light. Densest darkness brooded over the 
 entire earth ; and in that darkness, though 
 somewhat broken, still grope the most of 
 mankind. Man, in his wickedness, forgot 
 God, who alone could hold him up. He 
 neglected to live by the principles of righteous- 
 ness, but was led off by his own lusts. They 
 led him, as they will lead any one, to moral 
 death. Depraved mankind is floating in an 
 ocean of sin, and if he doesn't want to sink, 
 he had better not let loose of God ; for he 
 alone can hold him up and save him. But 
 the early families of the race did let loose of 
 Him, and forgot Him. Then, in the ocean of 
 sin, they gave way to human passion ; because, 
 first intoxicated, they then reveled in sin, and 
 last of all, went down in the vortex of moral 
 ruin. It is a sad picture. O, why will men 
 forget their God, their only possible life and 
 support ? 
 
 It is a principle in moral science, which we 
 should all, and always remember, that for 
 immortal man, the first step downward is to 
 forget God. Then follows sin upon sin; sin 
 degrades the moral nature, and leads to further 
 
78 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 and greater sins. The man then goes on like 
 a railway car turned loose upon a great down 
 grade, onward the soul sweeps, rushing to 
 destruction, until it lands, at last, in hell, the 
 only terminus of that moral down-grade. 
 Think of it; at every alternate tick of the 
 clock, some immortal soul is landed into that 
 dreadful terminus ! Two hundred and fifty 
 millions in India, two hundred millions in 
 Africa, three hundred and fifty millions in 
 China, are steadily moving on, tramp, tramp, 
 tramp, along their death march, to the regions 
 of the lost. They had forgotten God ; the 
 devil did not forget them, and they are 
 brought low. The moral nature becoming so 
 degraded, the mental, also, as a natural result, 
 must follow in the same decline. Hard upon 
 moral and mental degradation follows, by 
 natural law, the degeneration of the physical 
 man. All this is but natural, and verified 
 too often, in our own country, as well as 
 among heathen tribes. In heathen lands, 
 how solemn and sad the spectacle ! Millions of 
 our fellow beings, so awfully abased in soul, 
 mind and body. Their religion, led on by 
 innate depravity, has done it all. A man's 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 79 
 
 religion makes him what he is. The religion 
 of a nation, or people, determines the character 
 of that people or nation. Mankind is now 
 divided into three classes, viz. : those who 
 have a good religion ; second, those who have 
 a bad religion, and, third, those who have no 
 religion at all. The only true and good 
 religion is that which comes from a perfect 
 God, the fountain head of all truth, wisdom 
 and righteousness ; and so, by this religion, 
 men are continually lifted up, enriched with 
 the truth, endowed with wisdom, and filled 
 with righteousness. All bad religions are 
 traps set for the destruction of man, and, 
 being from the devil, the fountain head of all 
 lies, vice and moral darkness; those, who 
 cling to such a religion, never come to the 
 truth, are filled with vice and shame, and in 
 ignorance and moral darkness, are bound to 
 destruction by the chain which they have 
 forged, sunken down in the pit which they 
 made. 
 
 Of all monstrosities in the human family, 
 the man who denies all religion is certainly 
 the most extravagant. He worships no God 
 but himself, and finds, in all the religions of 
 
80 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 the world, no wisdom like his own. With no 
 hope to offer his fellow man who naturally 
 looks to a God to control his future, he lives 
 in and for himself, and dies, at last, like the 
 man who was drowned trjdng to walk the Red 
 Sea in cork boots. He lost his equilibrium, 
 his head went under, and nothing could be 
 seen but his inverted boots. Poor man that 
 will set himself up against nature and against 
 God ! O, that all mankind knew and loved 
 the God who can save them. Eight hundred 
 millions of our race, so poisoned by that 
 spiritual malaria, so sick with sin, subversive 
 malady, dropping one by one into graves of 
 despair! Fathers taking their sons by the 
 hand and leaping in the darkness to awful 
 ruin; mothers, clinging to their offspring, 
 go down with them to a common fate. 
 
 O, how it moves the Christian heart 
 
 To see his fellow man go down 
 
 In dark despair to take his part 
 
 With those beneath God's righteous frown. 
 
 We weep, and cannot reach them now, 
 But, O , the hope lights up the soul, 
 I'll go and teach the children how 
 To gain the Christian's blessed goal. 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 81 
 
 And coming generations may, 
 In Christian love and gratitude, 
 Eise up to bless the happy day, 
 They learned that sweet beatitude. 
 
 All the vicious and intemperate habits of 
 the Hindus are largely due to the teachings 
 of their religion. The nonprogressive spirit 
 of the people of India is but the inculcation 
 of ancient Vedism. The Vedas taught that 
 in the beginning the gods created and placed 
 before man everything he needed, and that 
 to attempt improvement of any kind would 
 be an insult to deity. Accordingly all in- 
 ventions and improvements are shut off from 
 the race, and, today, the farmers, the 
 mechanics, the tradesmen, walk in the same 
 footprints their forefathers made four thous- 
 and years ago. In all moral questions, 
 however, as it is impossible for a people to 
 remain on the same level, they have gone 
 down. Among the worst fruits of an 
 idolatrous religion may be mentioned 
 
 The Universal Degradation of Woman. 
 It is so in all heathen lands. Wherever the 
 Bible is not known the dignity and rights of 
 woman are not respected. Christianity and 
 
82 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 an elevated womanhood go hand in hand. 
 He that was born of the sweet virgin was the 
 first to lift womanhood from the thraldom of 
 slavery. Wherever, among the families of 
 the earth, His religion sways the moral 
 powers, softens and purifies the affections, 
 men acknowledge and respect the worth of a 
 true woman. 
 
 In India, it is a sad misfortune to be a 
 woman. We have already mentioned the 
 disconsolate state of widowhood. The birth 
 of a girl baby is a bad omen, a token of evil, 
 and everybody goes about with a gloomy 
 countenance. The poor mother weeps over 
 her misfortune and patiently bears the abuse 
 of her husband. 
 
 Some better idea may be obtained from an 
 incident in the experience of one of our lady 
 missionaries. She, being a doctor, was 
 called to see a native woman who was thought 
 to be dying. After giving the necessary 
 attention to the woman, she asked where her 
 baby was. A dirty, impudent little man, 
 sitting lazily on the floor in the corner of the 
 room, pointed outside. She went out, and 
 under a buffalo shed, on the bare ground, lay 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 83 
 
 a poor little infant starving to death ; so near 
 gone it was unable to make a noise. The 
 missionary was filled with pity and indigna- 
 tion. She returned into the house and asked 
 what was meant by such conduct ; whereupon 
 the cool reply: "O, never mind that; it's 
 only a girl." If a boy baby is born the 
 mother rejoices, the husband honors and 
 compliments her, and all the relatives hold a 
 jubilee. Thanks and propitiatory offerings 
 are made to the patron god, and all the people 
 look forward to good times. 
 
 The women of the higher classes after 
 they go to their husbands' houses, are kept 
 confined within zenana walls for the rest of 
 their days. The zenana is much like a 
 convent, being inclosed in high walls. It 
 usually has a number of separate buildings. 
 Some of the rooms are for the men and some 
 for the women. If, for any cause, they are 
 compelled to go outside of these walls, they 
 must go under cover and must neither see or 
 be seen. In the zenanas no man but the 
 husband, father or brother is ever admitted 
 to the presence of the women. The origin 
 of this ridiculous practice of keeping the 
 
84 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 women imprisoned, dates back, perhaps, to 
 the time when war and rapine Avas the rule 
 and no man's life or proj)erty was safe. 
 In such times the rulers were accustomed 
 to seize any woman to whom they happened 
 to take a fancy and without any regard, 
 carry her away from her husband. Conse- 
 quently all beautiful women were guarded 
 with the most jealous care ; and so they are 
 .today, as the people never consider it worth 
 their while to change their customs to suit 
 the times in which they live. 
 
 The women must do all the menial work ; 
 they must gather the buffalo chips for cook- 
 ing, must prepare the food and serve while 
 the men and boys eat. It is the custom 
 among all classes for the men and boys to be 
 seated all on the floor. They have no chairs, 
 tables, dishes, knives or forks. Each has an 
 earthen bowl or dish before him ; the woman 
 brings out the pot of rice and with her hand 
 serves them all around. Then she either 
 retires from the room, or fans her husband 
 while he eats. They all dip into the rice 
 with their hands, cram their mouths as full 
 as possible, let the rest fall back into the 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 85 
 
 bowl and then bring up another handful. 
 After the men and boys are well filled the 
 women and girls may take what is left. 
 
 The women of the lower classes have this, 
 advantage over tlie high caste women, that 
 they work for wages and so have liberty to 
 go wherever they please. How much the 
 women of India need the tender hand of the 
 divine Son of Mary to lift them out of slavery 
 and disgrace. 
 
 It is the special work of many of our 
 lady missionaries to visit the women confined 
 in these zenana prisons and there preach to 
 them the Gospel ; for ladies only may ever 
 see them, and but for such work, these 
 women could never see a Gospel witness nor 
 ever hear the words of life. Hearing, some 
 of them believe. 
 
CHAPTER VIII. 
 Persecution: Mohammedanism. 
 
 Persecution in India is not what it once 
 was, and now is in other heathen lands. 
 
 The country being under British rule, 
 missionaries are well protected from violence, 
 and their rights are respected by all the 
 natives. In fact there is, perhaps, no 
 heathen country in any other part of the 
 world where the missionary is so well 
 protected as in India. The natives must 
 respect the European officer and the masses 
 know no difference between white people, 
 missionaries, or officers. Often the poor, 
 when they want a favor, come to the mis- 
 sionary and almost worship him. It is a 
 common thing when a British officer passes 
 through the streets of a village to see great 
 numbers of natives prostrating themselves 
 before him. They are a helpless people and 
 so depend like children upon their superiors 
 for a support. They are all well educated in 
 
88 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 the art of flattery. They have learned this 
 art from the old courts of autocrats. They 
 were accustomed to grant favors to their 
 vassal subjects for pleasing flattery. The 
 poor when seeking favors were in the habit 
 of coming into the presence of the rulers and 
 in great swelling words reciting their beauty, 
 greatness and glory; when the conceited 
 autocrat, pleased with himself, would grant 
 the request of his worshipper. 
 
 This system of flattery is soon introduced 
 to the missionary on his arrival in India. In 
 his presence, they are astonished at his mag- 
 nificent appearance, his profound learning, 
 and his wonderful devotion and self-sacrifice. 
 But among his own people that Hindu has 
 not enough bad words with which to abuse 
 the missionary. Notwithstanding all his 
 flattery and persistent show of friendship, 
 the Hindu is to be watched. Feigning the 
 greatest love, several attempts have been 
 made on the lives of missionaries. Murder 
 is not a common thing among Hindus, but 
 the method generally adopted is by poison- 
 ing. Once a great number of people 
 brouo^ht some fine mano^o fruit to a mis- 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 89 
 
 sionary. It was delivered with a great 
 pompous speech, setting forth the common 
 brotherhood between the Hindu and the 
 American. Though the mangoes were 
 received with thanks, they were carefully 
 set away till next morning, when on exami- 
 nation the largest and most inviting one was 
 found to be saturated with poison and 
 perfectly black. 
 
 The Hindus are persistent in their efforts 
 to oppose Christianity. They have, in 
 Madras and other large cities, organized 
 societies for the production and distribution 
 of Hindu anti-Christian literature. They 
 resort to various methods. If they find any 
 one studying Christianity they begin im- 
 mediately to prejudice them, and to remove 
 all impressions that may have been made by 
 the Gospel. 
 
 They follow up the missionary with their 
 pernicious system of ridicule. They revive 
 and preach their own religion when they 
 see it about to die in the heart of a subject. 
 Once, when we went on a tour, a high caste 
 man ^was very favorably disposed toward 
 Christianity and said if his wife would follow 
 
90 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 him he would become a Christian. The 
 next morning all her relatives gathered 
 around, bringing their cocoanut milk and 
 rice and proposed a visit to the cobra snake 
 hole. They worship these snakes very 
 devotedly. They took this man's wife, he 
 being too intelligent to take any part in such 
 foolish worship, and away they went on their 
 pilgrimage to the snake hole. They thus led 
 her off and away from the probability of 
 hearing the Gospel and hoped we might be 
 gone ere they returned. They pour the 
 milk and rice into the hole, hoping that the 
 snake will receive it and be so much pleased 
 thereby that it may never be disposed to 
 bite them or any of their relatives. 
 
 When the missionary preaches, the old 
 priest will come and stand around, watching 
 to see what effect the Gospel is having on 
 his people. If he sees any impression is 
 made he seeks to counteract it. The priest 
 endeavors to frighten the poor people, mak- 
 ing them believe if they forsake their an- 
 cestral religion, all the gods and goddesses 
 of their forefathers will turn loose their 
 fury upon them. They seek to weaken the 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 91 
 
 faith of the Christians and intimidate them 
 by threatening them with the curse of the 
 gods. If they have any misfortune, the 
 heathen declare it is because the gods are 
 angry with them. If they have more bless- 
 ings than the heathen — and they usually 
 have — they take the curious alternative of 
 saying the Christians have deceived the 
 gods. The Brahmin watches, with jealous 
 care, every movement of the missionary. 
 
 But the greatest hindrance to the progress 
 of Christianity is that great citadel of 
 heathenism — caste. Men are bound by it; 
 they are imprisoned and safely guarded by it. 
 We have already mentioned how difficult it 
 is for one to break the environments of caste 
 and ever again enjoy the company of his 
 family. 
 
 All these things work against the progress 
 of the Gospel among the Hindus; but the 
 most virulent opposition is by 
 
 The Moliammedans . — They comprise about 
 one-sixth of the population of India. The 
 country was once conquered and ruled, for a 
 long time, by the Mohammedans. They, as 
 well as the Jews, are a peculiar people. The 
 
92 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 pure blooded Mohammedans are descended 
 directly from Ishmael; and there is an 
 interesting relation between the descendants 
 of those half brothers, Isaac and Ishmael. 
 Both, in their places, fulfilled the great pur- 
 poses of God; for he promised Hagar, to 
 make of her son a great nation, and covenanted 
 with Abraham that Isaac should stand at the 
 head of a host who should number as the 
 stars of heaven or the sands of the sea shore. 
 Both promises are being fulfilled. Yet the 
 jealousy which sprang up between Hagar and 
 Sarah, more than thirty-seven centuries ago, 
 still burns between the children of their sons. 
 God said to Abraham that the children of his 
 son Isaac should possess the gates of their 
 enemies. Who are, to them, greater enemies 
 to-day than their Saracen cousins? This 
 prophecy, at least, suggests the probable 
 destiny of that warlike and blood-thirsty race. 
 They are to-day the most unscrupulous, un- 
 compromising enemies of the seed of Isaac, 
 and of all those who have been blessed in his 
 seed according to the promise. The Moham- 
 medans have their origin, as such, from 
 Mohammed, a man of unusual talent and 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 93 
 
 boldness. He rose to eminence in the early 
 part of the Seventh Century. He was born in 
 Mecca, Arabia; but when he pressed his 
 claims as a prophet upon the people of his 
 own town they drove him out as an impostor. 
 He fled from Mecca to Medina, where he 
 remained till he obtained a sufficient following 
 to take up the sword against his enemies. 
 He then, professing to have had in a vision 
 such orders from heaven, called his faithful 
 together, told them that God Almighty had 
 ordered them to conquer the world to his 
 teaching, and for their own zeal to reap the 
 spoil of the conquest. They must spare none, 
 but compel all to acknowledge God, and 
 Mohammed as his chief prophet. The pro- 
 position was favorable to human pride and 
 ambition, and with Mohammed in the lead 
 they set out for Mecca. Entering the town 
 of his birth, he compelled every inhabitant, 
 at the point of the sword, to acknowledge him 
 as God's prophet. Then, to strengthen his 
 force, he offered all men who would join his 
 army and fight for him, pardon, protection of 
 life and property, and to share also in the 
 spoils of battle. It was an easy matter among 
 
94 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 such people to soon have an immense army at 
 his back. He then proceeded to subdue all 
 Arabia, and was planning for the conquest of 
 the whole world, when his victorious career 
 was suddenly cut short by death. But his 
 followers grasped the opportunity and took up 
 the sword he had laid down. They proceeded 
 in every direction, laying everything at their 
 feet, till the north, east, west and south bowed 
 beneath the crescent. Sweeping around the 
 northern coast of Africa, they crossed the 
 Straits of Gibraltar and proceeded over the 
 Pyrenees into Europe; but here, in the battle 
 of Tours, they were, for the first time, de- 
 feated and driven back. 
 
 Thinking over what might have been, we 
 have to thank the God of the nations for their 
 defeat in that battle ; for, had the Saracen 
 conquerors been permitted to advance into 
 Europe, we all might to-day have been 
 Mohammedans, and, instead of the glorious 
 stars and stripes, lit up by the splendor of a 
 free and Christian land, over our capitol might 
 wave the flag of a foreign despot. 
 
 The sword was everywhere the effectual 
 means of conversion. Wherever they com- 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 95 
 
 pelled the people to accept the Koran, it was 
 taught to their children, and they believed it, 
 and so, in one or two generations, millions of 
 people were firm believers in Mohammed. 
 That same warlike spirit and murderous 
 character which, in their conquest, was every- 
 where exhibited, is still the characteristic of 
 every Mohammedan, and had they the power, 
 the life of a Christian would be nothing in 
 their hands. Their deadly hatred toward 
 Christians may be seen in the following. They 
 have a custom that if a Mohammedan acci- 
 dently kills one of his own people, he may 
 atone for the sin, both for time and eternity, 
 by killing four Christians. The Moham- 
 medans are especially bitter against one of 
 their own number who becomes a Christian. 
 Consequently there are, in India, but very few 
 converts from among the Mohammedans. 
 It seems not to be God's time for their re- 
 demption. The door to that peculiar people 
 is still closed; when, if ever, it may be 
 opened, the God of the nations only knows. 
 In India, one of the principal centers of 
 Mohammedanism is Hyderabad, the capital of 
 the Nizam's dominions. The Nizam is a 
 
96 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 Mohammedan tributary ruler. He governs 
 his own country and people, insofar as he 
 doesn't do anything to conflict with British 
 laws as applied to native states. He is 
 compelled to support, in the midst of his 
 territory, a standing army of British soldiers. 
 This army serves the double purpose of pro- 
 tecting the Nizam from his enemies, and of 
 making him and his people behave themselves. 
 Every year this army has a grand parade, and 
 his highness, the Nizam, has to come out and 
 make his bow to the British flag. The city 
 of Hyderabad, in which the Nizam lives, lies 
 four square, and is inclosed by a great wall 
 with four entrance gates. The city, inside, is 
 divided into regular geometrical squares. The 
 inhabitants, who always live within the walls, 
 are said to be Arabs of the most savage and 
 blood-thirsty character. Several years ago it 
 was quite unsafe for any but Mohammedans 
 to enter the city, and but few will enter it 
 now without great precaution. These Arabs 
 are always armed with knives and swords and, 
 if they choose, may run up and thrust a knife 
 or sword through a victim and retreat into the 
 buildings in any direction, where they are all 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 97 
 
 agreed, and he is received with honor if he 
 has killed a Christian, and there he is beyond 
 the reach of justice. The whole city, two 
 hundred thousand or more, must be implicated 
 to get one man. Europeans, if they enter 
 the city now, usually have a guard with them, 
 or drive through in closed carriages. It is not 
 considered safe to stop in the streets though, 
 as British influence is more and more felt 
 among them, the danger of entering the city 
 is less. The Nizam is a profligate; though 
 they claim a Mohammedan must not touch 
 intoxicating drinks. He is said to be almost 
 always drunk. He has about one hundred 
 and fifty wives. As he is seldom fit for 
 business, his prime minister is really the ruler. 
 He is very fond of tiger hunting"; and goes 
 out every year to his tiger reservation, in 
 which no one else is allowed to hunt, and 
 shoots tigers. As the Hindus never kill any- 
 thing, and but few Mohammedans have 
 sufficent guns for tigers, they have multipl^d 
 to great numbers. But tiger hunting is very 
 dangerous and his highness is not disposed 
 to take any risk. So he has a very high scaf- 
 fold prepared near a path leading out of a 
 
98 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 jungle to some watering place. He comes in 
 on his elephant, takes a comfortable seat on 
 this scaffold and then sends in a great com- 
 pany of his poor subjects, with drums and 
 tom-toms, to frighten out the tigers. Hearing 
 the terrible din all around him, the tiger 
 leaves his den and makes for the watering 
 place. While he thus passes the Nizam has 
 nothincr to do but shoot him. Some hunt 
 tigers on elephants; but that is not always 
 safe. Others, lovers of danger, go on foot 
 anions: them and risk their lives on the 
 certainty of their shot. In our own station 
 are the graves of two British officers who lost 
 their lives in such daring attempts. In meet- 
 ing and shooting at a tiger it is almost 
 inevitable death to the hunter if his aim is not 
 certain and his shot deadly. We have been 
 told by old hunters that men have been torn 
 to pieces, even after their shot had penetrated 
 the heart of the tiger, so fierce and rapid are 
 they in their actions. The safest shot is to 
 break their neck, when, of course, they are 
 helpless. We never had any ambition for 
 tiger hunting. 
 
 Is it not a pity that any religion will not 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 99 
 
 only refuse to destroy such beasts but teach 
 the people to worship them? Yet such is 
 the faith of the Hindus. 
 
 The Mohammedans seeing the progress of 
 the Christian cause, have organized against 
 it. In Hyderabad city, among the nobles of the 
 court, where money is no object and hatred 
 toward the Bible is the rule, there is a society 
 for the propagation of Islam and the oppo- 
 sition of missionary effort. They employ 
 their preachers, as we do, and send them 
 out to every station where there is a 
 Christian missionary. Like hounds they 
 follow after us day by day. If we go out to 
 a distant village, the next day, or close on our 
 tracks, comes the Mohammedan preacher 
 seeking to counteract all we may have done. 
 He does but little preaching of his own 
 religion; but ceases not with all the vile 
 epithets at his command to abuse and belie 
 the missionary, ridicule the Bible and blas- 
 pheme the name of Christ. Daily he walks 
 the streets, gathers the people around him 
 and pours out among them his vile calumny. 
 The Mohammedans everywhere seek to preju- 
 dice the minds of the people against the 
 
100 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 missionary. If they can't do it by ridicule 
 and falsehood, they threaten the people. In 
 the Nizam's dominions nearly all the govern- 
 ment officers are Mohammedans, and the 
 life and property of the poor are in their 
 hands. If they see in the people any dis- 
 position to consider the claims of the Gospel, 
 they threaten to cut off their support, to 
 beat them and to take away their property. 
 Thus intimidated, the poor people are afraid 
 to be seen near a missionary or native 
 preacher. 
 
 Once during a great annual feast in Hana- 
 makonda, nine or ten men and women from 
 a village thirty miles away, had come on a 
 pilgrimage to the temple. While on the 
 streets they for the first time heard the 
 Mohammedans abusing the missionary and 
 his religion. It was all a new thing to these 
 simple but earnest people, and they expressed 
 a desire to see that ''foreign deceiver," as 
 he was called, and hear what that religion 
 was which brought down upon itself so much 
 abuse. 
 
 The Mohammedans told them that if they 
 entered the mission yard they would beat 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 101 
 
 them all so that they could not get home. 
 But their curiosity was all the more aroused, 
 and they determined to see the missionary at 
 all hazards, but said no more about it. The 
 next morning our bell rang for service, and 
 they came and took their seats in the yard 
 just in front of the chapel door. They were 
 afraid to go in, but they must hear what was 
 said by the preacher. After our service was 
 closed and most of the people gone, we went 
 out to them. They were loath to leave; 
 they wanted to hear more about that wonder- 
 ful Savior. Then for more than an hour, 
 we preached Christ to them and, as we closed 
 our talk, more than half of them rose up and 
 said, "We know that what you say must be 
 true, and we believe it. It is so wonderful." 
 So the work of the devil was turned to the 
 glory of God. On another occasion the 
 Mohammedan preacher was in a little village 
 near Hanamakonda, profaning the Bible and 
 the name of Christ. A great many of the 
 people, when he left, determined to hear 
 more about Christ. They had been preached 
 to a number of times, but were now excited 
 to greater interest. 
 
102 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 Sunday came and our deep-toned bell 
 invited all to come to the house of God. 
 Twelve of the leading men came. They 
 walked in and took their seats on the chapel 
 floor, as is the custom. We appointed one 
 of our native evangelists, who happened to be 
 present that morning, to sit down with them 
 and instruct them in the Bible, while we 
 went on with the Sunday-school lesson. The 
 spirit of God seemed to be present in unusual 
 power. We all felt the solemnity of the 
 hour. The time came on for the sermon and 
 we turned it to a prayer meeting. We be- 
 sought God to save those twelve men ; they 
 were convicted and fell on their faces in 
 prayer. Soon they began to rise up and 
 confess Christ until the last of the twelve 
 shouted, " O, yes, I know Jesus will save us 
 all; praise his name." That day His name 
 was honored in Hanamakonda. The twelve 
 were received immediately into the church, 
 and at the close of the service we led nine of 
 them into the liquid grave, and before all 
 that heathen throng they were buried with 
 Christ in baptism, and rose again to walk in 
 newness of life. Truly was it that day ful- 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 103 
 
 filled, ^*He that sitteth in the heavens 
 shall laugh; the Lord shall have them in 
 derision." For the heathen lookers-on were 
 that day ashamed and without an answer. 
 
 In His name why not all Christians accept 
 the promise: ''Ask of me and I will give thee 
 the heathen for thine inheritance and the 
 uttermost parts of the earth for thy posses- 
 sion," and so shall it be. The devil may 
 rage, the kings of the earth may set them- 
 selves together, and the rulers take counsel 
 against the Anointed; but to its uttermost 
 parts, the world shall be full of his knowledge 
 and glory as the waters cover the sea. 
 
CHAPTEE IX. 
 The Telugu Mission: Its Beginning 
 
 AND Struggles. 
 After seeing so much of the people, their 
 life and condition, the reader will be anxious 
 to know what has been done for their relief. 
 During the last century there has been such 
 an awakening among Christian people of every 
 nation; money has been consecrated; mis- 
 sionaries have been sent out to evangelize the 
 world, and the voice of God has sounded in 
 the heart of every continent. How have the 
 milhons of India shared in the blessing? 
 The story of missions in India is absorbingly 
 interesting and, in the eyes of all the 
 world, truly wonderful. I need not here 
 recount the lives and work of Jlidson, Carey 
 and others ; it is all familiar to those much 
 interested in missions. But the influence of 
 their devoted lives is felt in every department 
 of the work. Their labors have contributed 
 to the success of all missionary enterprise 
 since their day. The pathetic story of self- 
 
106 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 sacrifice, of persecutions, imprisonment, of 
 suffering under the tropical sun, of bleeding 
 feet over the burning sands and rocks, deeply 
 thrills the soul of every missionary, urging 
 him to do and dare for the master. A visit to 
 Serampore brings up the labors of those men 
 of God, who, through the press, opened up to 
 so many millions the Gospel. The missionary 
 looks out upon the bay of Bengal, remembers 
 what Judson did and endured for Jesus, think 
 how, in the absence of his loved ones, he was 
 buried at last in those deep waters ; and there 
 seems to come a spirit and a whisper up from 
 the sea saying, **Be ye faithful unto death." 
 The graves of others, where the leopard and 
 the tiger leap, and the winds sigh in the lone 
 palms, all speak to the living and urge them 
 on to nobler deeds. Since the days of Carey 
 and Judson, heroic spirits have not been 
 wanting. Hundreds of men and women now 
 on the field are ready, when it becomes 
 necessary, to suffer even unto death for 
 Christ's sake. Through their labors, since 
 the days of these first noble heroes, many 
 thousands have been led to Christ. Others 
 have taken up the work which they laid down 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 107 
 
 and carried it on to sublimer results than their 
 brightest hope ever pictured. 
 
 Much has been done in the north of India 
 by the English Baptists, Methodists and 
 others ; but the work of the American Bap- 
 tist Missionary Union among the Telugus has 
 been the greatest, and shall occupy our chief 
 attention. The mission to the Teluofus was 
 begun in 1836, when Eev. Samuel S. Day 
 arrived among them. He labored in Yizaga- 
 patam, Chicacole and Madras; but early in 
 1840 he went to Nellore and there founded 
 the first mission station. Owing to the scarcity 
 of Telugu books, the language was difficult 
 of acquisition, and various other serious diffi- 
 culties confronted him in his pioneer work. 
 Touring throughout the country and preaching 
 the Gospel to all classes, he labored for nearly 
 two years, when he had the privilege of bap- 
 tising the first Telugu convert. Dr. Downie, 
 in his history of the Telugu mission, gives an 
 account of this interesting occasion. "Towards 
 sunset on the 27th day of September, 1841, 
 a little company might have been seen wending 
 its way towards the Pennar river. Right 
 under the shadow of the great Nellore temple, 
 
108 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 on the river bank, they sang a hymn; the 
 missionary read a few passages of Scripture 
 and explained the nature of the ordinance 
 about to be celebrated. By this time a large 
 crowd of natives had assembled and Mr. Day 
 embraced the opportunity to preach to them 
 of Jesus and the great salvation. A brief 
 prayer was then offered and Venkappah, the 
 first Telugu convert, was led down into the 
 water and baptized into the name of the 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost. It was a 
 strange sight to the wondering multitude, 
 but a happy experience to Venkappah, and 
 probably one of the most blessed privileges of 
 Mr. Day's life." This was the first of many 
 thousands who were to follow, but before the 
 brightness of the day could come, a miniature 
 dark age must intervene. Soon his only 
 associate missionary broke down in health and 
 had to leave the country. The cholera broke 
 out and began sweeping the people into 
 eternity. Soon his own health failed and he, 
 too, was compelled to leave for his native 
 land. He left with a very sad heart. What 
 would become of the work he had begun, only 
 begun? O, the dark hours! He wrote on 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 109 
 
 leaving: ''The thought of visiting one's own 
 native country gives little satisfaction." As 
 he left those dark shores and needy people, 
 his heart lingered with them. But, ere long, 
 he was permitted to return, and with him 
 came to the Telugus, Dr. Lyman Jewett, one 
 of the most devoted men of God who ever 
 carried the Gospel across the seas. He and 
 his faithful wife went earnestly into the work, 
 soon acquired the language and traveled 
 among the villages. But few converts were 
 gathered, however, as the months and years 
 went by. Great faith in God was eminently 
 needed ; for then in all their labors they must 
 indeed walk by faith and not by sight. 
 Thirteen years had passed since the mission 
 was established, and only a little handful of 
 converts were to show for all their labor and 
 expenditure. 
 
CHAPTER X. 
 
 The Break of Day: Triumph 
 OF THE Gospel. 
 
 At a meeting of the Board held in Albany, 
 New York, in 1853, it was proposed to aban- 
 don the Telugu mission altogether. A warm 
 discussion followed, during which one of the 
 speakers pointed to a missionary map which 
 hung on the wall behind him and said: 
 ' 'Behold the lone star ! " In all that dark land 
 there was but one spot from which a single 
 ray of Gospel light could eminate. Dr. Smith 
 was so impressed with the words «*lone star" 
 that ere he slept that night he wrote the fol- 
 lowing beautiful and truly prophetic lines : 
 
 Shine on, "Lone Star," thy radiance bright 
 Shall spread o'er all the eastern sky ; 
 Morn breaks apace from gloom and night ; 
 Shine on and bless the pilgrim's eye. 
 
 Shine on, "Lone Star," I would not dim 
 The light that burns with dubious ray ; 
 The lonely star of Bethlehem, 
 Led on a bright and glorious day. 
 
112 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 Shine on, "Lone Star," in grief and tears, 
 And sad reverses oft baptized. 
 Shine on amid thy sister spheres ; 
 Lone stars in heaven are not despised. 
 
 Shine on, "Lone Star," the day draws near. 
 When none shall shine more fair than thou ; 
 Thou, born and nursed in doubt and fear, 
 Wilt glitter on Immanuel's brow. 
 
 Shine on, "Lone Star," till earth redeemed, 
 In dust shall bid its idols fall ; 
 And thousands where thy radiance beamed 
 Shall "crown the Savior, Lord of all." 
 
 This poem was read next morning at the 
 Board meeting. The effect was extraordi- 
 nary; hearts were moved and tears flowed 
 freely. The discussion was discontinued and 
 it was decided, not only to continue the mis- 
 sion to the Telegus, but to reinforce it. 
 Almost the same day those discussions were 
 going on in Albany, New York, the work in 
 India took on new life. The little church in 
 Nellore was reorganized, and a number more 
 were baptized. Now, this was the gray of 
 the dawn. Better times must follow. Dr. 
 and Mrs. Jewett toured extensively among 
 the distant villages and preached the Word. 
 Other missionaries were sent out from home, 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 113 
 
 and now the mission to the Telugus was no 
 longer a doubtful experience. But the field 
 was so large for the laborers, they were 
 greatly burdened and ceased not to pray to 
 God and petition the people at home for 
 stronger reinforcements. They were sent out 
 as fast as the committee could command the 
 men and means. The people heard the 
 Gospel a little more willingly, and the fruit 
 began to ripen. The Nellore church grew to 
 considerable strength ; but the work must be 
 extended into other districts, and as Dr. and 
 Mrs. Jewett make a tour into the North, let 
 us spend a little time with them in Ongole. 
 It was about four o'clock New Year's morn- 
 ing, 1854, that Dr. and Mrs. Jewett, with a 
 little company of native Christians might 
 have been seen passing out of their tents and 
 wending their way toward the mountain 
 overlooking Ongole. At the base of this 
 hill on the eastern side, lies the crescent 
 shaped town of Ongole, with its ten thousand 
 people. Standing on the summit of this hill 
 in the morning light the scene is truly 
 sublime. The country is a broad, level plain, 
 spread out before the eye, like a wondrous 
 
114 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 panorama. Turning around, the eye may 
 behold no less than four hundred villages, 
 which, with their groves of margosa trees, 
 dot the broad expanse in every direction. 
 Ten miles to the east lies the bay of Bengal, 
 forming a blue border along the horizon. 
 Sixty miles to the west, rise up the dim 
 heads of a mountain range ; thirty miles to 
 the south stretches out the silverlike belt of 
 the Buckingham canal; while forty miles 
 away under the Northern sky, the blue 
 mountains tower like pillars of cloud. Within 
 this compass live no less than a million of 
 souls, bound for eternity. The sight is 
 enough to impress the non-emotional. In the 
 early light this little company. Dr. and Mrs. 
 Jewett and the native Christians, Julia, 
 Ruth and Christian Nursu, the only Gospel 
 witnesses in all that land, ascended the 
 mountain. Reaching the summit they sat 
 down and sang a hymn. Then they all knelt 
 while Nursu prayed for his lost countrymen. 
 Dr. Jewett then read from Isaiah: ''How 
 beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of 
 him that bringeth good tidings." Mrs. 
 Jewett then prayed, then Julia, then Ruth. 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 115 
 
 Last of all the faithful leader of this little 
 band lifted up his voice and said: '* O, thou 
 Creator and God of the nations, grant that 
 as the sun is now about to rise, and shine 
 upon the earth, so may the sun of Eighteous- 
 ness rise quickly and shine upon this dark 
 land." He prayed also for God to send a 
 missionary to preach the Gospel to the 
 perishing millions around him. Then, ris- 
 ing, he stretched forth his hand and said, 
 ''Do you see that piece of rising ground 
 yonder all covered over with prickly pears? 
 Would you not like that spot for our mission 
 bungalow, and all this land to become 
 Christian? How would you like it? Well, 
 Nursu, Julia, that day will come!" ''As 
 our little prayer meeting closed," Julia said, 
 "the sun rose, and it seemed as if the Holy 
 Spirit had lifted us above the world, and our 
 hearts were filled with thanksgiving to the 
 Lord." 
 
 We have only to look over that field to-day 
 to see the answer to that prayer, and the 
 fulfillment of that prediction. The mission 
 bungalow stands on the very spot that he 
 pointed out and, though the land has not yet 
 
116 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 become Christian, it is o^oino^ on towards it. 
 There is now in Ono^ole the lars^est church in 
 the world, it having over twenty thousand 
 members. The work which has brouHit 
 about such great results has been led on 
 chiefly by Dr. J. E. Clough. He was the 
 one sent out in answer to Dr. Jewett's prayer, 
 though the answer seemed long delayed. He 
 came to Ongole the 17th of September, 1866, 
 and at once began the work which has done 
 so much for the glory of Christ's name and 
 the salvation of the heathen. We shall not 
 find it consistent with the plan of this little 
 book to follow in detail the wonderful works 
 of God among the Telugus.* We only 
 stand in awe and glance over the field and the 
 great hosts of God there, like a proud soldier 
 beholding the splendid regiments of his 
 chieftain. The native workers rapidly in- 
 creased in number. Who ever accepted 
 Christ went to work in his own village to 
 lead his people to the Savior.. So the Gospel 
 went, as it were, on Avings; men heard and 
 
 *If anyone desires a full and detailed account of the 
 work and workers among the Telugus, he is referred to 
 Mr. Downie's History of the Telugu Mission, published 
 by the American Baptist Publication Society. 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 117 
 
 believed. New stations were established as 
 rapidly as possible, but at length the interest 
 seemed to center in Ongole and the power of 
 the Gospel seemed to radiate from that center, 
 not, as we believe, so much because Dr. 
 Clough was in himself such an extraordinary 
 man, though he is a man of no common 
 ability, and was raised up for that field and 
 work. Dr. Downie says of him, very 
 properly we think: "If we were called upon 
 to mention Dr. Clough' s special qualification 
 to the particular work to which he has been 
 called, we should say they were these : a 
 capacity to command the situation and to 
 marshal its resources ; a sound constitution 
 and an indomitable spirit ; a strong love for 
 the souls of men and for Christ ; a successful 
 term of service in the Western States, and a 
 strong faith both in God and in himself as 
 God's appointed agent for the accomplish- 
 ment of a great w^ork." Answered in" the 
 life and work of Dr. Clough, we believe the 
 prayers of the devoted Dr. Jewett were at the 
 head of the great movement among the 
 Telegus. After his return to America it was • 
 said of him that for a great many nights his 
 
118 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 wife was unintentionally waked as he rose 
 from bed near midnight and went into 
 another room alone. At last she passed into 
 the hall and watched him. She saw him 
 walking the floor, his silvered beard on his 
 breast and his arms folded, exclaiming in 
 pathetic and trembling voice : *' Oh God, do 
 save the Telugus ! ' ' Such prayers will be 
 heard. 
 
 In 1876 the great famine broke out in 
 India and sore distress prevailed. Thousands 
 starved to death. Disease smote the already 
 famished land, and the people fell by 
 thousands into dreadful graves. But, in it 
 all, the people were convinced of the utter 
 inability of their idols to afford them relief, 
 and so were more disposed to listen to the 
 Gospel. It was preached everywhere over 
 the Ongole field, and during the famine, 
 though many applied, none were received into 
 the church for fear some might come from 
 unworthy motives. But when the blessing of 
 God began to restore plenty once more in the 
 land, the doors of the church were opened. 
 * Dr. Clouofh sent out word to all his native 
 preachers to bring in those who desired to be 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 119 
 
 baptized, and they would meet ten miles north 
 of Ongole on the Gundalacumma river. When 
 they began to pour in from all sides the 
 magnitude of the ingathering was beginning 
 to be manifest. The candidates were all ex- 
 amined, and when everything was ready they 
 appointed six o'clock next morning to begin 
 baptizing. It was the third of July and the 
 sun rose in all his brilliancy ; the people 
 thronged the banks of the river, and two 
 ordained native preachers took their places in 
 the water. They began baptizing, and the 
 people passed in a constant stream into the 
 river by them, were baptized, and came up out 
 of the water. When these two preachers 
 were tired, two others took their places, and in 
 turn were succeeded by others. At eleven 
 o'clock they stop]3ed for the noon rest; 
 resumed their work at two, and at five o'clock 
 the last of two thousand two hundred and 
 twenty-two was buried with Christ in baptism . 
 Thus by only six men, two working at a time, 
 the whole number were baptized in eight hours. 
 Thus closed a day of sublime victory for 
 Christ. But the battle ceased not, and the 
 victory grew on in magnitude. More and 
 
120 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 more kept coming in until, before the last of 
 the following December, they had baptized 
 nine thousand six hundred and six. 
 
 During the years that have followed, that 
 great revival has never ceased; though, of 
 course, not as brilliant as the above. The 
 reports of this ingathering roused our people 
 at home as never before. The glad news 
 fairly shook this Christian land, and God's 
 people were encouraged in their contributions to 
 such a noble work and their prayers were daily 
 offered. The next largest number baptized 
 was that in which the writer had the privilege 
 of assisting. It was shortly after our arrival 
 in India, in 1890. A deep spiritual interest 
 was everywhere manifest among the native 
 workers and they seemed full of enthusiasm 
 and hope. They gave glowing reports from 
 all the out-stations how the people heard the 
 Gospel gladly, and great numbers were believ- 
 ing. Dr. Clough told them to bring in to the 
 quarterly meeting all those who were asking 
 baptism. Saturday evening, the 23d of Decem- 
 ber, they began to pour into the mission com- 
 pound. Many came on foot across the 
 burning sands from fifty to seventy miles 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 121 
 
 away. Early Sunday morning Dr. Clough 
 rang the school bell and called the people all 
 together around his veranda in the yard. 
 Nearly four thousand people were seated on 
 the ground under the beautiful margosa shade 
 trees. Dr. Clough, in whom they all reposed 
 so much confidence, then stood on the veranda 
 and preached to them from the text: ''Come 
 unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden, 
 and I will give you rest." It was so appro- 
 priate; and the people listened for an hour 
 and ten minutes with the deepest interest. 
 Then followed the examination of the candi- 
 dates, lasting till a late hour. The examination 
 was conducted by committees, including 
 altogether about a hundred native preachers. 
 One o'clock was appointed to begin baptizing, 
 and at that hour an immense throng of 
 Telugus, both heathen and Christian, gathered 
 around the beautiful pool just east of the 
 mission house. The tall margosa drooped its 
 limbs down over the water, and around the 
 garden occasional cocoanut trees lifted up 
 their straight proud forms. It was a sublime 
 hour. Two ordained preachers took their 
 places in the pool, and after a song they 
 
122 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 proceeded in the glorious work. They 
 baptized over a thousand; then Dr. Clough 
 and the writer took their places and baptized 
 over six-hundred, making in all, sixteen 
 hundred and seventy-one ; and the exact time 
 occupied in immersing the entire number was 
 just four hours and twenty -five minutes. 
 
 Thus closed another day long to be re- 
 membered in the history of missions ; a day 
 wherein the Lord Christ was honored and the 
 heathen stood silent and amazed in the 
 presence of the mighty works of God. 
 
 It has often been asked me since our return 
 to this country ; *'How do those people hold 
 out?" My answer has always been, "As well 
 as the people do hi this country." And that is 
 saying a great deal for the Telugus ; for if 
 they, with all their weakness, bad habits 
 formed from their youth, lack of knowledge, 
 no restraining society, but powerful tempta- 
 tions all around them, if they can hold out as 
 well as converts in this country, where they 
 have had Christian training and have the 
 protection of Christian society, do they not 
 deserve orreater credit than Americans ? And 
 is not their salvation a greater miracle of 
 
LIFE AMONO THE HINDUS. 123 
 
 divine grace? All praise to the saving power 
 that can reach down to the low and degraded 
 and lift them up. Is it not a stronger proof 
 of the divinity of the Christian religion to see 
 it go down to a man all degraded to the depths 
 of shame in the darkest ignorance and save 
 his soul, lift him up to a righteous life, a good 
 degree of intelligence and happiness, than to 
 see that same religion save an intelligent, 
 refined gentleman or lady in our own society? 
 Yea, it speaks volumes for that religion which 
 is adapted to the conditions and needs of all 
 mankind. Christ's religion does save the 
 Hindu, and the Chinese, and the African, and 
 the American, all alike, and it saves them for 
 time and eternity. It changes the very 
 appearance of the Telugu. He is cleaner, 
 more cheerful, more bright, and his life among 
 the heathen is a living example and proof of 
 the power of Christ to save. The heathen 
 often give names to our Christians, such as 
 if-prarthana cliasavwadu" — the praying man. 
 In Hanamakonda, one of our men who is 
 now an efficient preacher, was once a thief, 
 robber and adulterer. He was known 
 throughout the country for his wickedness. 
 
124 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 But some years ago he was converted. Now, 
 when a missionary goes into his or any sur- 
 rounding village and tells of the power of 
 Christ to save, the heathen will readily 
 answer: '*Yes, we know your religion does 
 change a man; for we all knew Sundriah. 
 He was a very wicked man, but since he has 
 become a Christian we have never seen him 
 do anything bad. He used to whip and 
 abuse his family, but now he loves them and 
 talks kindly to his wife." 
 
CHAPTER XI. 
 
 Shadows Begin to Deepen: Sickness and 
 
 Death. 
 
 In November, 1891, we took charge of the 
 Hanamakonda mission field. The church was 
 small and the workers were very few. In 
 fact, there were only three unordained native 
 preachers. The station had been nearly two 
 years without a resident missionary, and the 
 work of the station was still a pioneer work. 
 Though with only a limited command of the 
 language we began. The work in and 
 immediately around the station demanded our 
 chief attention, so that but little touring 
 among the native villages could be done that 
 season. The study of the language was 
 continued. The hot weather came on in 
 February, and in March our baby Ola, being 
 teething, was taken quite severely with 
 bronchitis. We tried every means within our 
 power to relieve him, but in vain. We then 
 took him to Secunderabad city, eighty miles 
 from our station, where we obtained the 
 medical services of an English army surgeon. 
 
126 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 For one whole month we remained in the city, 
 and the doctor attended faithfully to his 
 charge, but our precious love grew no better, 
 but rather worse. The heat was terrible, and 
 the doctor at last said he could do no more 
 for him and gave him up, saying the only 
 hope of saving his life was to take him im- 
 mediately to a cooler climate. Our hearts 
 were sad ; but still hoping we started at once 
 for Bangalore city, a summer resort which 
 lies far up on the western Ghauts, or mountain 
 range. Obtaining the services of a good 
 physician, we kept the little sufferer there 
 over two months. He seemed to improve. 
 Hope revived; still his double teeth were 
 giving him trouble. Finally the extreme 
 heat broke on the plains. The June and July 
 rains had come, and the air was much cooler. 
 The work at the station was urgently 
 demanding our presence and attention. The 
 physician said we might, without increasing 
 the danger, take our babe back to the station. 
 I came on a few days ahead, leaving the 
 faithful nurse to assist Mrs. Johnson to make 
 the journey, and spent the time in cleansing 
 and whitewashing our house. 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 127 
 
 A sad experience awaited my return to the 
 mission compound. The oldest child of one 
 of my best native preachers was taken very 
 ill with fever, which was at that time so 
 prevalent among the natives. For two days 
 and nights we waited on the dear little boy 
 doing all that was possible to save him. But 
 it was not the will of the Father. Late in 
 the evening of July the 6th, while his father 
 was gone to the hospital for medicine, the 
 little spirit went home to heaven. The 
 mother was on her knees in the yard crying 
 very bitterly when her husband entered the 
 gate. He knew what was the matter for he 
 had been expecting it. The great tears rolled 
 down his cheeks as he approached her. He 
 took her by the hand and lifted her up and 
 said in the sweetest Christian spirit, *' Let us 
 not weep, it is God's will." Next morning 
 the little body was quietly laid in the grave. 
 As we all stood around, the Bible had been 
 read, a hymn had been sung, and we were 
 about ready to lower the body into its last 
 resting place, an incident occurred which 
 gave me a more exalted idea of the Telugu 
 Christian character than anything I had 
 
128 LIFE AINIONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 witnessed before or have ever seen since. A 
 great company of heathen were standing 
 around the little cemetery and a number of 
 sympathizing Christian friends stood around 
 the grave. Henry, the father of the departed, 
 asked to speak. I told him to speak on. 
 He then stepped forward with uplifted hands, 
 weeping, and prayed to God most earnestly 
 for divine comfort and strength. When he 
 had prayed he began to speak, and proceeded 
 in one of the most eloquent short addresses I 
 ever heard fall from human lips. It was in 
 words that I was most familiar with and I 
 understood it all. It so well illustrates the 
 native eloquence of that beautiful language 
 and the sublime conception of the simple 
 Christian heart, that I attempted a literal 
 translation of the address. The following, 
 though I am certain does not do it justice, is 
 as near what he said as one could get from 
 memory : 
 
 "My brothers and sisters in our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, weeping, we have come here 
 this morning to lay into the grave all that can 
 ever perish of the child of my love. We are 
 ready to put into the grave this dear little 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 129 
 
 body and say good-bye to it for a little while, 
 But we know we shall meet again. O, that 
 all my benighted countrymen only had this 
 hope and joy. Great God of all the world, 
 help us to preach this blessed word to the 
 people. O, how glorious, our sweet Savior, 
 that we have learned to know thee. Thou 
 hast taken our child away from the sins and 
 sorrows of this dark world. We would catch 
 hold of thy golden feet and fall down forever 
 before thee. He was mine, but God gave him, 
 and now he has taken him from us. As I 
 see that face now before me, cold and still, I 
 do not see the face of my son. That is not 
 my son now. My child has left that. form 
 and has been for several hours up there. O, 
 glorious world ! My child and my Savior are 
 there this morning, and their silver wings 
 sparkle in the shining light; O, I would that 
 I could go now and be with them, but I must 
 wait a little." Then coming nearer his child 
 he kissed the cold features and said; «* Good- 
 bye now, for a while ; but when Jesus calls, we 
 will all go, and in that golden city, where 
 death never comes, I will take you back to my 
 arms, and Jesus shall wipe away our tears." 
 
130 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 That such joy and hope might be implanted 
 in one Hindu breast, is itself worth all the 
 money and labor it has ever cost to send the 
 Gospel to the heathen. 
 
 The death of this dear little one was a trial 
 to all of us, but by it we were brought nearer 
 the Lord and were incited to do more for 
 him. 
 
 Mrs. Johnson arrived with our little boy 
 the very night the other lay a corpse in the 
 compound. Though apparently better, he 
 was much exhausted by the long journey. 
 We began at once to make preparations for 
 touring, as the season was almost at hand. 
 Some camp tables, chairs and cots were to be 
 made. I had a few tools; so got the wood, 
 hired a native carpenter to assist me, and we 
 went to work. I found it all but impossible 
 to get any native even to hold, in a different 
 way from what he was accustomed to do, a 
 piece of wood while I sawed it. They have 
 but one way of doing anything, and they 
 never imagine it could be done any other way. 
 They all do as they were taught by their 
 parents before them. So I had to do the 
 most of the work myself. Kungiah, one of 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 131 
 
 my best preachers, was a great help to me. 
 We were rapidly getting things together and 
 planning for extensive Gospel touring. But 
 the divine plan had marked our way along 
 paths more rugged than we had ever traveled. 
 Just one week after the night our watch was 
 kept over the native brother's child, we were 
 called upon to wade the river of sorrow 
 through the silent darkness. Our day's work 
 was done. Mrs. Johnson and I were sitting 
 in the room talking about our precious little 
 one. He had been quite cheerful all that day, 
 and enjoyed playing with a little monkey we 
 had bought for him. We talked of his long 
 struggle, his near approach to death, and of 
 his recovery. We talked of his future and 
 what we might be able to do for him. We 
 then bowed in our evening prayer. While 
 we were in prayer the baby began crying, as 
 his nurse was preparing his food in an 
 adjoining room. When the prayer was 
 finished his mother took him in her arms, and 
 in three minutes his voice was hushed and the 
 immortal spirit of our loved one was gone. 
 He had died thus suddenly from heart failure. 
 In the heat his body could not endure the 
 
132 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 ordeal of teething, and his strength gave way. 
 What should we do? Secunderabad was 
 eighty miles away and to bury our treasure in 
 our own station, no hand but the natives 
 could assist us in the last hour, and a plain 
 box must answer for a coffin. So we deter- 
 mined to go into the city. We were four 
 miles from the railroad. In our tears we 
 prepared for the trip. He died at half -past 
 eight and the train passed the station at half- 
 past eleven. I then took all that was mortal 
 of our beloved, and in my arms carried him 
 to the station, and all night long we watched 
 by him as he lay on the seat in the car, until 
 we arrived in the city next morning. The 
 darkness of that night, in a lonely heathen 
 land with none to comfort or sympathize, 
 save the God who had afflicted us, none may 
 ever know, save those who have passed 
 through the same firey trial. May all our 
 friends be ever saved from such a trial. With 
 the help of friends we laid the little body to 
 rest in the cemetery just west of that great 
 city, Hyderabad. There, almost beneath the 
 shadows of three score Mohammedan mosques, 
 the body of our dear little Ola awaits the 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 133 
 
 coming of the Savior and a glorious resur- 
 rection. 
 
 Mrs. Johnson was soon taken with fever, 
 and our touring was still delayed. During all 
 this time the work around Hanamakonda 
 was carried on as vigorously as possible, and 
 several were believing. Fifteen were baptized 
 before we started on tour. By and by, all 
 was ready and, with our native helpers, we 
 started out on our Gospel tour. Our first 
 trip was to a town thirty miles from our 
 station. Here we remained only a short 
 while and preached the Gospel; but success 
 attended our efforts and we baptized five of 
 the leading men, who boldly came out on the 
 Lord's side. 
 
 We then returned home and prepared for a 
 more extensive work. Moncota, a very 
 important part of our field, eighty miles away 
 to the southeast, was hitherto unworked, and 
 we resolved to go there. Tent, table, cot 
 and camp chairs and all our dishes and cook- 
 ing vessels gathered up, put in carts, our 
 house and compound left in charge of one of 
 the preachers who remained to care for the 
 church in the station, we were off on our way 
 
134 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 to parts where, by many, the Gospel had 
 never been heard. We arrived in Moncota on 
 the seventh of September, and pitched our 
 tent in a large mango grove. It was in the 
 midst of the tiger reservation where the 
 Nizam had for years been accustomed to 
 pitch his tent on occasions of his annual 
 '' chicari,'^ or hunt. From our tent we went 
 out for several days and preached first in the 
 town nearest by us. Then we began to go 
 out to neighboring villages all around us, and 
 so preached the word of God through all the 
 country round about. Everywhere the 
 people listened with respect and in some 
 places with great curiosity. Sometimes fear 
 would keep many away. In Moncota, our 
 message was received with great earnestness, 
 and after several days of preaching and 
 prayer with them, seven of the leading men 
 of the Madaga caste professed faith in Christ. 
 The next morning they were received and 
 baptized. 
 
 One of them was a spotted leper. By 
 covering our hands with carbolic soap, we 
 baptized him without fear of contagion. The 
 country is full of leprosy, and there seems 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 135 
 
 to be no law to prohibit lepers from mixing 
 in society with other people. Everyone takes 
 his chances, but many believe that not half 
 of the leprosy is contagious. In fact, lep- 
 rous parents have been known to raise 
 perfectly healthy children. There is one kind 
 which is certainly contagious, however, that 
 where the flesh is decayed, and we have often 
 seen them with their fingers and toes entirely 
 gone ; poor helpless beggars. It seemed that 
 at the time those seven men were baptized 
 almost the whole village would become 
 Christians. The interest seemed so deep. 
 But the devil was at work. The morning of 
 the baptizing we induced the converts to have 
 their long hair cut off. It was dirty, as usual, 
 and their appearance would be greatly im- 
 proved by its removal. Besides, the Hindus 
 often wear a long tuft of hair called "juttu," 
 on the back of their heads. It is believed by 
 many to be a sign of heathen worship. This, 
 as is required by the missionaries, must be 
 removed on becoming Christians. The men 
 willingly consented to have their hair trimmed 
 nicely ; but when they returned to their village 
 the Mohammedans started the alarm that the 
 
136 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 missionary had come as a secret agent to 
 capture all the people, men and women, cut 
 off their hair and ship it away as an article of 
 merchandise. This report created a general 
 panic among the women especially ; for they 
 prize their hair very highly. It would be an 
 awful disgrace for a Hindu woman to have 
 her hair cut closely. The next morning early 
 when we entered the village, not a dozen 
 would come to meet us. We could see men, 
 women and children, when we approached, 
 skipping around the house corners and peep- 
 ing back after us. As we came nearer they 
 continued to retreat to other houses more 
 remote and watched us from the corners. 
 But soon those we had baptized came out with 
 sorrowful faces, and told us the story of their 
 trouble. We could then do but little more 
 with the heathen there. The Mohammedans 
 continued their falsehoods and threats until 
 the poor people were afraid to see us. We 
 induced them before we left, however, to send 
 one of their leading men to our headquarters 
 and find out all about us from the people 
 where we lived. He returned with a favorable 
 report which gave the lie to all the Moham- 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 137 
 
 medans had told them, and henceforth the 
 people were a little more friendly disposed; 
 but could not, while we remained, get entirely 
 over their fright. 
 
 We very much enjoyed camp life at first ; 
 but finally the jackals began every night to set 
 up their yelling immediately around our tent, 
 and our sleep was continually broken. Then 
 came the monkeys by the hundred. They 
 literally filled the trees all around us and 
 chattered until often we could not have heard 
 thunder. Then the rain began to pour down 
 upon us. The time for the rains to cease had 
 long since passed; uneltpectedly, however, 
 they came. For four days and nights, almost 
 incessantly, the rain poured down upon us. 
 At last, when we were all in danger of dying 
 in the damp tent, we pulled up in the rain 
 and left for a station forty miles up the rail- 
 road, where we could get on higher ground 
 and find a house to shelter us. We had no 
 more than reached this station when one after 
 another of our native preachers began falling 
 sick with the malarial fever and chills. For 
 some days we did nothing but doctor the sick. 
 In the meantime the rain had ceased, and we 
 
138 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 began to hope. We removed to a station still 
 nearer home. We sent one of our best 
 preachers, A. Rungiah, to Secunderabad city 
 for some supplies. While there he fell sick 
 with a severe fever and could not get home. 
 At one time all our native preachers and 
 servants were down except one, and he was 
 hardly able to walk about. Last of all, Mrs. 
 Johnson took the fever, and I alone, through 
 the mercy of God, was left to wait on the 
 sick. But I cou4d not risk myself to doctor 
 her, besides I myself might take the same 
 fever at anytime. So we got on the train and 
 went into the city where the services of a 
 physician could be had. Mrs. Johnson was 
 then almost past standing alone. We went to 
 a boarding house, and at once sent for an 
 English physician. After caring for Mrs. 
 Johnson, my next duty was to hunt up my 
 poor native preacher, who was lying near 
 death's door. I found him praying. He said 
 he had given up to die, if it were God's will, 
 but he said he almost knew I would come to 
 his relief that day ; for he had prayed con- 
 stantly for four days and nights for God to 
 send me to him, and if I did not come that 
 
ATHMAKUR RUNGIAH, 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 139 
 
 day, he felt that he must die, for he was only 
 growing worse. He did not know, however, 
 that I was within eighty miles of him, or that I 
 had any intention of coming to the city. 
 When I entered the little veranda, on which 
 he was lying, and spoke to him, without 
 turning his head, though so weak, he lifted 
 his hands toward heaven and said: '^O, God, 
 I bless thee that thou hast answered my 
 prayer." Then he looked me in the face, as 
 he took my hand, and such expressions of 
 gratitude I never saw, as then lit up his poor 
 face. He said he knew then that he was 
 saved. I hurried off immediately for a good 
 doctor. No one had ever called a doctor or 
 given him scarcely a bite to eat. The doctor 
 came, gave him some good medicines, and 
 left directions about his food. I then hired 
 some natives to wait on him, give his 
 medicine, and prepare and give him the proper 
 kind of food. In a few days I was greatly 
 surprised to see him able to walk, and he was 
 among the happiest men on earth. The 
 native treatment of diseases deserves special 
 mention; not, however, that the medical 
 fraternity of America might gain thereby 
 
140 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 much valuable information, but more fully 
 to show another heathen extreme. India 
 boasts very loudly of her former knowledge 
 and claims especially to have led the world in 
 the medical science. She says : "The Occident 
 sat at her feet and learned of her the 
 knowledge of medicine." But if she ever 
 had cause to boast, she now has abundant 
 reason to cover her face in shame. There are 
 many native so-called doctors, and their 
 medicines and methods of treatment are as 
 different as the doctors themselves. Many of 
 them make fluids of certain herbs and may 
 occasionally give that which is needed to cure 
 the disease. But they have no knowledge of 
 physiology or hygiene, and usually are so 
 extreme that they permanently injure or 
 kill more than they cure. For example, they 
 often pour the strongest kinds of fluids in the 
 eyes and ears, in place of the mouth, to cure 
 the colic or other stomach troubles. It seems 
 almost too ridiculous to tell ; but for its truth 
 we have the word of our medical missionaries 
 who have had extensive practice among the 
 people. They often tie the poor sick down 
 on one side, from which position they must 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 141 
 
 not move for long periods. Various other 
 ridiculous performances are ordered. For 
 what reason, I know not, unless to appear to 
 know something and to be officious. Some- 
 times they give nothing but sand, and the 
 ignorant people in their distress take it in 
 perfect faith. Tliere was one instance that 
 was quite familiar to our Madras missionaries, 
 where a woman was actually ordered to, and 
 did, drink three quarts of cow dung, in order 
 to be relieved of a devil that was supposed to 
 possess her ! ! 
 
 When we were on tour, and one of our 
 native helpers had taken the chills and fever, 
 I went out at night to give some medicine 
 before retiring. I saw this man sitting in the 
 midst of the tent in perfect agony, while 
 another was down in front thrusting a pin 
 up under his great toe nail and filling the 
 hole thus made with a virulent poison extracted 
 from some weed. The poor man had been 
 taught, in his heathen state, to believe that a 
 course of such treatment would cure the chills 
 and fever. Medical missionaries are greatly 
 
142 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 needed in India, and they are among the most 
 successful of our workers in leading the 
 people to Christ. 
 
CHAPTER XII. 
 
 The Sad Farewell: HomewaPwD Voyage: 
 
 Stoem at Sea. 
 
 Poor Mrs. Johnson was still suffering. For 
 two weeks she struggled with that dreadful 
 jungle fever before it began to give way. 
 She was not able to gain strength. She 
 remained in the city under the care of the 
 doctor till the last of November. The doctor 
 had repeatedly told us that her recovery in 
 India was doubtful. The annual conference 
 or association of the Deccan missionaries and 
 native churches met in Palmoor, the first of 
 December. By that time Mrs. Johnson had 
 gained sufficient strength to go to the con- 
 ference; as we thought a trip across the 
 country in the open air would help her. The 
 weather was cool enough then to be pleasant. 
 After we arrived in Palmoor she seemed to 
 grow no better. Mr. Maplesden then came 
 sorrowfully to me and said that the doctor in 
 Secunderabad had told him immediately 
 before leaving the city that his final conclu- 
 
144 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 sion was that Mrs. Johnson's recovery in 
 India was impossible, and begged him to urge 
 us to leave the country at once. The whole 
 conference of missionaries said we had better 
 go without delay. Then came a burden that 
 was equalled by only one other in life. We 
 must say good bye to our work — which had 
 been only fairly begun. We must say fare- 
 well to our loved native people, which in 
 truth was a far greater trial than leaving our 
 friends in the homeland. Our friends at 
 home could well get along without us ; but in 
 India they needed us and we were bound to 
 them, and to our work, by the strongest ties. 
 How could we break them? How could we 
 leave the land which had entombed our loved 
 one? But the Lord had called on us to do so. 
 Just as the sun went down, we all gathered in 
 the yard under a mango tree. I then 
 announced to my dear preachers the unani- 
 mous decision of the conference, and of us 
 all, that we must leave at once for America. 
 Sad tears and mutual expressions of love from 
 us all showed ties that were hard to be 
 broken. But we must submit to our father's 
 will; though we can't always see why he 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 145 
 
 demands of us so much. Though we can't 
 understand his ways, we must leave it all to 
 Him and, trusting, obey his voice. 
 
 With aching hearts we took our farewell 
 and turned our faces toward Bombay. But 
 Rungiah, who was so sick in the city, would 
 not leave us. In his devotion he wanted, 
 even, to follow us to America and declared 
 he would live and die with me. I must 
 confess that I have never met but few men on 
 earth that I loved so well. He is such a 
 devoted, sincere Christian, so humble, so 
 Christ-like, that to know him is to love him. 
 He is also an able man; he can read, write 
 and speak fluently, four different languages : 
 Telugu, Tamil, Hindustani and English. He 
 was permitted to go with us to Bombay and 
 stay to see us on the steamer. We then 
 pointed him to his lost countrymen, whom 
 he was so useful in leading to Christ, and as 
 we bade him good-bye, assured him of our 
 prayers and constant love. His picture shows 
 the manly features of one of the noblest of 
 the Telugus. 
 
 Henry, also, who lost his little boy the 
 summer before, was Rungiah's equal in most 
 
146 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 respects, and we shall always thank God for 
 those two devoted servants of the Lord. 
 
 December the 17th, 1892, on board the 
 steamer ''Ganges" of the Peninsular and 
 Oriental line, we looked for the last time upon 
 the coral strands of that spiritually dark land, 
 and the Arabian Sea lay out before us. To 
 cheer our hearts in the sad hour, we tried to 
 turn our thoughts to the homeland and loved 
 ones far beneath the setting sun. We started 
 out writing poetry, but returning now, it had 
 all fled from us. In our cheerlessness we 
 said: 
 
 "0, that a song would sing itself to me!" 
 We felt so sad and disappointed. 
 
 In our homeward voyage, we encountered 
 a fearful storm. For two days and nights 
 the fury of the winds hung over us, and 
 threatened destruction. It was in the Medi- 
 terranean Sea, shortly after leaving the island 
 of Malta we came into the gale which swept 
 down upon us in dreadful power. The sea 
 rolled high, the waves leaped into the sky, 
 broke and fell in the beating winds like sheets 
 of driven rain. Our ship rolled and plunged 
 like a mad beast. We would go to the crest 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 147 
 
 of a great wave like mounting high on a hill 
 top, then as the wave fell another great one 
 was gathering ahead, and when we plunged to 
 the great trough below, a mighty wave rolled 
 over us which for a while altogether buried us 
 under the angry sea. When we came up the 
 heavens were dark with fury above us and the 
 seething ocean prepared again to swallow us 
 into its awful depths. There was no cursing 
 on board that ship, no idle song was heard, 
 no vain word uttered. Children crying, 
 women weeping as they sent up their repeated 
 prayers to the God of the ocean, and strong 
 men who never bowed the knee before were 
 calling on the Almighty God for mercy. 
 
 Yes, men will pray. People, in their 
 fruitless attempts to move about, run their 
 heads against posts and walls; the dishes fly 
 from the table and break in heaps in some 
 corner of the room. So the dreadful tumult 
 
 goes on 
 Wher 
 clear and beautiful, the sea calm, and we 
 wer€ 
 God, 
 
 When, on the third morning the sun rose 
 
 were all saved, devout hearts gave thanks to 
 
 ''Who plants his footsteps in the sea 
 And rides upon the storm." 
 
148 LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 
 
 The trip to England was made at last, and 
 we were snugly quartered in the Shaftsbury 
 Hotel for a few days rest. The cold in 
 England was most severe on us. I had, after 
 going on the ship, given up to the malaria, 
 which had for so many weeks been trying in 
 vain to make me its victim. The Lord had 
 certainly given me strength to withstand it in 
 order that I might care for others ; but now 
 that we were under different circumstances, 
 there was no reason why I should not suffer 
 as others had. I was sick during nearly all 
 the voyage to England and that, added to the 
 storm, made the voyage anything but a 
 pleasant one. 
 
 As we sped over the Atlantic at last our 
 thoughts began to turn more engagingly 
 toward the home land; toward the old home 
 and loved ones. In our travels in other lands 
 we had learned to love our own country, for 
 there is none like her in all the borders of the 
 earth. Dawned our last morning at sea. 
 We were two hundred miles off New York. 
 The ship seemed to plough the Atlantic all 
 too slowly. But finally, 'twas past noon, we 
 gazed steadily toward the west and saw, in 
 
LIFE AMONG THE HINDUS. 149 
 
 the distance, the outlines of our homeland. 
 We thanked God. There came to us as never 
 before, those words : 
 
 My native country, thee, 
 Land of the noble free. 
 
 Thy name I love; 
 I love thy rocks and rills. 
 Thy woods and templed hills; 
 My heart with rapture thrills, 
 
 Like that above. 
 Then, 
 
 " Like the benediction that follows after prayer," 
 
 fell upon our hearts the sweet strains of 
 
 **Home, sweet home!" 
 
 And we were soon there. 
 
 
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 111 Thomson Park Dri/e 
 Cranberry Township PA 16066