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 Page 17.
 
 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 CO 
 
 FAITH AND VICTORY. 
 
 T 
 
 1'ttK LATE MBS. MULLENS, 
 
 OP CALCUTTA. 
 
 PHILADELPHIA: 
 PRESBYTERIAN BOARD OF PUBLICATION, 
 
 1334 CHESTNUT STREET.
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1867, by 
 
 WM. L. HILDEBUKN, TREASURER, 
 
 in trust for the 
 PRESBYTERIAN PUBLICATION COMMITTEE, 
 
 In the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Ewtr Tstric 
 of Pennsylvania. 
 
 WESTCOTT & THOMSON, 
 8tereotmni. Pbitada.
 
 PZ 
 
 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 IT is with no ordinary satisfaction that we give to the 
 American public this unique book, a book which could 
 scarce have been written save by its author. The daugh- 
 ter of one of the noblest of men, the Swiss Missionary 
 Lacroix, she was from childhood intimate with the lan- 
 guage, the habits, the ideas of the people of Bengal. 
 As the wife of the eminent Dr. Mullens of Calcutta, and 
 his enthusiastic colaborer, she made diligent use of her 
 rare opportunities for penetrating the recesses of the 
 Hindoo home, that she might bless the inmates of the 
 Zenana. Hence her ability to lift the veil, and, combin- 
 ing imagination with knowledge and fact, to give us an 
 inside view of a Bengalee home of high rank, and of the 
 bitter conflicts through which its inmates emerge into the 
 light and liberty of Christian life. 
 
 The book was written, primarily, to be read by the~peo- 
 ple of Bengal in their own tongue. To undergo this or- 
 deal it must be true to life. The writer therefore subjected 
 it to the criticism of two Bengalee gentlemen. The 
 reader thus has the satisfaction of knowing that whilst he 
 is profoundly interested he is also instructed. Oriental 
 sketches generally abound in the most gross absurdities. 
 
 3
 
 4 EDITOR'S PREFACE. 
 
 Here we have one that will be recognized as true by the 
 Hindoo reader. If it be open to a criticism, it is that, 
 written thus for Hindoo readers, it touches lightly upon 
 some of the darker features of Hindoo life. 
 
 In the prime of life, and in the midst of uncommon 
 usefulness, whilst her tale of "Faith and Victory" was 
 still incomplete, the hand of the writer was stayed by 
 death. The manuscript was completed by her family 
 from the outline which she left. 
 
 The book having been prepared for the Bengalees con- 
 tained, as originally published, matter less needful for 
 American readers. Some of the chapters on this account 
 have been abridged, and brief explanatory notes have been 
 introduced, where it seemed needful for the information 
 of those not familiar with Indian terms. The illustra- 
 tions also have been added by the American Publishers, 
 there being none in the English edition. 
 
 To the editor, the memory of a week spent under the 
 kindly- roof of Dr. and Mrs. Mullens in Calcutta, and in 
 the midst of the work to which they were devoted, has 
 rendered the revision and publication of this volume a 
 most grateful task. 
 
 JOHN W. DULLES. 
 
 , March, 1867.
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 MM 
 
 The fair on Saugor Island Virtues of the river A mission- 
 ary preaches at the fair Attempt to sacrifice a child 
 The mother and the priest The child saved The mo- 
 ther's fears Gift of a New Testament to her son The 
 family returns home The child's father Presents from 
 Saugor...... 9-28 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 The family after forty years Mohendro and his sons 
 Prosonno an inquirer after truth His views His visit 
 to his friend, Ram Doyal A religious discussion between 
 them Nature an uncertain teacher The soul needs 
 certainty Changes in Brahmism The system compro- 
 mised with idolatry and caste Prosonno accepts a Ben- 
 galee Bible His father burns it His grandmother gives 
 him the Saugor Testament Prosonno's re-marriage 
 The bride The ceremony 29-60 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 A Hindoo house described The members of the family 
 Kaminee and her studies Family jars The worship of 
 Biva described Growth of Prosonno's convictions Con- 
 
 5
 
 6 CONTENTS. 
 
 PAQl 
 
 versation on religion with Karainee Outline of Christi- 
 anity The life of Christ A domestic quarrel Causes 
 of quarrels 61-86 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 Prosonno's disappearance He has become a Christian 
 Schemes to reclaim him Interview with him of his 
 father and brothers The brothers' views Chondro's 
 arguments Prosonno's reply Hindooism and food 
 Hindooism exclusive The brothers depart A message 
 tor Kaminee Her anger The missionary is summoned 
 to the Magistrate's Court The trial The decision In- 
 terview with his mother 87-121 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 Prosonno going to be baptized He is forcibly carried off 
 His bitter thoughts He is tempted by Surjo He is 
 taken to his uncle's house Interview with his mother 
 He is placed in confinement Discussions as to his 
 restoration Temptations put in his way The grief of 
 the family He is treated harshly Secret schemes of 
 Surjo The poisoned sherbet Surjo baffled His charac- 
 ter He is watched by the grandmother Surjo visits 
 the old witch The grandmother also visits her The 
 sleeping draught Prosonno's apparent death Ceremo- 
 nies at the river-side He recovers consciousness, is left 
 alone and escapes 122-172 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Prosonno baptized Answers to questions His student life 
 His troubles about food His yearnings after home 
 He spends an evening with the missionary Social con- 
 versation The training of Native and English girls
 
 CONTENTS. 7 
 
 PAOl 
 
 No caste among Christians Bam Doyal's marriage His 
 choice of a wife Description of the ceremony Mar- 
 riage among the English The wedding feast 173-207 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Surjo mad and confined The grandmother's growing faith 
 Surjo's tragical end After the funeral rites Mohendro 
 goes to Benares His letter to Nobo Quiet life at home 
 Life of a Hindoo widow Nistarinee and Kaminee 
 Their conversation Gopal puts on the Poita 208-228 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The grandmother visits Prosonno Their talk together 
 The "Sea of Love" Her failing health She is nursed 
 by Kaminee Her belief in the gospel She gives Kami- 
 nee her husband's Christian books Kaminee reads the 
 New Testament Her grandmother's last hours Her 
 dying confession Funeral ceremonies after her death : 
 at the pile; at the house; at the river-side Kaminee's 
 perplexities She asks Nobo to explain them Her at- 
 tachment to Shoudaminee Again talks with Nobo 
 Effort to get Hemlota married It fails Nobo resists his 
 convictions He visits Prosonno Kaminee resolves to 
 join her husband 229-264 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Kaminee tells her resolve to Shoudaminee, and invites the 
 latter to accompany her They arrange to escape and 
 ? oin the Christians Letter to Prosonno The scheme 
 succeeds Their residence among the Christians Con- 
 sternation at their departure The Saugor Testament 
 discovered , .. 205-277
 
 8 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PAGB 
 
 Progress of the new converts in knowledge and happiness 
 The Sabbath of their baptism Public worship among 
 Christians They are baptized Christian lessons Nobo 
 pays them a visit His own indecision The happy 
 household What Christianity does for its followers.. 278-288
 
 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 TO the Hindoo, few spots are so sacred as the 
 sterile and dismal islet of Saugor. Here the 
 heaven-descended and divine Ganges meets and 
 mingles its turbid stream with the salt waters of 
 the Bay of Bengal. To bathe in this holy stream, 
 at this spot, has become one of the highest acts 
 of Hindoo piety. 
 
 It was in the depth of the rainy season, in the 
 month of January, many years since, that thou- 
 sands were gathered on Saugor Island. Delicate 
 females and tender babes had been exposed, in 
 open boats, to the damp chills of a season which 
 to them is peculiarly trying. Many had spent 
 their little all, and were now starving. Here was 
 a man dying, unnoticed and alone; while the wild 
 
 vulture was greedily watching the extinction of 
 
 o
 
 10 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 the last spark of life in his feeble frame, to make 
 him the prey of her own hungry brood. There 
 again, was raised a funeral pile, and as the sons 
 set fire to the corpse of her who had given them 
 birth, they rejoiced over her good fortune in dy- 
 ing at that sacred spot on that sacred day. The 
 harsh monotonous sound of the conch-shell, the 
 wailing of the pilgrim women, and the loud din 
 of barbarous music, rent the air. 
 
 The beach was crowded with boats of every 
 shape and form, and the barren sands, which 
 showed one mass of human heads, were covered 
 with long lines of temporary booths. They were 
 erected of the frailest materials, of matting and 
 bamboo, ornamented with flaunting flags of scar- 
 let and gold; but the richness of their contents 
 formed a matter of surprise to the casual specta- 
 tor. Everything was to be procured there, from 
 the most costly Persian satins, to the common 
 smoking pipe of the Bengalee; and everything 
 purchased in those booths was precious, for it was 
 a mela or religious fair that we describe. 
 
 That such festivities should be celebrated on 
 such a spot, amidst the haunts of tigers, may well 
 astonish all but those who are acquainted with
 
 THE ANNUAL FAIR. 11 
 
 the strange vagaries of Hindooism; for excepting 
 on the three days in January when the fair is 
 held, nothing is to be seen the whole year round, 
 but the broad sea in the distance, and the dense 
 jungle above the shore. 
 
 But amid these thousands of devotees, one man 
 was seen from a distant land and of a different 
 race. As he wandered amid the vast crowd, 
 and saw them wholly given to idolatry, the soul 
 of the Christian Missionary was filled with deep- 
 est melancholy. God was dishonored; and as he 
 stood on that secluded islet, a herald of the Most 
 High, he felt the fearful responsibility that was 
 laid on him. He spoke, therefore, as a dying 
 man to dying men; with every word that dropped 
 from his lips, his eyes looked upward for Heaven's 
 blessing; with every tract or book he gave away, 
 he breathed a prayer that God's word might not 
 return unto Him void. He spoke first to one, 
 and then to another, of Jesus' love to perishing 
 sinners ; but in return for his affectionate entreaty, 
 the enraged idolaters refused to listen. They 
 threw dirt and stones in his face; he was beaten 
 and reviled; till at last worn out and dispirited, 
 he closed his book and walked away in silence.
 
 12 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 The heathen riumphed in their victory; they die, 
 not know the mighty weapon which that man of 
 God was wielding against their superstition as he 
 turned away from them and wept. They did not 
 hear him exclaim " Let God arise, let His ene- 
 mies be scattered." They did not hear him wrest- 
 ling with the Father for the fulfilment of His 
 promise to His beloved Son "Ask of me, and I 
 shall give thee the heathen for Thine inheritance, 
 and the uttermost parts of the earth for Thy pos- 
 session." But He that sitteth in the heavens did 
 hear it, and even then He had prepared a blessing 
 which was about to descend on His servant's labor 
 of love, although that faithful servant knew not 
 of it until he had sat down with Abraham and 
 Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of his Master. 
 
 As the missionary walked along, his attention 
 was attracted by an interesting little group, and 
 he could not help following them as they entered 
 the modern temple of Kupil Muni. This was a 
 small quadrangular building, about two hundred 
 yards inshore, contemptible in its outward appear- 
 ance, and very inferior to the original structure, 
 which has long since been washed away by the 
 sea. The little party that now entered consisted
 
 FAMILY OFFERINGS. 13 
 
 of a Brahmin lady and her two sons; one was a 
 beautiful boy, about twelve years old, and the 
 other, an infant of a few months. Two female 
 servants followed, who, as well as the mother, 
 were weeping bitterly. After prostrating them- 
 selves three times in front of the temple, the lady 
 and her children made their way to the Mohonto, 
 or high priest, who was seated a little behind a 
 rnde stone figure of the sage Kupila. As the 
 Brahminee approached the high priest, she pre- 
 sented him with a gold cow, on a beautiful mus- 
 lin handkerchief embroidered with silver; the 
 elder boy in his turn laid at his feet several yards 
 of the finest silk, and then the mother's trembling 
 hand held open that of her babe, while the ava- 
 ricious priest took from the unconscious child the 
 silver bells, which till now had adorned his little 
 feet. This rite, which seemed to afford exquisite 
 delight to the Mohonto, being completed, he dis- 
 missed them with his blessing, and the sorrowful 
 group wended their way with thousands of others 
 to the principal bathing-place, situated at the 
 southern extremity of the fair. Here four priests 
 joined the party. At the sight of them the 
 Brahminee uttered a loud shriek, and fell sense-
 
 14 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 less on the cold ground ; but she was supported by 
 her female attendants, and literally carried to the 
 water's edge. Here a great crowd was assembled. 
 The chief Brahmin then took the lovely infant 
 from the arms of its elder brother, anointed its 
 little body with oil, vermillion, and saffron, dressed 
 it in red and yellow muslin, and then began to 
 utter over its devoted head charms and incanta- 
 tions. 
 
 Our missionary looked on with most painful 
 anxiety. The idea of the horrid crime they were 
 about to perpetrate had just flashed across his 
 mind, and he determined, in God's strength, to 
 prevent the cruel sacrifice, if in any way it lay in 
 his power. He knew that the Governor-General 
 of India, during the previous month of August, 
 had forbidden the drowning of children at Saugor, 
 under the severest penalties. But the law had 
 never yet been enforced, and for him, single- 
 handed, to insist on it, in defiance of the priests 
 and of the crowd who were standing in eager 
 expectation of gloating their eyes on this spectacle, 
 would have been madness itself. He remembered 
 that somewhere in the fair must be the body of 
 armed sepoys which the Government had sent to
 
 THE MOTHER AND THE PRIESTS. 15 
 
 the island for the prevention of this crime. The 
 idea flashed on his mind that they might arrive 
 too late ; that ere he could return, the child might 
 already be in the jaws of some hungry alligator. 
 But these conflicting emotions brought no delay. 
 Trusting in God, and earnestly praying that some- 
 thing might occur to protract the ceremony, the 
 missionary rushed away in search of the men who 
 alone had power to save the child. 
 
 In the meantime, the baby having been pre- 
 pared for the sacrifice, the Brahmin priests tried 
 to rouse the insensible mother. She at length 
 opened her eyes ; but remembering what was going 
 forward, she sank back, exclaiming, " Is there 
 nothing that can save my child?" "No," said 
 the Brahmin who expected the largest fee for per- 
 forming the inhuman rite, " No ; you have vowed 
 to give him up, and your vow must be performed ; 
 yet the gods require a willing sacrifice. - Do you 
 consent? Say so, and let the goddess take her 
 own." " No, no," exclaimed the agonized mother, 
 " I do not consent. If I fail to perform my vow, 
 I can only be accurst ; let then the curse alight ; 
 death is preferable to this !" 
 
 " Yes," said the enraged priest, " the curse shall
 
 16 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 alight indeed, not on you, however, but on that 
 lad there," pointing to her elder boy; "it shall 
 alight on the apple of your eye, on the darling of 
 your heart, to save whose life you made this vow ; 
 and now you dare to retract it ! Woman, know 
 that the goddess Gunga* has cursed you ; that I 
 have cursed you ; and that unless you make the 
 promised sacrifice, you shall return home on the 
 morrow, taking your worthless infant with you, it 
 is true, but leaving the ashes of your noble boy, 
 the stay of your house, smouldering on the funeral 
 pile. Woman, do you still refuse ?" 
 
 But no answer was returned ; agony prevented 
 the utterance of words. 
 
 "Then wave your hand, in token that I may 
 throw your babe into the sea, if you cannot 
 speak," said the impatient Brahmin. 
 
 The desired signal was given, and the people 
 raised a shout of victory. The priest then, tak- 
 ing the child in his arms, repeated the following 
 dedication: "Last year, O great Gunga, the 
 mother of this babe, then unborn, vowed that she 
 would give it to thee if thou wouldst cure her 
 eldest son of the dangerous illness with which he 
 
 * The river Ganges, esteemed a goddess by the Hindoos
 
 THE CHILD SAVED. 17 
 
 was afflicted. This thou didst do, and now she 
 has brought thee her infant. Take it; it is thine." 
 Tne babe was thrown; one little splash was heard; 
 but the next instant the mother had it safe on her 
 bosom once more! Frantic with grief, she had 
 plunged in and rescued it. 
 
 "No, no, Gunga shall not have him," she cried. 
 " I was mad, quite mad, when I made that vow. 
 I thought that my child would have been a 
 daughter. If it had been so, perhaps I could 
 have given it up ; but my boy ! no, never ! I will 
 not, cannot see my baby boy drowned before my 
 eyes." 
 
 Again the Brahmin menaced her more severely 
 than before; again (for superstition was strong 
 within her, as well as maternal love) she was in- 
 duced to yield, when at that critical moment, just 
 as the priest was in the act of throwing the babe 
 for the second time into the sea, his arm was ar- 
 rested by the missionary; while the foremost of 
 the band of sepoys, who had followed him in 
 breathless haste, struck the wretch on the head, 
 for daring to commit the unnatural murder, after 
 he had heard the proclamation forbidding it. The 
 intimidated priest got off as well as he could; the
 
 18 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 crowd fled after him, and soon the missionary, the 
 sepoys, and the now rejoicing family were left 
 alone. The poor mother fell at the feet of the 
 missionary, whose very touch at any other time 
 she would have considered pollution, and almost 
 worshipped him. "Thank you, thank you a 
 thousand times, sir," she exclaimed; "you have 
 delivered my darling; you have made his moth- 
 er's heart rejoice. Oh, how could I have lived 
 without my baby. I can do nothing for you, sir; 
 but the God of the universe will reward you. I 
 will continually pray to our deities to send you 
 their blessing. You shall have seven sons; your 
 riches shall increase ; your honor shall increase ; 
 you shall have an inkstand of gold, and write 
 with a pen of pure silver." 
 
 But at that instant a shade of anxious sadness 
 
 passed over the face of the half rejoicing, half 
 
 trembling woman, while she timidly turned to the 
 
 ^epoys, and said : "I had forgotten the Brahmin's 
 
 ^surse. Must I indeed leave my Mohendro, my 
 
 first-born, here on this barren island, burning on 
 
 his funeral pyre, as the priest predicted? Oh, 
 
 wretched mother that I am, is there no way of 
 
 saving one child without sacrificing the other ?"
 
 THE MOTHER'S FEARS. 19 
 
 The sepoys, themselves Hindoos, were quite 
 moved at her grief-stricken countenance. "No, 
 no," they exclaimed, "Mohendro will not die. 
 You have consented to perform your vow, but we 
 forcibly prevented you. If, then, Gunga be so 
 revengeful, which, indeed, we cannot believe, 
 then her curse will alight on us, not on you or 
 yours." 
 
 A gleam of hope lighted up the bewildered 
 features of the mother, while she said to her fe- 
 male attendants, " Come, Ddsee and Tdra, let us 
 go to our boat, and leave this horrible place at 
 once. The gods grant that I may never see it 
 again." 
 
 " O lady," answered the women, " do not talk 
 so ; it is a holy place ; have not the Shastres * said 
 so ? Retract your saying, lady ; retract it, or our 
 boat will perish in the waters ; the gods will never 
 let us reach home in safety." 
 
 " Well," said the Brahminee, " may they focfc. 
 give me for my hasty language. I meant no ill 
 to them, but no one can tell what I have suffered 
 at this holy place ; and ah, women, if you were 
 shocked at my wishing never to return here, what 
 * Holy Books.
 
 20 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 would you say to a dreadful, dreadful thought 
 which I had concerning our goddess, a thought 
 that would force itself upon me when the Brah- 
 min declared that Gunga would destroy Mohen- 
 dro if I did not give up to her my darling little 
 Rajendro. But I will not pollute your minds 
 with the impiety of that thought. No mortal 
 9ar shall ever hear it, but I will atone for it by 
 fastings, and prayers, and gifts." 
 
 The party took a kindly leave of each other; 
 but as the mother with her children wended her 
 way to the place where they had left their boat, a 
 sudden thought flashed across the mind of the 
 missionary ; it seemed almost to come to him with 
 the force of inspiration. "Stop, Mohendro, stop," 
 said he to the boy, "here is a book for you; will 
 you promise not to destroy it, and to read it when 
 you are able?" The missionary handed to him 
 his own copy of the Bengalee New Testament, 
 jyhich had been printed at Serampore only two 
 years before. 
 
 But the boy shrank from it, as from a polluted 
 thing, and looked to his mother for counsel. 
 "Take it, Mohendro," she said, "take it; will you
 
 THE PLAN OF SALVATION. 21 
 
 offend the Sahib* after he has saved your broth- 
 er's life ? But sir," she exclaimed, turning to the 
 missionary, " I know his father will not let him 
 read any Christian book; however, one thing I 
 can promise, that for your sake it shall never be 
 destroyed." 
 
 "Thanks for that promise at least," said the 
 man of God, " but if you only knew what it con- 
 tained, how you would delight that your children 
 should read it. It tells of a sinless Being, Jesus 
 Christ, who has made atonement for the sins of 
 the whole world by shedding His own precious 
 blood and bearing the penalty of sin, which is 
 death. Oh, if you trusted in Him, and relied on 
 Him alone, for the forgiveness of all your trans- 
 gressions, you would not need to come here to 
 bathe in these waters; they do not purify your 
 soul. Our God is a Sea of Love, and rather than 
 sinful men should perish in the vain endeavor to 
 work out their own salvation, He sent His ownj 
 Son to die for them, the just for the unjust. The 
 God described in this book would never have 
 asked your baby of you, for the whole earth is 
 His, and the fulness thereof. He wants your 
 
 * Sahib, Lord, Gentlemai..
 
 22 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 heart alon 3. If with your whole heart alone you 
 love and trust Him, you are saved eternally." 
 
 These words sounded strangely in the ears of 
 the Brahmin woman, and were strongly impressed 
 on her memory. Though so ignorant of anything 
 beyond her own system of crueltv and super- 
 stition that they failed to convey any meaning to 
 her mind, yet she thought over them, repeated 
 them to herself, and seemed perplexed, till at last, 
 turning suddenly to the missionary, she hastily 
 bade him good-bye, saying, "Oh, sir, I should 
 not be listening to such words as yours. What 
 would Mohendro's father* say if he knew that I 
 had been giving ear to them even for a single 
 moment?" And the woman went on her way. 
 
 What good had been done? A little precious 
 seed sown, and one copy of the sacred Scriptures 
 bestowed on individuals who would not even 
 promise to peruse its life-giving truths; a copy 
 of the sacred Scriptures bestowed, merely to be- 
 come a part of household rubbish, to be disi'e- 
 garded and condemned ! But the missionary re- 
 turned to his boat, with a heart filled with grati- 
 
 * A Hindoo woman d>es not speak the na'ne of her hus- 
 band.
 
 RETURN OF THE FAMILY. 23 
 
 fcude to God, for ha% ing enabled him to be the 
 means of introducing into the family of a Hindoo 
 priest even a single copy of the word that maketh 
 wise unto salvation. 
 
 The mother with her children went on their 
 way in their boat, ascending the river towards 
 their home, which they reached, after journeying 
 five days. The Brahminee looked forward to 
 meeting her lord with a strange mixture of joy 
 and fear. At one time she trembled lest he 
 should spurn her from his presence, as an impi- 
 ous, or at best a weak-minded creature, lacking 
 courage to perform a solemn vow, which yet she 
 had had the hardihood to make. At another 
 time, she would fain believe that his better nature 
 would prevail; that his paternal feelings would 
 come to her aid, and that she would be freely 
 forgiven. With an anxious heart, therefore, she 
 entered the house, having taken care to conceal 
 her sleeping child in the folds of her muslin 
 drapery, in order that she might judge how and 
 at what time it might be best to reveal to her 
 husband-lord the secret, that he was the father of 
 a living babe still. But the precaution was 
 unnecessary. The old Brahmin was engaged in
 
 24 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 performing his noon-devotions, during which time 
 his wife and servants well knew he never suffered 
 them to interrupt him. He had finished the Siva 
 worship, and had just begun his auhik or invo- 
 cation of household gods, when he overheard 
 Mohendro telling an old nurse of the wonderful 
 things he had seen at the Saugor fair. The aus- 
 tere priest was a man after all, and it was there- 
 fore not surprising that he hurried through the 
 concluding prayers and went hastily into his wife's 
 apartment to learn the actual fate of their darling. 
 His wife met him with a calm, almost smiling 
 face, which evidently puzzled him. 
 
 "And so," he exclaimed, "Gunga has taken 
 our babe! O Mohendro's mother, how can you 
 stand there and look so calm after having com- 
 mitted your child to the deep ! Well, the gods 
 be praised for so supporting you. They have not 
 been equally gracious to me. Miserable, very 
 miserable have I been for the last ten days. Do 
 you know that twice I sent messengers after you 
 with a bag of five thousand rupees ($2.500), to 
 request you to bring back the child and to give 
 away the money instead, that so the goddess 
 might be appeased? But twice I recalled them,
 
 FATHER AND SON. 25 
 
 thinking that our house would be accurst forever 
 if we refused what we had vowed. Yes, it is 
 better as it is. I am glad that you have given 
 him up," exclaimed the weeping Brahmin, "for 
 the wrath of the gods is a fearful thing; but oh ! 
 Mohendro's mother, I cannot love you the more 
 for wearing this calm, nay cheerful countenance; 
 it seems so cold, so unnatural, that I shrink from 
 meeting your gaze. How is it, woman, speak !" 
 
 The moment had arrived when her silence must 
 be broken ; when her secret must be revealed ; and 
 she fell at the feet of her husband, exclaiming, 
 "Oh, if he had been sacrificed, do you think I 
 could have lived to tell the tale? No, no, our 
 baby is not dead, I have brought him back, he 
 sleeps peacefully in his cradle." 
 
 " How !" said the trembling father, " and the 
 curse ! Were you not afraid of the curse ? It 
 will surely alight; O woman, woman! what have 
 you done?" 
 
 "Pause one moment ere you condemn me," 
 urged his wife, and then she related to him all the 
 circumstances connected with the rescue of her 
 darling from a watery grave, save only her con- 
 versation with the missionary; and the father
 
 26 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 listened with a bounding heart and glistening 
 eyes, exclaiming at the end, as he rushed into an 
 adjoining apartment to embrace the little lost one, 
 " Yes, yes, those sepoys were right ; Gunga will 
 not visit us with her vengeance." 
 
 After Mohendro and the father had partaken 
 of their breakfast, a meal which a strict Hindoo 
 never touches until he has performed his noon 
 Poojah* and the worship of his household god, 
 the old man said to his son, "Well, boy, and 
 what have you brought home with you in remem- 
 brance of Gunga Saugor ?" Mohendro ran off to 
 his mother, who, although faint and tired, had 
 waited to begin her breakfast until her husband 
 had finished. She was just going to sit down to it 
 when her son exclaimed, " Oh ! mother, let me 
 have all the things we brought from Gunga Sau- 
 gor ; father wishes to see them." The mother, 
 forgetting the New Testament, threw her keys to 
 Mohendro, saying, "Open the green trunk we 
 took with us, and you will find all ; only do not 
 call me away to assist you while I am getting my 
 breakfast ; I am hungry, and if I once leave my 
 
 * Poojah, worshi} .
 
 PRESENT FROM SAUGOR. 27 
 
 food you know it would be unclean, and contrary 
 to the Shastres to return to it." 
 
 The Brahminee had carefully avoided telling 
 her husband about her conversation with the 
 missionary and the possession of the New Testa- 
 ment, knowing how displeased he would be with 
 her for listening to words spoken against their 
 own ancient religion, and more especially for pol- 
 luting her hands with the touch of a Christian 
 book. Mohendro, however, now ran to him with 
 the Testament among his other treasures. 
 
 " Here, father," he said, u- is a little vessel full 
 of water taken from the junction of the Ganges 
 and the sea ; mother says if we preserve it care- 
 fully it will bring us many blessings. And here 
 are some Be*! leaves and Hibiscus flowers which I 
 took out of the water after they had been offered ; 
 and here is a beautiful box which mother bought 
 for her jewels ; and here is a little silk dress for 
 myself, and a muslin one for you." The boy was 
 going to proceed, when the father glancing at the 
 New Testament suddenly stopped him, saying, 
 " And there is another Ramayan* I declare, as if 
 three copies were not sufficient. Mohendro, what 
 
 *Ramayan a favorite poem of the Hindoos.
 
 28 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 made your mother buy that ?" Mohendro at once 
 remembered that his mother wished to conceal the 
 possession of the Testament from his father ; he 
 saw his mistake in bringing it forward, and with 
 all the tact and cunning of a Bengalee boy, 
 brought up without any regard to truth, he im- 
 mediately said, (at the same time taking the book 
 in his own hand to prevent discovery), "Yes, 
 father, it is a Ramayan for uncle ; he gave mother 
 the money for it before she went, saying he would 
 like to possess a copy bought at the Gunga Saugor 
 Mela." 
 
 After saying this, away ran Mohendro with the 
 book, to disclose to his mother his artful stratagem, 
 From her he received his due meed of praise, as 
 she carefully put the precious volume into a safe 
 place of concealment, saying, " Well, come what 
 may, I will keep my promise to that good man ; 
 his book shall not be destroyed." 
 
 The mother and the son little thought that the 
 volume they were preserving with so much care 
 would be the means of producing in their own 
 household the greatest calamity (in their opinion) 
 that ever befell a Hindoo family.
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 MORE than forty years have passod since the 
 events occurred which are related in the pre- 
 ceding chapter. We have now to introduce our 
 readers to the same dwelling indeed, but to scenes, 
 oh! how changed! Mohendro's father, the bi- 
 goted old Brahmin priest, has long since gone to 
 his last account. His wife, more than thirty 
 years his junior, still lives, and, if we except all 
 the privations which, as a widow, she must un- 
 dergo, seems to be spending her declining days in 
 happiness and quiet. The boy Mohendro has, 
 here and there, a white hair on his head; he is 
 now the chief stay of the house, enjoying his an- 
 cestral property, and generously supporting with 
 it a numerous circle of dependent and indigent 
 relatives. Mohendro married in due time, and 
 his wife has given birth to four sons and a daugh- 
 ter. Three of these young men also, in their 
 turn, have already entered the married state; the 
 
 20
 
 30 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 fourth is a lad at college, and the daughter is a 
 beautiful bright little girl, six years of age, the 
 pet of the whole household. 
 
 In character Mohendro very much resembled 
 his father. Like him, he was an austere man, 
 and paid as great regard to the requirements of 
 Hindooism as the old man did. The fondest 
 wish of his heart was to see his sons imitate his 
 example in this one particular at least, veneration 
 for the religion of their fathers. But in this he 
 was doomed to severe disappointment. With the 
 exception of his eldest son, Surjo Kumar, none of 
 the others paid any regard to the subject. Chondro 
 Kumar, the second son, a wild dissipated youth, 
 used openly to deride his father's reverence for 
 stocks and stones; and it had even been asserted, 
 though that might have been only a rumor, that 
 he had so far departed from the strict require- 
 ments of Hindooism, as to eat and drink with 
 other young men of his own lax principles, that 
 which was forbidden by the Shastres. 
 
 Prosonno Kumar, the brother next in age to 
 Chondro, was a very different character. Any 
 stranger might have marked, in his finely-chis- 
 elled, pale, and melancholy face, the incipient
 
 MOHENDRO'S SONS. 31 
 
 consumption that was preying on his vitals ; but 
 it did not seem to have struck him, or any of 
 his family, that he might not be long for this 
 world. Of a highly intellectual and reflective 
 cast of mind, Prosonno Kumar was deeply soli- 
 citous on all subjects connected with religion. 
 He had examined the system of Hindooism, as it 
 was practiced by his father and other Brahmins 
 of the old school, and had long since rejected it 
 as being a monstrous mixture of puerile absurd- 
 ities, gross impurity, and falsehood. Modern 
 Brahmism, as inculcated by the teachers of the 
 Br&hmo Samaj,* proved a far more powerful 
 enemy to his search after truth ; he was fascinated 
 by its plausible reasonings and curious specula- 
 tions; it opened to him, a wide field for philoso- 
 phical research; he was pleased with its brief code 
 of morals and the spirituality of its worship, till, . 
 glad in any way to escape from Purdnic Hindoo- 
 ism, he had eagerly professed himself a Brahmist, 
 and commenced, in all sincerity of purpose, to 
 
 * A society of Hindoo deistic reformers. Brahmism, their 
 deistic faith, must not be confounded with Brahminism, the 
 system of the idolatrous Brahmins. The Brahmists take their 
 title from Brahm, the Supreme Being.
 
 32 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 endeavor, by prayer, study, and meditation, to 
 obtain that knowledge of the Supreme Being, 
 which, according to the Brahmist school, is the 
 only needful way of salvation. Still he seemed 
 restless and unhappy. 
 
 Things were in this state when, one fine even- 
 ing in June, Prosonno called to his youngest and 
 favorite brother to accompany him in a walk. 
 "Are you going to the Samaj, brother?" asked 
 Nobo Kumar, the youngest of the four brothers, 
 when they had got outside the house. 
 
 "No, Nobo," replied Prosonno, "I am going 
 to do something which our family would disap- 
 prove of, and therefore I' did not mention it in 
 their presence ; but I think I may trust you with 
 my secret, may I not?" 
 
 "Oh, yes, brother, that you may," replied the 
 lad ; " I will never betray you ; do I not love you 
 better than all the world beside?" 
 
 "Well, then," said Prosonno, "I am going to 
 meet the Christian Ram Doyal, with whom we 
 became acquainted the other day, and discuss re- 
 ligious questions with him. The Bible is to be 
 his standard. I am going armed at all points to 
 fight for Brahmism; and Heaven grant that our
 
 PROSONNO AND HIS VIEWS. 38 
 
 religion may stand the test of truth. But some- 
 how, Nobo, I am disappointed in it. It has not 
 imparted to me the happiness I sought." 
 
 "Oh, brother!" said the lad, "that is because 
 you have not yet been able wholly to fulfil all the 
 requirements of Brahmism. Our cousin told me 
 some time since that we ought not to expect rest 
 or peace until we can, with a clear conscience, 
 take our rules of faith in our hands, and say, all 
 this I have kept." 
 
 "And can he say that, Nobo?" asked Prosonno. 
 
 "Yes," replied Nobo; "he says he can." 
 
 "Alas! then," said his brother, "our views of 
 the requirements of our religion differ most 
 widely. Is not forgiveness constantly inculcated 
 and extolled? Is it not said to be 'the highest 
 wealth, the excellence of the weak, the ornament 
 of the strong?' And yet, did we not hear, the 
 other day, of a most shameful quarrel between 
 our cousin and his father-in-law? How did he 
 reconcile that with his conscience? No, no, 
 Nobo; it is more difficult than he thinks for us to 
 fulfil a pure moral law ; that is the very thing 
 that discourages me. I find myself every hour
 
 34 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 falling into sin. But here is Rain Doyal; let ua 
 D into the house with him." 
 
 The young men saluted each other courteously, 
 and Nobo reluctantly followed. In his own mind 
 he wished his brother safe at the Bra-hma Samaj ; 
 but he was too sincerely attached to him either to 
 thwart his wishes or betray his purpose. Ram 
 Doyal immediately set two seats for his visitors, 
 and after placing a bright lamp on the table, he 
 brought his Bible, and sat down with them. 
 
 It was such a meeting as the angels love to look 
 upon. Before commencing their deliberations, the 
 Christian asked permission to say a few words of 
 prayer to the God he adored. This request was 
 courteously complied with by his heathen friends. 
 Ram Doyal then stood up, and lifting up his heart 
 to heaven said, "Blessed Fountain of Wisdom, 
 Light, Life, and Happiness, do Thou shine into 
 our hearts. Teach us Thy whole will. Tell us 
 what is acceptable service, and give us grace to 
 follow in the path Thou shalt open up to us, that 
 it may lead us to Life Eternal. This we ask, not 
 in our own name, but in the name of Thy beloved 
 Son, Christ Jesus, who has made atonement for 
 our sins."
 
 A RELIGIOUS DISCUSSION. 35 
 
 Whether the heathen young men at that time 
 entered into the spirit of this prayer, we cannot 
 tell, but in after years, Prosonno often said, that 
 he never forgot it. The words so exactly expressed 
 his own spiritual want, that afterwards, before 
 opening the Bible, or any book on the subject of 
 religion, he used involuntarily to employ the 
 language of his Christian friend's supplication, 
 " Blessed Fountain of Wisdom, Light, Life, and 
 Happiness, shine into my heart." 
 
 On the present occasion he commenced the con- 
 versation by saying : " Well, Ram Doyal, you 
 have been a Brahmist yourself but gave up your 
 membership ; will you kindly mention a few of 
 your reasons for abandoning that religion, and 
 afterwards tell us your reasons for embracing 
 Christianity?" 
 
 "The first and chief cause of my becoming dis- 
 satisfied with Brahmism," replied Ram Doyal, 
 " was that in it I found no atonement for sin." 
 
 " But," said Nobo Kumar, " you must not argue 
 as a Christian, Ram Doyal ; you ought to meet 
 us on common ground; we deny altogether the 
 necessity of an atonement, at least such a one as 
 cannot be made by man himself."
 
 86 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 "Well," said Rdra Doyal, "we agree on the 
 character of God, at least in most points. You 
 say He is wisdom, eternity, joy, and goodness 
 personified, the fountain of holiness, the punisher 
 of sin. We say the same. Now in what light 
 do you suppose this pure Being, fountain of holi- 
 ness and truth, regards all our sins and evil deeds ? 
 Do they not deserve His anger ? Ought He not, 
 in accordance with His own character as the pun- 
 isher of sin, to reward us according to our deserts ? 
 Some instances of sin, though only between fel- 
 low-creatures, merit suffering as a penalty ; this 
 few will deny. Now suppose we extend this view 
 to the whole universe, including its glorious Sov- 
 ereign ; we shall then be convinced that His claims 
 on the affections and obedience of His rational 
 creatures are infinitely superior to those of an 
 earthly parent, or benefactor ; that a violation of 
 those claims produces a proportionate criminality ; 
 and that any such violation deserves an adequate 
 punishment ; or requires a full and perfect satis- 
 faction to the honor and justice of the divine 
 government. 
 
 " I do not think either of us will be so unrea- 
 sonable as to deny that we are sinners. Supposing
 
 THE GOVERNMENT OF GOD. 37 
 
 thu to be granted, the case lies thus: are we able 
 to make to God the necessary satisfaction for Hh> 
 broken laws? If not, is there any other Being 
 willing to do so? If there be no such Being, 
 then we must be content to suffer just punishment 
 for our offences." 
 
 " But," said Nobo, " I do not see why it is so 
 impossible for man to make satisfaction for his 
 sins, as you seem to think ; can he not do it by 
 meditating on the divine attributes, by repentance 
 and prayer?" 
 
 "O Nobo," exclaimed Prosonno, "you have 
 overlooked the point of Ram Doyal's argument; 
 man has sinned against his Creator, his preserver, 
 his benefactor, and for such a transgression, an 
 adequate satisfaction is needed; would you say 
 that mere repentance and prayer would constitute 
 such a satisfaction ?" 
 
 " You have quite understood my meaning, Pro- 
 sonno," said Rm Doyal, "and this leads us to 
 another branch of the same argument. Is man 
 able sincerely to repent, that is to say, to forsake 
 sin of his own unaided will ?" 
 
 Prosonno looked doubtful : he had confessed to 
 his brothor, a short time before, that he was un-
 
 38 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 able to get rid of the burden of his own daily 
 and hourly offenses ; and yet he did not like to 
 leave this stronghold of the self-righteous sinner; 
 so he said : " I think we could all forsake sin, 
 Rm Doyal, if we were always careful in striving 
 against it." 
 
 " That, my dear friend, is a complete mistake," 
 continued Rdm Doyal. " Does the history of the 
 world show that? Kingdoms and nations that 
 have not enjoyed the Christian revelation have 
 not worked themselves out of sin, but have sunk 
 into deeper and deeper depths. History seems to 
 deny to man the power of self-reformation. 
 
 "In addition, in all cases we find increased 
 confusion and ignorance as to what is right and 
 what is wrong : what class of acts are to be reck- 
 oned virtuous and what vicious. With all the 
 advantages possessed by Bengalee Deists, even 
 your own system has not been sufficiently explicit 
 in its definitions of vice and virtue. I should 
 like to know exactly what they mean by sin; for 
 the Vedas give no moral code; and the few prin- 
 ciples of right and wrong that have been inculca- 
 ted by Ram Mohun Roy and others are very well 
 as far as they go; but whence are they derived?
 
 THE SOUL NEEDS CERTAINTY. 39 
 
 What is their authority ? They are human sys- 
 tems after all, very imperfect, and abound in 
 error." 
 
 "Oh! do not say so," said Prosonno; "the 
 Brahmist takes his moral code from the light of 
 nature; his is the natural Religion that the Crea- 
 tor himself has caused to shine in the heart of 
 every man ; we cannot have a better guide than 
 that which He has given us." 
 
 "I assure you, my dear Prosonno," replied his 
 friend, "that the light of Nature is a very uncer- 
 tain guide. On many points the teaching of its 
 followers has been at variance with the judgment 
 of mankind : on many points they have disagreed 
 among themselves. On the most momentous 
 question of all, the subject of a FUTURE LIFE, 
 the teaching of Nature only conveys to us what is 
 probable, while the mind of man needs what is 
 sure. This uncertainty is seen among the Cal- 
 cutta Brah mists. One of them, you know, has 
 published a book to prove that there is no future 
 state to man after his death. On account of this 
 uncertainty I was exceedingly dissatisfied with 
 Brahmism. 
 
 "Besides, when I came to look at sin, I found
 
 40 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 myself ever asking: 'How shall I escape the pun- 
 ishment it deserves? There is a God, almighty, 
 wise, and just; I have broken His law: how can 
 I be saved? who will satisfy that law for me?' I 
 felt that something more was necessary than any 
 repentance or reformation of my own. They look 
 forward to the future. Who shall wipe away the 
 past? I found the need stated, and the question 
 answered, in the Bible. That book I verily be- 
 lieve to be the WORD OF GOD. I have examined 
 its claims, and studied the evidences of its truth, 
 and having done this, I now accept whatever it 
 declares: and whether my poor reason can fully 
 comprehend its doctrines or not, I implicitly be- 
 lieve them. This word declares, 'Without shed- 
 ding of blood there is no remission of sin.' Christ 
 Jesus is the * propitiation for our sins.' For ' if 
 when we were enemies we were reconciled to God 
 by the death of His Son, much more being recon- 
 ciled we shall be saved by His life.' With these 
 texts before me," continued Rdm Doyal, "you 
 see I can do nothing but totally and entirely re- 
 ject the system of salvation by works, and cling 
 to that which will confer salvation upon me 
 through the merits of another."
 
 TEACHING OF THE BIBLE. 41 
 
 " I see what you mean," said Prosonno, " but 
 while you have been speaking, another thought 
 suggested itself to me ; is it right that we, think- 
 ing, intellectual beings, should allow ourselves to 
 receive any system that contradicts our reason ? 
 
 " However, let us both consider this subject until 
 we meet again, and then we shall be able to dis- 
 cuss it fully. In the meantime, go on with your 
 objections against Brahmism; you must not, how- 
 ever, suppose I have consented to the doctrine of 
 an atonement; I had not thought the conversa- 
 tion would take this turn, and therefore find my- 
 self unprepared to answer you; but I shall do so 
 the next time we meet." 
 
 "And, my dear friend," said Ram Doyal, " I 
 shall pray God, that while you are studying ob- 
 jections against His blessed truth, He may teach 
 you by His own Spirit, that He may make all 
 things clear to you. 
 
 " But to continue," said Ram Doyal ; " I 
 doubted much about Brahmism when I saw the 
 rapid changes it was undergoing, just as our lead- 
 ers dictated. At the outset, while the modern 
 idolatrous legends were rejected, and Natural Re- 
 ligion was sought after, the VEDAS, our most an-
 
 42 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 cient books, were accepted as books of authority, 
 revealed from heaven, and teaching us divine 
 truth. This gave rise, as you know, to contro- 
 versies with the missionaries and others; who, 
 among other arguments, objected to the scientific 
 teaching of our books. No one could defend that 
 teaching even amongst ourselves : it only required 
 to be pointed out to be disavowed. In a few 
 years, therefore, the Vedas were given up by our 
 educated young men : regarded, indeed, as most 
 interesting relics of the notions and practices of 
 our forefathers, but not conveying divine truth 
 from the mouth of Brahmd. 
 
 "All this made me doubt very much. I asked 
 myself, l Who are our leaders and teachers ; where 
 is true wisdom : what is our authority ?' We are 
 being led by changeable and fallible men. Since 
 I left them, another great change has taken place. 
 Not satisfied with the ordinary doctrines of the 
 teaching of Nature, they have recently imported 
 from Europe and America the doctrine of intui- 
 tionalism. The soul wants something fixed, some 
 assurance about forgiveness and the future life ; 
 but these things made me feel more dissatisfied 
 than ever."
 
 BRAHMISM COMPROMISED. 43 
 
 "That was no reason for embracing Christian- 
 ity," said Prosonno. 
 
 "True," replied Rdm Doyal. "I became a 
 Christian because of its truth ; but I was on the 
 way to it, when I found Brahmism could not sat- 
 isfy me. It seemed to me that we were like a 
 company of men in a ship without charts, and 
 with a dark sky overhead. Our pilots differed 
 among themselves, and we were wandering we 
 knew not whither. 
 
 " Besides, I was much struck with the position 
 taken up by the Brahmists in reference to HINDOO 
 CASTE. Its evils are numerous, its demands are 
 unjust ; no other nation in the world is enslaved 
 by it except ourselves : and large numbers of the 
 Brahmists acknowledge it to be an evil thing. 
 Yet I did not find any one ready to adopt plans 
 for getting rid of it. 
 
 " It was the same with IDOLATRY. We were 
 all professing a belief that there is one God. Our 
 gods, then, are not gods ; they have no existence ; 
 their images are images of nothing: and their 
 worship is a lie. It is an insult to that one true 
 God to worship them instead of Him. And yet 
 I siiw the Brahmists doing it every day. I had
 
 44 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 to do it so long as I remained at home. You 
 have to do it, Prosonno ; our friends Kessub and 
 Kasi, and a hundred others, do it, as you know. 
 And so we were all helping to maintain it. We, 
 the educated men of the new generation, who 
 though* ourselves wiser and better than others, 
 were doing our part to uphold idolatry and caste, 
 two of the worst institutions ever maintained in 
 any country of the world. 
 
 "I felt ashamed of myself for doing so. I 
 knew we were afraid of our relatives; we re- 
 spected the opinions and practices of our fathers, 
 but I felt that we ought to respect truth more. 
 We ought to honor God above men, and share in 
 nothing that dishonors Him. I wanted, therefore, 
 to be a MAN in courage and in faithfulness, a fol- 
 lower of truth always, even in peril. 
 
 "Feeling this, I read witii new interest the 
 story of the New Testament, and found there all 
 my desires strengthened and increased by the ex- 
 ample of the early Christians. Gradually I found 
 that in other things Christ, who had put these 
 thoughts in me, satisfied all my wants. I fol- 
 lowed the truth He taught me to love; and so 
 here I am, a CHRISTIAN."
 
 PROSONNO RECEIVES A BIBLE. 4t) 
 
 Prosonno.was deeply impressed with the earn- 
 estness of his friend, whose manly spirit greatly 
 stirred his own. But before the conversation 
 could be carried further, Nobo asked his brother 
 whether he remembered that this evening had 
 been appointed for a visit from his father : n-law. 
 
 " No," said Prosonno, "I have not forgotten it ; 
 but it surely is not late yet. What is the hour, 
 Ram Doyal?" 
 
 Rdm Doyal said it wanted but five minutes to 
 nine o'clock. Hearing this, both the visitors at 
 once rose to take a hasty though kind leave of 
 their entertainer. Before they went, however, 
 Prosonno took Rdm Doyal a little aside, and said, 
 " I wish, R&m Doyal, you would lend me a 
 Bible ; I should like to examine it carefully at 
 home." 
 
 " Is it possible that, in these days of enlighten- 
 ment, you have never read that blessed book?" 
 exclaimed his friend. 
 
 " No," said Prosonno, " I am ashamed to say I 
 have not read it ; at least, not as it ought to be 
 read, though I once did take a peep into the Old 
 Testament history, and was very much interested 
 by it."
 
 46 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 " Will you have an English or Bengalee copy 1" 
 asked Ram Doyal. 
 
 "On the whole, I think I should prefer the 
 Bengalee," replied Prosonno; "ideas sound so 
 much sweeter in one's own language than in a 
 foreign tongue." 
 
 "I quite agree with you," said R&m Doyal, as 
 he handed to Prosonno a Bengalee Bible. " May 
 God grant you wisdom and grace to read it 
 aright." 
 
 As the two brothers walked home, their minds 
 \vere exercised in a very different manner. Pro- 
 souno's was filled with conflicting emotions. 
 "Could Brahmism be untrue? had it really no 
 fixed base to rest on? w r as it so uncertain in its 
 teaching? and were its followers actually the 
 upholders of the gross idolatry around them? 
 Was it a system that could not satisfy the mind 
 respecting that all-important doctrine, the forgive- 
 ness of sins ? The Christian atonement, again ! 
 how strange its teaching, that God had laid upon 
 another, an innocent being, the suffering that sin- 
 ners deserved ! Was it not too wonderful to be 
 true? The Son of Goc" to die for perishing sin-
 
 PROSONNO'S FATHER. 47 
 
 ners ! That indeed would be a love which passes 
 comprehension." 
 
 Such were the musings which occupied Pro- 
 sonno by the way ; and as he thought of these 
 things, he remained silent; for he knew his 
 brother could not have entered into his feelings. 
 Nobo, on the contrary, was full of life and spi- 
 rits, had evidently quite forgotten the conversa- 
 tion, and was amusing himself with their friend's 
 new style of dress. 
 
 When the young men reached home, they found 
 their evening meal waiting for them, and their 
 father, mother, and grandmother engaged in deep 
 consultation, a thing rather unusual in a Hin- 
 doo family. Mohendro was the first to break the 
 silence. "Do you know, Prosonno," he said, 
 " that your father-in-law has been here this eve- 
 ning, and that we have completed the arrange- 
 ments for your re-marriage ? It must take place 
 at the expiration of four days." By this re- 
 marriage is meant the ceremony that consigns the 
 wife to her husband's keeping. A girl generally 
 has been a bride for six or seven years when this 
 takes place, during which time she has resided in 
 the house of her father, having been hitherto but
 
 48 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 a child. Should it so happen that her husband 
 die before her re-marriage is completed, she is still 
 considered a widow, in the fullest sense of the 
 word, undergoes every privation enjoined on the 
 state of widowhood by the Shastres, and can never 
 marry again. 
 
 " But why have you been so long absent to- 
 night ?" continued Mohendro ; " do you know 
 that I am seriously displeased with you? I 
 thought you knew your duty to your father-in-law 
 better than to neglect him in this manner. Pray, 
 where have you been, Prosonno ?" 
 
 " I wanted a book from a friend of mine, and 
 have been to his house to fetch it," replied Pro- 
 sonno. 
 
 "A sufficiently evasive answer, in all conscience," 
 retorted the father. " Now, will you be so good 
 as to tell me who this friend of yours is, and 
 what is the name of the book, and why you were 
 three hours fetching it from, I dare say, (if the 
 truth were known,) the next street." 
 
 Poor Prosonno trembled from head to foot. He 
 could not bear the idea of resigning his Bible, and 
 he did not like to tell a falsehood ; he, therefore, 
 hesitated, trying to concoct an answer which
 
 HIS FATHER'S ANGER. 49 
 
 might be strictly true, and yet not betray his se- 
 cret. This agitation was observed by the father, 
 and, of course, made matters ten times worse. 
 Fortunately, however, as Prosonno thought, his 
 brother came to his aid, saying, "O father, the 
 young man we went to see lives very far from 
 here, so that a great part of the time of our ab- 
 sence was occupied in the walk to and from his 
 house." 
 
 "But who is he?" persisted Mohendro. 
 
 "Oh!" replied Nobo, "he has been brought up 
 a Brahmist, but has lately begun to read the book 
 of the Christians, and seems to like it. Prosonno 
 and myself were showing him the absurd errors 
 contained in the system it teaches, and so the time 
 slipped away without our being aware of it." 
 
 "Well," said Mohendro, appeased by this timely 
 interference of his favorite son, " well, you were 
 better employed than I had feared." 
 
 Notwithstanding this, Prosonno was uncomfort- 
 able and unhappy; he felt that Nobo had con- 
 cealed the great truth, that they had been in the 
 company of a Christian. Somehow he wished 
 his father to know that, and was just going to tell 
 him so, when his brother signed to him to remain
 
 00 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 quiet. He did so; but this partial deception 
 availed them nothing. Mohendro had not for- 
 gotten about the book, having a shrewd suspicion 
 of what it really was; so, after several vain 
 attempts at concealment, the young men were at 
 last compelled to bring forth their hidden treas- 
 ure. Their father, enraged beyond measure, first 
 dashed the book on the ground, and then ordered 
 it into the fire. It was soon consumed to ashes. 
 
 Poor Prosonno! his highly prized volume 
 destroyed ! The pleasure he had anticipated that 
 very night, in the secret perusal of its pages, van- 
 ished like a dream! his anxiety to acquaint him- 
 self with its truths and its philosophy disappointed 
 entirely! and, above all, his hopes of learning 
 more of a Saviour's love blighted in their first 
 buddings ! Altogether, it was more than he could 
 bear, and he burst into tears. This only tended 
 to make Mohendro more angry. He began to 
 fear that the Christian's book had taken a greater 
 hold 1 on his son's affections than he had thought, 
 and he reproached both the young men with 
 every bitter epithet that occurred to his mind, 
 until they were glad to leave their meal untasted 
 and retire to rest.
 
 SYMPATHY OF HIS CSRANDMOTHER. 51 
 
 Prosonno observed that, whilst every member 
 Af his family had expressed the greatest horror at 
 his having brought a Bible into their dwelling, 
 his grandmother alone, from whom he might 
 have expected the strongest opposition, made no 
 remark on the heinousness of his crime, but 
 merely sat looking very sad at his disappoint- 
 ment. As he went out of the room, the aged 
 woman beckoned him aside, and said, with tears 
 in her eyes, "Your father has been very cruel to 
 you, Prosonno; but think no more of your loss, 
 to-morrow I will make amends for it." Pro- 
 sonno thanked his grandmother, to whom he was 
 sincerely attached ; but, as he went up the stairs, 
 he thought to himself, " Poor dear, I suppose she 
 will give me some nice sweetmeats, or cook me a 
 curry with her own hands to-morrow; she little 
 thinks that nothing she can do can compensate 
 for my loss." 
 
 Prosonno did not, indeed, understand all the 
 evidences of Christianity; but he was beginning 
 to feel that he must possess such a religion, or 
 die everlastingly; and this it was that made him 
 prize so highly a volume that was useless, or 
 worse than useless, in the estimation of the other
 
 52 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 inemoers of his family. He had, however, judged 
 wrongly of his grandmother, for on coming out 
 of his room the next morning, she met him with 
 a book carefully concealed in the folds of her 
 dress. She slipped it into his hand, whispering, 
 "Be sure you keep my secret," and then suddenly 
 disappeared. Prosonno returned to his room, 
 astonished; wondering what this book would 
 prove to be, he bolted the door, and began to 
 examine its pages. To his inconceivable delight, 
 he found it was a Bengalee New Testament, not 
 in the white paper, the neat type, and elegant 
 language of his lost treasure, it was true, but still 
 containing the same blessed truth, the love of 
 Christ to perishing sinners. It was the New 
 Testament bestowed on Prosonno's father at Sau- 
 gor Island, more than forty years before. It was 
 the Testament accompanied by the prayers of a 
 man who was now before the throne of God, for 
 " he had labored and had not fainted." What a 
 striking verification of the inspired promise, 
 " Cast thy bread upon the waters, and thou shall 
 find it aftei many days!" 
 
 Prosonno read and pondered, but there were 
 many things that he could not understand. Be-
 
 PROSONNO'S RE-MARRIAGE. 53 
 
 sides, during the three following days, such UDU- 
 sual excitement prevailed in the family, as pre- 
 vented him almost entirely from studying the 
 subject, so that he made little or no progress in 
 religious truth. The whole household, and more 
 particularly the women, were busied in making 
 preparations for the reception of his bride, and 
 great joy was expressed on every hand. Proson- 
 no's mother and grandmother were delighted with 
 the prospect of receiving this new member of 
 their family; why, we can scarcely tell; but it is 
 an acknowledged fact, that Hindoo parents have 
 no greater pleasure than to see their children 
 settled in life. The other two daughters-in-law, 
 Shoudaminee and Nistarinee, who were already 
 inhabitants of their husbands' or rather their 
 father-in-law's house, were delighted because they 
 were to have another companion to assist them 
 to wile away the unemployed hours of the long 
 tedious mornings. Nobo was delighted, because 
 he had heard that the expected sister-in-law was 
 able to read and write, two most unusual accom- 
 plishments among the ladies of their acquaintance: 
 and the usages of Hindooism permitting him, as 
 Prosormo's younger brother, to hold free inter-
 
 54 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 course with his wife, he looked forward with 
 much pleasure to conversing with and instructing 
 her. Surjo Kumar and Chondro Kumar, on the 
 contrary, being Prosonno's elder brothers, were 
 strictly prohibited from ever speaking to or even 
 looking on the face of his bride. Nevertheless, 
 they gladly took part in the family rejoicings. 
 Their father was delighted because his daughter- 
 in-law was a strict Hindoo, and report said she 
 passed much of her time in reading the Ramayau 
 and Mohabharat; this, he thought, might exert a 
 beneficial influence on his son. 
 
 Prosonno was perhaps the only member of the 
 family who was wholly unconcerned. His bride 
 had been entirely his parent's choice, and though, 
 after the marriage ceremony had been performed, 
 he had occasionally seen and admired her, yet 
 they were both perfect strangers to each other's 
 thoughts and feelings; nor did Prosonno expect 
 to find in her that sympathy of heart and 
 mind which in other countries forms the bond of 
 union between husband and wife. His wife he 
 knew to be entirely uneducated, a being shut up 
 within the walls of her father's Zenana*, totally 
 
 * Zenana, the apartments of the women.
 
 THE BRIDE. 55 
 
 unacquainted with everything beyond her own 
 narrow sphere, unlearned in the principlas of 
 geography and history ! What could a spirit like 
 hers have in common with his own? Poor Pro- 
 sonno ! At first these reflections made him very 
 sad, but he banished them from his mind, and 
 with some half hopeless resolves to try and edu- 
 cate his wife, and to make her a fitter companion 
 for himself, he settled down into a state of utter 
 indifference to the approaching ceremony. 
 
 At length the important day arrived, and Pro- 
 gonno repaired to the house of his father-in-law. 
 The women's apartments were evidently filled 
 with visitors, for he could distinctly hear their 
 shouts and merry-makings; but no men had been 
 invited to the ceremony. Soon after his arrival, 
 Prosonno was placed in a room by himself, where 
 he was joined by his bride, KAMINEE, a lovely 
 girl of fourteen. She was tall and graceful, pos- 
 sessing a regular profile, with large, deep black 
 eyes, high forehead, and long silken eyelashes. 
 Her beautiful hair, which in its natural state 
 flowed down almost to her feet, was now neatly 
 braided with sweet scented oil, and ornamented 
 with vermillion. Her expression was soft and
 
 56 LIFE J3Y THE GANGES. 
 
 sweet, and her voice gentleness itself. She was 
 literally covered with jewels. On the same wrist 
 she wore 'three varieties of bracelets; round her 
 neck was a chain of gold and a necklace of pearls; 
 her hair, too, was decorated with a head-dress of 
 gold and precious stones; the nose and ears had 
 ornaments of gold, the latter in the shape of a 
 passion flower, each stamen terminating in a 
 bright gem. A little above the elbow were two 
 curiously wrought armlets of gold ; and on the feet 
 simple ornaments of silver. The Hindoos have 
 a superstition that if they degrade gold so far as 
 to wear it on their feet, they will live to be in 
 need of that precious commodity. 
 
 When Kaminee entered the room, she looked 
 pale and tired, and cast a timid glance at her 
 future lord. No wonder, poor young creature; 
 she had been the day before initiated into one of 
 the most disgusting practices of heathenism, a 
 practice which the heathen themselves blush to 
 speak of, but which is nevertheless carried out at 
 the present day in every Hindoo household, both 
 rich and poor, high and low, on the lay previous 
 to the re-marriage of any of its female members. 
 
 A detail of that ceremony may not be written ;
 
 THE MARRIAGE CEREMONY. 57 
 
 suffice it to say that Kaminee's female lelatives, 
 together with some of their neighbors, had as- 
 sembled themselves within a private court-yard; 
 they had there dug a hole in the ground, placed 
 her in the middle, and each one had besprinkled 
 her and themselves with a mixture of mud and 
 saffron, at the same time giving vent to every 
 variety of coarse, vulgar jest, and improper ex- 
 pression; singing the most degrading songs, and 
 dancing round the bride like insane persons, 
 assisted by women whose very presence ought tc 
 have been considered contamination! But we 
 need go no further. Could there be a more 
 striking proof that the cruel seclusion in which 
 the women of India are compelled to pass their 
 lives, has not contributed to the preservation of 
 that purity of heart and mind which is the only 
 safeguard against sin? 
 
 But to return. When all parties were ready, 
 Prosonno and his wife were informed that the 
 priest who was for a second time to unite them 
 was standing outside the door. He then repeated 
 the following sacred text, presenting at the same 
 time an offering of alloa-rice, flowers, Granges 
 water, and sandal- wood, "O thou glorious Sun,
 
 58 LIFE BY THE GANGES 
 
 God himself, Light of the world, Power of Vish- 
 noo, Lord of the universe, pure spirit, bestower 
 of the ability to labor, thou of the thousand rays, 
 receive our offerings, and be gracious unto us." 
 
 This text Prosonno repeated after him, stand- 
 ing on the inner side of the closed door. He 
 then proceeded with several other texts, the bride 
 and bridegroom, meanwhile, following his di- 
 rections, such as joining hands, touching each 
 other's heads, and the like. The ceremony was 
 concluded by a prayer, which will not bear inser- 
 tion. Could we at that moment have looked 
 into the secret recesses of Prosonno's heart, we 
 should have seen that his growing dislike to 
 Hindooism had settled, owing to the events of 
 that day, into a deep aversion. He felt that a 
 system whose very religion was connected with so 
 much that was impure, could not have emanated 
 from the fountain of holiness, and purity, and 
 truth. 
 
 After the marriage ceremony had been per- 
 formed, great rejoicing took place, and a splendid 
 entertainment, which was prepared by his father- 
 in-kw, was served to the female visitors. The 
 bride and bridegroom then took their leave.
 
 TAKING LEAVE. 
 
 59 
 
 The former was conveyed in a covered palanquin, 
 in which she was quietly placed before the bear- 
 ers were called to lift it ; so that neither they nor 
 any other person might look upon her beauty. 
 She was now going, according to the usages of 
 Hindooism, to be subjected to even closer con- 
 finement than had been her lot under the parental 
 roof.
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 THE house to which our bride had been intro- 
 duced was built in the fashion of most Hin- 
 doo houses. The reader must imagine himself in 
 a fine open court-yard of fifty feet square. He 
 enters from the south, and opposite him is the 
 DALAN or sanctuary for public festivals, such as for 
 the Durga Pooja, the Kali, or the Kartick Pooja. 
 This Dalan is considerably raised from the ground 
 and is reached from the court-yard by a flight 
 of steps. It contains various images, which are 
 covered with dust, and seem quite neglected. On 
 festival days, however, they are cleaned and dec- 
 orated with all kinds of tinsel-ornaments. All 
 around the open court is a narrow covered veran- 
 dah, called ch6k melon, and beyond this is a 
 double row of small rooms. These contain the 
 parlors and drawing-rooms, and also the sleeping 
 apartments for the single men of the family. 
 The whole of this part 01' the house is called 
 
 60
 
 THE FAMILY HOUSE. 61 
 
 sodor ghor, or principal house, and is all that ever 
 meets the eye of a stranger. Beyond the Dalan, 
 to the north of it, there is another court, similar 
 to the one described, containing also verandahs 
 and barrack-like apartments. This is called the 
 Antohpur, or house of the women, and commu- 
 nicates by a private passage with the court of the 
 principal house, that females who cannot appear 
 in that court may still come unobserved for reli- 
 gious purposes to the Dalan. They are by no 
 means allowed to frequent it, even at the time of 
 great poojas, their own Zenana containing the Tha- 
 koor ghor, or room for household gods. This is a 
 constant sanctuary, and is visited daily, but at 
 different hours, by the male and female members 
 of a family, or, at least, by such of them as are 
 in the habit of performing daily worship. The 
 remaining rooms contain the kitchens, dormito- 
 ries, and dining-rooms. The women may meet in 
 these private halls and verandahs, but are never 
 expected to tread the outer court, or the rooms 
 adjoining it. 
 
 Such was the dwelling which acknowledged 
 Mohendro as its proprietor. There were two 
 stories to it, the second story exactly like tho
 
 62 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 ground floor, excepting that the Dalan was undi- 
 vided, its roof constituting the highest roof of 
 the building, and thus imparting an air of gran- 
 deur not possessed by the other parts. If it con- 
 tained many rooms, there were also many inhab- 
 itants to occupy them; for every Hindoo .of pro- 
 perty is bound to afford lodging to, and often to 
 support, a numerous class of relatives. The 
 widows of a family, however distant their rela- 
 tionship, generally claim the support of that 
 member of the family whom they think most ca- 
 pable of affording them aid. 
 
 Mohendro was not one to set aside these an- 
 cient usages. Accordingly, he was generously 
 supporting his mother's sister, and a younger sis- 
 ter of his father's; a widow of a cousin, and the 
 widowed daughter-in-law of his sister; an aunt 
 of his wife's, and the widow of his brother; in 
 addition to his own mother, to whom he paid all 
 the filial duty which her relationship claimed. 
 Mohendro's brother, as a matter of course, with 
 his family, was an inhabitant of the parent-house. 
 Our readers may remember the little infant 
 snatched from an untimely grave. Nearly fifty 
 summers had since then passed over his brow, and
 
 KAMlNEE AND HER STUDIES. 63 
 
 he was still living in the full piide of manhood, 
 with two sons growing up beside him. His wife 
 had died in giving birth to the youngest, and he 
 had not filled her place with another. An or- 
 phan cousin was another inmate of the house. 
 Mohendro treated him with the greatest kindness; 
 and at the time of which we write, he was mak- 
 ing preparations for his wedding, which was to 
 cost an immense sum of money. His own four 
 sons came next; three of these had wives. Surjo 
 Kumar had two children, and Chondro had one; 
 and, finally, there was Mohendro's little girl, 
 Hemlota, his wife, and himself, making in all 
 twenty-four persons. Servants there were be- 
 sides. 
 
 It might have been about three months after 
 Prosonno's marriage, that Shoudaminee, Surjo 
 Kumar's wife, was one day sitting listlessly in the 
 verandah, with her baby, named Gopal, sleeping 
 on the floor beside her, when Kaminee came out 
 of her room, with her Ramayan in her hand, and 
 taking her seat on the floor, with the verandah 
 rails for a back, she began to read aloud, or rather 
 chant, the words of the epic poem, in that peculi- 
 arly slow, monotonous tone, used by Hindoos for
 
 I 
 
 64 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 all poetry. She had no sooner sat down, than 
 Shoudaminee exclaimed : " O Karaiuee, I am re- 
 minded by that book that Gopal's father* desired 
 me to ask you to teach me to perform the worship 
 of Siva. I see you perform it every morning, 
 and he wishes me to do the same." 
 
 "You had better learn to read the texts for 
 yourself, sister; shall I teach you? You will 
 then be able to perform all the kinds of worship 
 enjoined in the Shastres." 
 
 "Oh, dear, no, Kaminee," replied Shoudami- 
 nee, "Gopal's father would be very angry if I 
 learnt to read. How could I attend to the chil- 
 dren; besides, no one in our family ever learnt, 
 and I am not going to be the first to begin. I 
 should certainly expect some dreadful calamity to 
 befall me, if I went contrary to all the usages of 
 my forefathers. 
 
 Kaminee was quite tired of combating this ar- 
 gument, which, in one way or another, she heard 
 every day of her life; so she merely smiled and 
 said, "Well, sister, I suppose I must teach you 
 the texts in the same way that you heard me 
 
 * Her eon's father, her husband, whose name she will not 
 peak.
 
 FAMILY JARS. 65 
 
 teach my parrot this morning. When shall we 
 begin?" 
 
 "Now, if you like," replied Shoudaminee; "I 
 think baby will sleep a long time, and we shall 
 not be disturbed. But stay; let me call Nistari-. 
 nee : she ought to learn the Siva Pooja worship 
 too." 
 
 Chondro's wife was, however, greatly offended 
 with poor Kaminee and declined to come. Mo- 
 hendro had brought the latter home a beautiful 
 dress in the morning, because she had been getting 
 rather melancholy of late, and spoke of wishing to 
 see her own mother once more; and he thought this 
 little attention might please and divert her. But 
 Nistarinee called all her melancholy mere affecta- 
 tion, and because she had not received a dress 
 similar to Kaminee's, she had insinuated that 
 Kaminee was a designing, artful woman, and had 
 also vented her wrath on her father-in-law, as far 
 as she dared, by the sarcastic applitjation of the 
 Bengalee proverb: "In this house, seemingly, it 
 is the child that cries that gets the rice." The 
 quarrel had become high ; and it was only by the 
 authoritative interference of Prosonno's grand- 
 mother, that the disputants were pacified.
 
 00 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 This partial reconciliation had taken place only 
 a couple of hours before. Shoudaminee now 
 called on her sister to become Kaminee's pupil : 
 and, as the reader may naturally suppose, it did 
 .not tend to strengthen their forced union. 
 
 " I think you have all taken leave of your 
 senses," exclaimed Nistarinee; "you too, sister; 
 what do you mean by sitting at the feet of that 
 girl, who came among us only the other day, and 
 has already prejudiced us so much in the opin- 
 ion of our husbands' father, that we must be put 
 oif with fair words while she gets all the presents? 
 Learn the Siva Pooja of her forsooth ! I tell you, 
 sister, we are much better without either her or 
 her instructions. What with her poojas and her 
 reading, she is so conceited that there is no bear- 
 ing with her. But she will learn wisdom in 
 time! Wait till she begins to take her share in 
 the cooking : she will find that a text does not 
 make the best spice for a curry; or, at least, her 
 husband will find it out, if she does not, and then 
 she won't like what will follow! When her 
 children come it will be still worse. I suppose 
 she will be reading a chapter in the Ramayan to
 
 FAMILY JARS 67 
 
 the baby, when it cries for milk, or repeating the 
 name of Siva by way of a lullaby." 
 
 "For shame, Nistarinee," said Shoudaminee; 
 "see, you have made poor Kaminee weep, how 
 can you do so? Besides, what you say is disre- 
 spectful to the gods. You had better go away 
 and hold your peace until you have forgotten this 
 unfortunate cause of quarrel." 
 
 Nistarinee walked into her own room, mutter- 
 ing that if her elder sister, who had always been 
 her friend, was now going to turn against her, she 
 would not stand it; no, she would run away, com- 
 mit suicide, take poison. 
 
 But Shoudaminee knew her better than to be- 
 lieve all this, nor was she going to turn against her. 
 Of a most amiable and imperturbable nature her- 
 self, she always made every allowance for Nistari- 
 nee's impetuous temper, and on this occasion, as 
 on every other, endeavored to restore happiness 
 and peace. 
 
 "Come, Kaminee," she said, wiping away her 
 tears, "you must not mind Nistarinee's hard 
 speeches ; she will be sorry to-morrow ; come, be- 
 gin your . instructions, I am all attention : for I
 
 68 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 reully wish to please G. pal's father by learning to 
 perform that pooja." 
 
 Kaminee was much comforted by her sister's 
 kindness, and readily complied with her request. 
 "Listen, then, sister," she said. 
 
 " In the Siva Pooja, the first thing to be done 
 is this, you take some of the Granges mud into 
 your hand and say this text : This earth I take 
 possession of. Then form the figure of Siva, and 
 placing it upon the upper side of a leaf from the 
 Bel tree, (which tree is his peculiar delight,) re- 
 peat this Holder of tJte Sacred Trident, come into 
 this image, and abide in it while I worship. It 
 then becomes Siva himself. But he will not ac- 
 cept your offerings until you have paid adoration 
 to four other classes of deities; and for this pur- 
 pose you must learn first the montro which begins 
 with Ganesh. It consists of five sacred names, 
 viz., Ganesh, Surjo, Durgd, Vishnoo, and all the 
 goddesses in one. As you repeat each name, a 
 flower must be placed on the image of Siva before 
 you. The nine planets next claim your homage; 
 and as you call on them successively, you offer, as 
 oefore, a flower on Siva's shrine. The worship 
 of the lords of the eight minor points of the com-
 
 THE WORSHIP OF SIVA. 69 
 
 pass comes next in order. In concluding this 
 part of the service, you worship Ononto, the lord 
 of the lower regions, and Sri Krishnoo, the lord 
 of the upper regions, by calling out their names 
 and offering flowers. 
 
 "The Siva Poojah itself may now be com- 
 menced ; it is done in the following manner : 
 You offer a flower on the image, and then, placing 
 it on your own head, you must meditate on these 
 words, which are enjoined by the Shastres, and are 
 called the Dhydn, or Contemplation of Siva. 
 
 " He is the being with three eyes, fair as moun- 
 tains of silver ; the beauteous moon is the ornament 
 of his forehead, and his face is as brilliant gems. 
 A being with four hands, he dispenses favors with 
 one ; drives away fear from the heart of man with 
 another; therefore he is calltd Obhoy (the Fearless.) 
 In the third hand he holds an axe, and tlie fourth 
 rests upon a beautiful deer. Excellent in nature, 
 he is the giver of blessings to his worshippers. He 
 sits upon the water-lily, and all the gods from the 
 four corners of Jieaven fall down to pay him due 
 homage. Tiger skins form his clothing. He is the 
 first existing, the beginning and former of our being.
 
 70 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 having five faces and th. 'ee eyes. He is the lord of 
 tlie world. 
 
 " After you have said these words to yourself, 
 slowly and thoughtfully, take the flowers off your 
 head, arid placing another on the head of Siva, 
 repeat the same words once more, keeping your 
 heart steadily fixed on the object of your worship. 
 
 " This meditation concluded, you have now to 
 entertain our great deity in the same way as we 
 entertain any other distinguished guest. This is 
 done by the performance of seven different acts. 
 The first is Padhao. In order to do this aright, 
 you take a little water in your kosa, (the copper 
 vessel, used only for religious purposes), and offer 
 it to the image, as water to wash his feet. The 
 second act is OrgJio, and corresponds with our 
 setting refreshments before a visitor after we have 
 given him water for his feet. In an offering to 
 Siva, this refreshment must consist of grass, alloa 
 rice, flowers, Ganges water, and sandal- wood. 
 The third is Auchmony. You now offer water to 
 wash the hands in. The fourth act is Gondo- 
 pushpo, or perfuming. In this case the usual of- 
 fering is again sandal-wood. The fifth is DAoop, 
 when you burn incense before the image. The
 
 KAMINEE SUPERSTITIOUS. 71 
 
 sixth act is Dip, or presenting him with a lighted 
 lamp ; and the seventh and last is the Noibedyo, 
 an offering consisting of sweetmeats, alloa rice, 
 fruits, and the like. 
 
 " After this you must worship Siva under his 
 eight different forms. This completed, pronounce 
 the name of Siva ten times, and, prostrating your- 
 self on the ground, offer up this prayer : T/tou 
 art the only self-existing power ; thou hast no equal ; 
 thou alone art my salvation; receive my worship, 
 and bestow favors upon me. 
 
 " The service is now concluded, with the excep- 
 tion of a ceremony which gives great delight to 
 Siva. This consists in making all sorts of noises, 
 such as clapping the hands, slapping the cheeks, 
 knocking both feet together, and at the same time 
 accompanying the noise with Bom, Bom, Maha- 
 deo ; Bom, Bom, over and over again." 
 
 Shoudaminee thought that the worship of Siva 
 was rather difficult, and that it would require 
 many days for her to learn all the texts or mon- 
 tros by heart, especially as they were to be said 
 in Sanskrit, an unknown tongue; but Kaminee 
 cheerfully consented to give her a daily lesson, 
 and so the matter was arranged. At that moment
 
 72 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 Prosonno came out of his room, and beckoned to 
 his wife. "See, sister," she said, "I must go 
 now ; your brother-in-law is calling me to get him 
 his tiffin,"* and with that she went. 
 
 Prosonno had become much more attached to 
 Kaminee than he had expected to be; for she was 
 very sweet-tempered, and, although uneducated, 
 was naturally so intelligent, that a little teaching 
 was sufficient to make her comprehend most of 
 the subjects he wished her to be acquainted with. 
 She, too, loved him much, and looked up to him 
 as a model of perfection. There was one thing, 
 however, that pained Prosonno; his wife was 
 wholly given to idolatry. Possessed of a remark- 
 ably clear judgment, and sound common sense in 
 all the ordinary affairs of life, in the matter of 
 religion she appeared to him perfectly astray. 
 The most horrid dogma, provided it was to be 
 found in the Shastres, never caused her a shudder. 
 The intensely childish ceremony obtained from 
 her no look of contempt. The utter absurdity of 
 many a history professing to be inspired, provoked 
 no smile of unbelief, and the grossest impurity 
 passed with h ?r for sound religious truth. 
 
 * Tiffin-lunch.
 
 HUSBAND AND WIFE. 73 
 
 Prosonno did not know what to think ; for he 
 scarcely understood, at that time that Kaminee's 
 mind was but enveloped in the mist of darkness 
 and ignorance in which Satan loves to keep his 
 votaries ; whilst his own had been gradually en- 
 lightened by the Spirit of all truth ! Prosonno 
 was almost a Christian ! His marriage had been 
 the means of procuring him more liberty than 
 before, and he gladly availed himself of it to pay 
 frequent visits to his Christian friend Rdm Doyal. 
 One by one his objections to Christianity had been 
 removed, while he had become daily more wearied 
 of the cold and formal worship of the Brahma 
 Sabha, its monotonous inculcation of moral prin- 
 ciples, and its constant panegyrics of the works 
 of nature. 
 
 Prosonno had an unprejudiced mind. He was 
 earnestly and sincerely seeking after the truth; 
 therefore arguments such as those presented by 
 his friend, Rdm Doyal, did not fail to produce 
 conviction. Yet it was not that he was merely 
 intellectually convinced; it was that Christ him- 
 self was drawing him with cords of love; it was 
 that Prosonno knew the burden of his own sins 
 and felt the need of a Saviour.
 
 14 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 One of the great fruits of our holy religion is, 
 ihat it makes us deeply solicitous for the spiritual 
 welfare of others, and this was already displayed 
 in the conduct of our young disciple. He was 
 most anxious to win over his wife to the faith of 
 Jesus. To have broached the subject directly 
 would have been only to provoke the most violent 
 opposition, and probably to have deprived him- 
 self of the pleasure and profit of visiting his 
 Christian friend, Ram Doyal; he used, therefore, 
 in speaking to Kaminee, all sorts of indirect 
 means to inculcate the principles of Christianity; 
 but perhaps he had never gone so far as on the 
 present occasion. 
 
 The reader will remember we left Kaminee 
 obeying her husband's call. As she entered the 
 room he hastily closed the New Testament given 
 him by his grandmother, which had been to him 
 of the greatest assistance in his spiritual life- 
 The fifth chapter of Romans was the part he had 
 been studying, and with his heart full of the 
 subject he said to his wife; "Come, Kaminee, sit 
 down, and let us have tiffin together for once; 
 no one will see us, and I am sure you are wiser 
 than to think any harm will come of it. I wish
 
 OUTLINE OF CHRISTIANITY. 75 
 
 to talk with you about a book I have been read- 
 ing." 
 
 Kaininee was always pleased and flattered by 
 her husband treating her as a companion, and 
 took her seat with a smiling face. 
 
 "Do you know, Kamiuee, if there are any re- 
 ligions in the world besides our own?" 
 
 "Yes," replied his wife; "there is Mohamme- 
 danism." 
 
 "So there is," said Prosonno; "but there is yet 
 another; and it is that religion of which I have 
 been reading. It teaches us that all men are sin- 
 ners, Kaminee." 
 
 + " Well," returned his wife, " I think that may 
 be true; for indeed how seldom we see a man or 
 a woman who never commits sin. It is well for 
 us,* that the gods have appointed different works 
 of merit which are not very difficult, and through 
 the performance of which we may get free of sin 
 and ascend into the heaven of Indra." 
 
 " But," said Prosonno, " my book teaches that 
 there are no such things as works of merit." 
 
 "What a strange doctrine," said Kaminee: "no 
 works of merit! Is giving your own property to 
 the poor not a work of merit? Or is feeding
 
 76 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 Brahmins not a work of merit? Or is digging a 
 tank 110 merit? Or is mortifying your flesh not a 
 work of merit?" 
 
 "Xo," said Prosonno: "at least the book says, 
 that as we owe to God the performance of every 
 good action, we only pay our just debts, we only 
 do our duty, when we perform them; and there 
 is no merit in the question at all." 
 
 "Well," replied his wife, "that doctrine cannot 
 be very beneficial, for who would perform good 
 actions when there is no merit to be obtained by 
 them? Besides, how do these strange religionists 
 ever expect to get to heaven ?" 
 
 ."Through the merits of another," said Pro- 
 sonno. 
 
 "Well, I declare," said Kaminee, "I never 
 heard of anything so easy; but amid their calcu- 
 lations they must have forgotten that if all men 
 are sinners then no one man could save the 
 rest," 
 
 "No, dear," continued Prosonno, "that has not 
 been forgotten; for this Saviour is an incarnation 
 of the great God himself, a sinless Being, and 
 therefore he can save the sinner." 
 
 "By that you mean," said Kaminee, "that He
 
 OUTLINE OF CHRISTIANITY. 77 
 
 forgives them; well, if that is all, there is nothing 
 strange in it; do we not expect the same from our 
 deities? But why did God become incarnate? 
 He has nothing to do but speak the word, and 
 immediately the sinner ascends into His glorious 
 heaven. Or, had he, like Vishnoo, special works 
 to accomplish?" 
 
 "You are altogether mistaken, Kaminee," said 
 Prosonno; but then, correcting himself, he added, 
 "at least, according to this book, which teaches 
 that its followers expect to be saved through the 
 merits of the incarnate God." 
 
 " Well, but how can they do good to man ?" 
 asked Kaminee. 
 
 "It is of His own free will," answered hei 
 husband, " accomplished in this way. God took 
 upon Himself human nature, in order that He 
 might be able to suffer the punishment of sin, 
 which is death ; He underwent this punishment, 
 and offered Himself as a sacrifice to atone for the 
 sins of man; and His life being so much more 
 precious than the life of poor worthless men, the 
 single sacrifice of Himself was a sufficient atone- 
 ment for the sins of the whole world." 
 
 " That J can quite understand," said Kaminee,
 
 78 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 "if it were only true; but it cannot be tru 
 How unlike it sounds to all we read of our own 
 gods, the King to die for his subjects! Who 
 ever heard of such condescension ? Am I to un- 
 derstand that we are all to be saved through the 
 merits of this incarnate God ?" 
 
 "The only conditions required, Kaminee," re- 
 plied Prosonno, "are that we acknowledge our 
 need of His help ; that we trust entirely to Him, 
 and that we love Him with all our hearts." 
 
 " And commit as many bad actions as we like?" 
 asked his wife. 
 
 "God is a pure, holy Being," said Prosonno; 
 " what kind of actions, do you think, would please 
 Him?" 
 
 " Pure and holy actions," replied Kaminee. 
 
 " Exactly so," said her husband ; " and the fol- 
 lowers of this book endeavor to lead holy lives in 
 order to please the Being who has done so much 
 for them." 
 
 " But," returned Kaminee, " tell me more about 
 the incarnate Being who did all this." 
 
 ** He became incarnate many, many years ago," 
 said Prosonno, " in a country called Judea. Not,
 
 THE LIFE OF CHRIST. 79 
 
 like Hari* in the form of a boar, a tortoise, or a 
 dwarf, but as a man. He lived among men as a 
 teacher, and went about the country with twelve 
 disciples. Wherever he wandered he taught the 
 people about religion, and healed their sick in a 
 most wonderful manner. By a single word He 
 drove off their diseases ; He even gave blind men 
 their sight, cured lepers whom no doctors can heal, 
 and sometimes actually raised the dead to life. 
 All this He did, not for sport or uselessly, but 
 always for the benefit of those who suffered. But, 
 at last, the wicked priests of the country, who did 
 not like His teaching, accused Him falsely, and 
 got Him crucified.' 
 
 " What a strange story !" said Kaminee ; "and 
 what happened then ?" 
 
 "If He had been only a scholar, or a good 
 man," said Prosonno, " nothing more would have 
 happened ; but He was more than man ; His ac- 
 tions proved it. So His body was buried in a 
 tomb hewed out of a rock, not burnt, like the 
 bodies of Hindoos, and after remaining in this 
 grave for three days, He rose again, and ascended 
 hito heaven." 
 
 * A Hindoo God, Vishnoo.
 
 80 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 " Did any one see Him after He became alive 
 again ?" asked Kami nee. 
 
 " Yes," said Prosonno, " He was seen by many 
 of those who had loved and served Him before 
 He suffered death." 
 
 " Ah, then," exclaimed his wife, " perhaps the 
 whole story was just made up by them as a pretty 
 tale. Come, come, I will hear no more, and you 
 must not look into that book again ; it will only 
 unsettle your mind. Let me read you that chap- 
 ter in the Mohabharat which, you say, always 
 makes you laugh. It will amuse you, and put 
 out of your mind these new doctrines." 
 
 "No, dear," said Prosonno, "I must go out 
 now, having made an arrangement with a friend 
 to meet him at three o clock." 
 
 " Very well," replied his wife, " I am sorry 
 you must go; but just tell me the name of the re- 
 ligion you have been talking about." 
 
 " Never mind the name, dear," said Prosonno ; 
 " but I wish you would ponder its doctrines, and 
 see whether you do not think them right ones." 
 
 He almost feared he had said too much, and 
 thinking that Kaminee might detain him for an 
 explanation of his strange words, he hurried away;
 
 A DOMESTIC QUARREL. 81 
 
 for he would not have lost that visit to Ram 
 Doyal for a great deal. But the whole conversa- 
 tion had made little impression on the mind of 
 Kami nee. Her heart was like the hard and stony 
 wayside from which Satan catches away the seeds 
 of gospel truth before they have had time to sink 
 in and become fruitful. 
 
 Hearing a noise on the other side of the house, 
 away went Kaminee to see what it could mean. 
 She found it proceeded from Nistarinee's room, 
 and went towards it ; but as soon as she perceived 
 that Chondro Kumar was there, she veiled her 
 face, and made a hasty retreat into the adjoining 
 room, where she might hear what was going on 
 without being seen by her husband's brother. 
 Chondro was beating his wife severely, not be- 
 cause he thought her in fault, (for in all countries 
 husbands take the part of their wives when the 
 quarrel has been with a third party), but because 
 she had been the occasion of his mother's finding 
 fault with him. His mother was a quarrelsome, 
 disagreeable woman, selfish in the extreme ; and 
 as soon as Chondro had come in from business, 
 hot and weary, she told him, in the most irrita- 
 ting manner, how his wife had insulted Kaminee.
 
 82 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 and insinuated that if he visited her with no pun- 
 ishment, she would consider him a weak-minded 
 man, entirely under his wife's government. It 
 was not that she cared for one daughter-in-law 
 more than the other ; but it was pure self-interest 
 that dictated this speech. Nistarinee was an or- 
 phan ; whereas Kami nee had an influential father, 
 who, the old woman thought, might perhaps have 
 removed her entirely from under their roof had 
 he heard that she was not comfortable. But his 
 mother's taunt was more than Chondrojsould well 
 bear, and without inquiring, he took off his shoe 
 and began to beat Nistarinee most unmercifully, 
 saying, at the same time, more for his mother's 
 than his wife's benefit, " This will teach you to 
 quarrel with a favorite again. Did you not know 
 that your brother-in-law's wife was too good, and 
 too clever, and too holy, to allow of your being a 
 fit companion for her ? Do you not know that 
 you are not worthy to tread the same ground as 
 she ? You will be pleased in future to keep to 
 yourself, and not to offend the righteous Kaminee 
 with your impertinence." 
 
 Scenes such as these are of frequent occurrence 
 in the bosom of many a Hindoo family. They
 
 A DOMESTIC QUARREL. . 83 
 
 arise fi om various causes. The chief cause must 
 ever be the want of Christianity, that elevator of 
 the affections, that softener of the heart, that re- 
 ligion so eminently the friend of woman. But 
 inferior causes are also at work. Females are 
 kept in such a state of ignorance and degradation 
 that everything that is high and noble in their 
 nature is crushed, almost destroyed ; and therefore 
 it is natural that in the every-day dealings of the 
 family they should display petty jealousies or 
 have recourse to mean methods of obtaining fa- 
 vor. Their total want of education deprives them 
 of the pleasure of reading and writing, not to 
 speak of the more elegant accomplishments with 
 which the ladies of Christian lands may amuse 
 themselves: therefore time hangs heavy on their 
 hands, and they have the leisure afforded them for 
 carrying on at will the most perfect system of do- 
 mestic warfare. The plan of having several 
 branches of the same family to reside together in 
 one house, is also pregnant with causes of discord. 
 But it is a custom handed down by their fore- 
 fathers to the Hindoos, and that alone is, in their 
 minds, sufficient reason for continuing it and 
 transmitting it to their posterity.
 
 84 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 From her place of concealment Kaminee heard 
 all that passed, and really sorry was she to have 
 been the occasion of poor Nistarinee's punishment, 
 particularly since her eldest sister was by no 
 means of a vindictive temper. Accordingly Ka- 
 minee, as soon as she heard Chondro go down 
 stairs, did what very few Bengalee women would 
 have done; she went to Nistarinee, expressed her 
 sorrow for what had passed, and begged that they 
 might be friends again. Gradually the clouds 
 passed from the brow of Nistarinee, and she smil- 
 ingly said : " Well, I think it very foolish to have 
 been so angry all about a dress!" 
 
 It might have seemed strange to some to have 
 looked on those two sisters an hour after, and to 
 have seen them busily engaged at a favorite Ben- 
 galee game, that of Mogul-Pathan. To an Eng- 
 lish mind, the question would at once have oc- 
 curred, " How could Nistarinee so soon have for- 
 gotten her husband's ill-treatment." But such a 
 one, if she lived among Hindoo ladies, would find 
 that scenes like the foregoing happened too fre- 
 quently, and were too common to cause much 
 sensation, or to give rise to those bitter feelings 
 that might otherwise be expected.
 
 THE GAME OF MOGUL-PATHAN. 85 
 
 The game which seemed to ^ive so much de- 
 light to Nistarinee and Kaminee was one of the 
 many ingenious ones in the playing of which the 
 secluded females of India love to pass their lei- 
 sure hours. Mogul-Pathan is a representation of 
 a battle between the Moguls and the Pathans or 
 Affghans. The battle-field is accurately drawn, 
 consisting of sixteen squares; within this figure 
 is inscribed a large square. On one side is ranged 
 the Mogul army in a triangular form, and on the 
 opposite side the Pathan army. Each army con- 
 sists of sixteen pieces, the moves of which are 
 regulated not by chance, but by the skill of the 
 players. 
 
 When the game was finished, Kaminee went 
 into her own room, got her husband's dinner 
 ready, and sat waiting for him, but he did not 
 come, till at last, weary of watching, she retired 
 to rest. But Prosonno did not remain out all 
 night. He came in about eleven o'clock, when 
 his wife immediately got up to light his lamp. 
 She thought he looked anxious and flurried ; and 
 every attention on her part seemed to give him 
 pain ; till at last he said, "Oh! do not give your- 
 self any trouble about me, Kaminee; go to rest,
 
 86 
 
 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 and leave me the lamp. I am going to read for 
 the next two hours." This was his usual prac- 
 tice, so Kaminee thought no more about it, and 
 retired. But she afterwards declared, (whether it 
 was a lovely dream, or her last waking thought, 
 she could not tell), that she saw her husband bend 
 over her that night with looks of the saddest, the 
 intensest love, and heard him say, "God bless 
 you, my precious wife."
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE next morning on awaking, Kaminee found 
 that Prosonno had already left the room. 
 This circumstance, combined with his strange 
 manner on the preceding night, tended to make 
 her very anxious; she, therefore, went in search 
 of his grandmother, in order to impart to her her 
 own fears regarding her favorite, knowing there 
 was no one who was more interested in Prosonno, 
 or who loved him better. The good woman 
 made every possible search; but he certainly was 
 not in the house, and no one had seen him go 
 out; though to be sure, it was quite probable that 
 he was taking an early walk, and had risen before 
 any other members of the family. But the day 
 advanced, and Prosonno did not return. The 
 whole family were now alarmed, and various were 
 the fears suggested to the mind of each one. 
 Mohendro's father's sister, a very decrepit old 
 
 woman, hinted that Prosonno might have been 
 
 87
 
 88 LI-FE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 spirited away, and though this opinion was not 
 generally adopted, yet in the state of their minds 
 at that time, it was sufficient to cause a shudder 
 to come over them. 
 
 Surjo Kumar feared he had been drowned in 
 bathing; but he was too considerate to mention 
 this thought in the presence of his mother, and 
 only spoke of it to Chondro, who did not, how- 
 ever, agree with him. He thought it was more 
 likely that Prosonno had broken a blood-vessel 
 while out walking, as he had done on a former 
 occasion not long ago, and that probably he was 
 lying ill somewhere without the means, perhaps 
 without the strength, to send intelligence to his 
 family. In Kaminee's mind every feeling of 
 fear had been awakened. She had an undefined 
 dread of some fearful impending calamity, and 
 falling at the feet of her mother-in-law, she en- 
 treated her to send messengers in every direction 
 in search of her missing husband. 
 
 "Oh, how willingly would I go and seek him 
 myself?" she exclaimed, "if these bonds of cus- 
 tom did not prevent me. Alas! how irksome 
 they seem now, though I never felt them so 
 before. My honored lord, what should 1 do if
 
 PllOSONNO HAS BECOME A CHRISTIAN. 89 
 
 you never returned. Why did you not take me 
 with you, giver of my life? In your company, 
 I should have wanted no better dwelling than the 
 shade of a tree, and no better food than the wild 
 berries which the bats eat; but without you this 
 beautiful house will be to me more lonely than 
 the barren desert." Sti iking her head on the 
 cold stone, she continued "As the chatokee bird 
 looks for the dew of heaven, and will be satisfied 
 with the water of no earthly spring, so my soul 
 looks to you. You must come back to me, for no 
 inferior joy can yield me any delight. Oh, return, 
 lord of my life, jewel of my existence; return, or 
 I must die!" 
 
 This frantic grief was not all really felt, though, 
 in her case, regret was far more sincere than in 
 hundreds of others; but the words were such as 
 Kaminee was expected to utter on the loss of her 
 husband, and accordingly she did so. Moved by 
 her distress, and, indeed, most anxious themselves, 
 Prosonno's three brothers set off in search of him. 
 They looked far and near, every school and col- 
 lege was examined, all his favorite haunts were 
 explored, but he was nowhere to be found. 
 
 At last Nob* Kumdr thought of R&m Doyal's
 
 90 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 house. They went thither; Prosonno was not 
 there, but Rm Doyal could give them some 
 information about their brother, he was in the 
 house of a Christian missionary, and was de- 
 termined to become a Christian himself. 
 
 No whirlwind ever swept the earth with more 
 unexpected fury; no thunderbolt ever fell with 
 more astounding vehemence than did this intelli- 
 gence on the hearts of Prosonno's brothers. They 
 hastened home to communicate it; but how shall 
 we describe the storm that followed? Mohendro 
 and his wife were, perhaps, the most bitter. 
 "Spirited away, drowned, dying, anything would 
 have been better than this! The honor of our 
 family gone! Our son sold to the stranger! our 
 daughter-in-law made a widow! our caste in 
 danger! the gods dishonored! Oh! what could 
 have drawn down this curse upon our heads?'* 
 Kaminee, too, all her feelings for her husband 
 changed, for the moment, into deadliest hate, 
 abused him as a vile apostate, a heartless wretch, 
 a renegade from the faith of his fathers. 
 
 But the family were not going to sit still and 
 <lo nothing. Prosonno must be reclaimed ere the 
 fatal waters of Cbristiar baptism should be poured
 
 SCHEMES TO RECLAIM PROSONNO. 91 
 
 over his head! For the rest, atonement might 
 be made; the caste he had abjured, in taking the 
 food of an Englishman, might be restored by a 
 feast to the Brahmins. The sin, that it was in 
 his heart to become a Christian, might also be 
 forgiven by large gifts to the same powerful order 
 of priests: but baptized he must not be. He 
 must be brought home, whether by foul means 
 or fair, by force or persuasion, by false promises 
 or threatenings; and if no other means would avail 
 to keep him at home, they would administer to 
 him a noxious drug, which would forever destroy 
 his reason. What of that? Anything was better 
 than being a Christian ; and a son deprived of his 
 reason was, at least, as good as a daughter. 
 Such were the devices with which Satan filled the 
 hearts of Prosonno's relatives; but God,' accord- 
 ing to His gracious promise, permitted no weapon 
 that was formed against him to prosper. 
 
 Mohendro and his sons immediately repaired 
 to the residence of the missionary, where Pro- 
 sonno Kum&r was supposed to be, and rushing 
 into the house, they demanded an instant inter- 
 view with him, at the same time accusing the 
 missionary of having enticed him away by pro-
 
 92 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 raises of a fine house, an English wife, and a 
 beautiful carriage, though they knew he had done 
 nothing of the kind. 
 
 The good missionary bore all their reproaches 
 with perfect calmness, and remembering how 
 much consideration was due to Moheudro's parental 
 feelings, he at once most courteously led the way 
 to the room where Prosonno was sitting. His 
 head was resting on his hand, and his face wore 
 an expression which plainly told how much he 
 dreaded the approaching trial. 
 
 "Prosonno," said his father, thinking it best to 
 try gentle means at the outset, " what has made 
 you leave us in this manner? My boy, you must 
 return with me; your absence has turned our 
 dwelling into a house of mourning ; your mother 
 has neither eaten nor drank since you left, nor 
 will she do so till you return. Your mother will 
 die ; think of that ?" 
 
 "Father, I would willingly go back," said 
 Prosonno, " if it did not involve the sacrifice of 
 my religion." 
 
 " What religion is that?" said Mohendro ; "but 
 I can answer that question for you," he added, 
 becoming very angry. " Your religion consists in
 
 WHAT MADE PROSONNO A CHRISTIAN. 93 
 
 dishonoring your father; in causing your mother 
 to die of grief; in forsaking the wife you promised 
 but the other day to love and to cherish ; -in pre- 
 ferring strangers to your own brethren ; in eating 
 with Domes and Kowras, (the two lowest castes) ; 
 this is the Christian religion ; and in turn for all 
 you forsake, what do you get ? The pleasure of 
 tasting beef! O Prosonno, how could you have 
 fallen so low ? Besides you will not get all they 
 promise; they are great deceivers; you will get 
 no European wife ; the white ladies despise black 
 men !" 
 
 " O father," exclaimed Prosonno, " I thought 
 you knew me better than to believe me the despi- 
 cable wretch you have described. No one has 
 made me the promise you talk of. I want no 
 wife, save my beautiful Kaminee ; and as for caring 
 for the food you mention, I probably shall never 
 taste it. It has been too long an object of abhor- 
 rence for the feeling against it now to be set aside. 
 But O father, things more important far than 
 these have drawn me to the religion of Christ. 
 I have a soul to be saved, sins to be pardoned, 
 eternal joys to obtain ; and Christianity oifers me 
 these privileges without money and without price.
 
 94 ' LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 In embracing the religion of Christ, far from 
 seeking worldly aggrandizement, I know that 1 
 must lose my mother and you, and lose all my 
 share in your property. In the house in which I 
 have hitherto been loved and respected I shall 
 now be regarded in the light of a convicted crim- 
 inal. The lowest menial in your house will think 
 himself degraded in sitting at meat with me. 
 My wife, perhaps, will forsake me. I must leave 
 our comfortable home and its abundance to earn 
 a precarious subsistence ; or, what is worse, until 
 I obtain employment I must be dependent on my 
 Christian friends for the bare necessaries of life; 
 I must " 
 
 " O Prosonno," interrupted his eldest brother, 
 " if you understand so well all the miseries con- 
 nected with embracing this cursed religion, why 
 will you persist in your purpose ? You will soon 
 repent of having forsaken your forefathers' faith. 
 I shudder to think of it. The direst vengeance 
 of our holy gods will fall on your head." 
 
 " Holy gods ! say rather impious fiends," ex- 
 claimed Chondro aside, then continued aloud, 
 " Come, brother Surjo, it is of no use to argue 
 mth Prosonno in that way. English education
 
 CHONDRO'S ARGUMENTS. 95 
 
 has done away with those ideas. Our first lesson 
 in geography, which taught us that the world was 
 round, also taught us that our Shastres were false, 
 for they declare the world to be a huge flat mass, 
 seated on the back of a tortoise I" 
 
 " I hate your English education from the bot- 
 tom of my heart," retorted Surjo. " It is snap- 
 ping the foundations of Hindooism." 
 
 " But it is not establishing the truth of Christ- 
 ianity," continued Chondro. " No, brother, Chris- 
 tianity is no more true than Hindooism. I only 
 wanted you to let me argue with Prosonno in my 
 own way. Pray do not suspect me of having any 
 prejudices in favor of that system, which I heart- 
 ily join with you in terming accursed." 
 
 " Well, well, go on, boy," said his father, " I 
 think so far you are right in standing up in favor 
 of English education. I do not see that it has 
 anything in common with Christianity; besides 
 we cannot get on without it in these days. See 
 how well you, who have received an English edu- 
 cation, have prospered in the world, compared 
 with your poor brother Surjo, who, skilled as he 
 is in the lore of our Shastres, has never attained a 
 higher office than that of a common Purohit,
 
 96 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 (domestic chaplain), with its miserable pittance. 
 It cannot be helped, Surjo," he continued, " it 
 would have been an injustice to the boys not to 
 have had them taught English ; besides, 1 again 
 repeat it, the knowledge of English has not been 
 the means of bringing Prosonno to abjure his 
 father's faith ; no, no, had he never met that ac- 
 cursed R&m Doyal, or this insidious smooth- 
 tongued missionary, my boy would still have been 
 a reverent Hindoo." 
 
 " Avaricious old fool," muttered Surjo, " thus 
 is our holy religion ever sacrificed to the love of 
 gain, and then we deceive ourselves with thinking 
 that it is our misfortune, not our fault, that our 
 sons bring everlasting disgrace on our name by 
 choosing the God of the English." This was 
 said aside, and Chondro, not hearing it, went on 
 to join his father and brother in entreating Pro- 
 sonno to return home with them. 
 
 "Prosonno," he said, "you and I very well 
 know that there is but one God, and that every- 
 thing in nature tells us that His worship is essen- 
 tially spiritual. To Him all nations are alike. 
 He is neither pleased with rites and ceremonies, 
 nor displeased with them. In the formulas of
 
 PROSONNO'S REPLY. 97 
 
 Hindooism, and in the religious services of Chris- 
 tianity, it is the spiritual principle alone, so to 
 speak, which He accepts. In the former case the 
 holy water, the sandal-wood, the rice, go for no- 
 thing ; in the latter the bended knee, the careless 
 hymn, the quantity of words, are equally ineffica- 
 cious ; the heart's adoration alone ascends to the 
 Deity. That adoration you and I can both offer 
 in our private rooms, each in his own way, with- 
 out violating the great law of nature, gratitude 
 to those who gave us being. " Come, come, Pro- 
 sonno," he continued, "you can have nothing to 
 urge against my argument, come home with us." 
 "My dear brother," replied Prosonno, "I wish 
 I could make you understand but half the pain I 
 feel in being obliged to infuse your request. What 
 you have stated to be religion constitutes the creed 
 of the Deist. But I am not such a one ; I am a 
 Christian. I have a direct revelation from God, 
 and in that revelation I find commands such as 
 these : ' Come out from among them and be ye 
 separate, saith the Lord, and touch not the un- 
 clean thing:' and again, 'He that loveth father 
 or mother more than me is not worthy of me:' 
 and again, 'Repent and be baptized.' With such 
 
 7
 
 98 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 words before me what can I say? Must I not 
 hearken to the voice of God rather than to the 
 voice of man ?" 
 
 "But, O boy," exclaimed Mohendro, falling on 
 Prosonno's neck in an agony of tears, " that can- 
 not be the voice of God which tells you to forsake 
 your father; to kill him with sorrow when he is 
 old and gray-headed; to embitter his last days 
 with anguish ?" 
 
 " No, no, father," exclaimed Prosonno ; " I did 
 not say it was Christianity that commands me to 
 forsake you ; but Hindooism will oblige me to do 
 it; oh! if it did not, how happy should I be! 
 Father, father, let me follow the dictates of my 
 own conscience and I will remain with you !" 
 
 "And what are they?" exclaimed Mohendro, 
 eagerly. 
 
 " First, I must publicly receive Christian bap- 
 tism," said Prosonno. 
 
 Mohendro's countenance fell: all hopes of a 
 compromise between Christianity and Hindooism 
 were destroyed. His son went on " Secondly, I 
 can never bow my knee to an idol made with 
 hands. Thirdly, permit me to attend the church 
 of the Christians on Sundays for public worship ;
 
 HINDOOISM AND FOOD. 99 
 
 and lastly, release me from the bonds of caste ; 
 God has made all men of one blood, and who am 
 I that I should place a difference between them ? 
 Allow me then to sit at meat with my Christian 
 brethren, and permit them to visit me in your 
 house, where I too must not refuse them the rites 
 of hospitality." 
 
 At that moment the missionary entered the 
 room : he thought the conference had lasted long 
 enough, and was unwilling that poor Prosonno 
 should be subjected to an unnecessary trial. As 
 he entered he had heard Prosonno's concluding 
 sentence and disapproved of it. 
 
 " My dear boy," he said, " I have no doubt 
 that you mean well, but in your zeal for Christi- 
 anity, you forget that in his own house your 
 father is master, and if he will kindly allow you 
 to remain with him, I do not think you ought to 
 offend his prejudices by stipulating that your 
 Christian friends should eat in his house." 
 
 "O sir!" exclaimed Prosonno, "I shall only 
 be too glad to fall in with the wishes of my 
 father, and return with him, if I am not disobey- 
 ing the command of God. His word, you know
 
 100 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 says, 'Use hospitality one to another without 
 grudging.' " 
 
 " Yes, that is true, my dear Prosonno/' replied 
 the missionary; "but while you are not your 
 own master, I do not see that it quite lies in your 
 power to fulfil the apostle's injunction. Give up 
 that condition, therefore, and so commend the 
 Christian religion in your life and conversation, 
 that in process of time your father shall consider 
 it an honor to receive a Christian into his house." 
 
 "Hear him !" exclaimed Mohendro, " come, 
 come, sir, do not trifle with me. If you still 
 persist in detaining my son, I shall go to law 
 about it, and so recover him. Do you know, sir, 
 that you have wilfully abducted, and are now for- 
 cibly keeping possession of a minor, over whom 
 no one has any control except myself?" 
 
 "O father, father! how can you say that," 
 exclaimed Prosonno, "la minor ! Why, I was 
 sixteen and reached the age of majority according 
 to Hindoo law, two years ago !" 
 
 " Peace, you liar/' retorted Mohendro, " have 
 I not your horoscope,* and will not that prove 
 what I state?" 
 
 * Horoscope; The position of the stars at the time of birth
 
 HINDOOISM EXCLUSIVE. 101 
 
 " My good friend," said the missionary quietly, 
 " when you first came into my house, you observed 
 that for eighteen long years you had fed and sup- 
 ported the boy who was ungrateful to you ? Be- 
 sides, that I have abducted him, or now detain 
 him against his will, you well know to be alto- 
 gether untrue. On the contrary, 1 should be very 
 much pleased were he able to live in your house 
 always, provided he might remain a Christian." 
 
 " Yes, sir," said Prosonno, " I have been tell- 
 ing my father that if he would but allow me 
 \iberty to follow the precepts of my own religion, 
 I would most gladly return home with him, and 
 endeavor in every way to discharge my filial 
 obligations to him and my mother." 
 
 " Baboo," said the missionary, turning to Mo- 
 hendro, " what could be fairer than this ? Do, I 
 beseech you, grant your son's request !" 
 
 " And defile our house, and taint our unsullied 
 reputation, and incur everlasting disgrace !" ex- 
 claimed Surjo angrily. " You know we cannot 
 and will not receive a Christian, and therefore 
 you taunt us ?" 
 
 is always calculated by the Brahmins and is an evidence of 
 age.
 
 102 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 " By no means," replied the missionary ; " God 
 only knows the anguish these scenes occasion me 
 Were I to listen to feeling alone, I should say, 
 ' Take your son, and go in peace ;' but the Master 
 whom I serve tells me that ' every one that hath 
 forsaken houses, or brethren, or sisters, or father 
 or mother, or wife or children, or lands, for His 
 sake, shall receive an hundredfold, and shall in- 
 herit everlasting life.' With this glorious pro- 
 mise set before him, can I do otherwise than urge 
 Prosonno to persevere in the resolution he has 
 adopted, that he may in the end receive what God 
 has promised, a crown of life? No, no, I did 
 not taunt you, but I had heard that your father 
 was deeply attached to Prosonno, and I had fondly 
 hoped that this would have induced him to be 
 the first Hindoo parent who would nobly come 
 forward and say, ' I am not master of my son's 
 conscience and reason, and though he may differ 
 from me as to the way in which God is to be 
 worshipped, that forms no sufficient reason why I 
 should cast him out from house and home.'" 
 
 "How could I ever say that?" exclaimed Mo- 
 hendro. " I should be hooted from society ; no one
 
 HINDOOISM EXCLUSIVE. 103 
 
 would eat with me, no one would associate with 
 me, if I gave utterance to such a thought. No, 
 rather than that, let me die ; death is better than 
 dishonor." 
 
 "Baboo, I am sorry for you," said the mission- 
 ary gently, "and wish from the bottom of my 
 heart that I could help you, but that seems im- 
 possible. One thing, however, you must remem- 
 ber: it is Hindooism, not our religion of love, 
 that causes this terrible separation. Had I a son 
 who forsook Christianity and became an infidel, 
 or a follower of Mohammed, my religion would 
 teach me to love and support him still, to use him 
 tenderly, to try to win him back to the paths of 
 holiness and truth by the most gentle and affec- 
 tionate means. Your religion under the same 
 circumstances enjoins that you should cast away 
 the erring child, (erring as you believe him to be;) 
 turn him out of house and homp, and tear yourself 
 from his love. Now, Baboo, I appeal to your 
 conscience and to your feeling, which of the two 
 religions has justice and mercy on its side?" 
 
 Mohendro was moved, and the big tears coursed 
 one another down his cheek. "This grief was
 
 J04 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 written on my forehead,"* he exclaimed, " and I 
 suppose I must bear it. But cannot, oh ! can- 
 not I escape it?" he continued, turning to the 
 missionary; "do, in compassion to my weakness, 
 advise the boy not to leave his old father ; oh do, 
 sir ; and the blessings of our whole household will 
 descend on you and yours." 
 
 "My good friend," replied the missionary, 
 weeping too, " your son is at perfect liberty to act 
 as he pleases, but you must not ask me to advise 
 him to choose Hindooism and abjure Christianity; 
 I cannot do that." 
 
 " Come, come, father," said Surjo and Chondro 
 both at once, "it is no use staying here. You 
 need not suppose this fellow will help us; he gets a 
 thousand rupees for every convert he baptizes ; and 
 we may trust any padre*f for letting slip an oppor- 
 tunity for making money. Come away ; we shall 
 get justice elsewhere." 
 
 False and irritating as was this accusation, the 
 missionary made no reply, but mildly begged that 
 
 * The Hindoos believe each man's fat to be written in the 
 lines of his skull. 
 
 f Missionaries are generally called padres in India. The 
 idea that they are paid so much a head for converts is very 
 general among the Hindoos.
 
 THE BROTHERS DEPART. 105 
 
 Prosonno might now be left alone. The two 
 elder brothers, enraged beyond measure, dragged 
 their father out of the room ; but Nobo still lin- 
 gered behind. 
 
 " Brother," he whispered, " you will not leave 
 me to perish in Hindooism : for that Hindooism 
 is false I already see; you will instruct me in 
 Christianity, and then we shall both be Christians 
 together." 
 
 "My dearest boy," said Prosonno, "if any- 
 thing could tempt me to delay a public profession 
 of Christianity, it would be the hope of bringing 
 you with me to the feet of Jesus; but even for 
 this I cannot endanger my own soul's salvation. 
 I will give you a Bible, Nobo, but I cannot go 
 home with you." 
 
 Well was it for Prosonno that he was thus 
 firm ; for Nobo's specious speech had been put 
 into his mouth by his wily brother Surjo, who had 
 shrewdly guessed it would prove a better argu 
 ment towards the gaining of their point than 
 anything that had gone before. But on hearing 
 this decided negative to his proposition the disap- 
 pointed Nobo turned to go. 
 
 "Stay," said Prosonno, " Tmust have one word
 
 106 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 with you, Nobo, before you leave me. Give my 
 wife my warmest love ; tell her, if I have injured 
 her, she must forgive me; I could not have acted 
 otherwise than I have done. Tell her I now be- 
 long to the pure, the holy religion on which I 
 held my last sweet conversation with her ; and 
 above all, tell her, entreat her to come and join 
 me, to take my God as her God. Tell her, she 
 will never repent it. Nobo, tell her He will 
 guide her until death, and then receive her into 
 everlasting glory." 
 
 Nobo scarcely waited to hear the conclusion of 
 his brother's sentence. In a moment he was gone, 
 and Prosonno was left alone with the missionary. 
 His long pent-up feelings now found vent in a 
 flood of tears. 
 
 " O God I" he exclaimed, " Thou only knowest 
 the agonizing trial this meeting has been to me, 
 and I thank Thee for having supported me 
 through it." 
 
 But we must return to Mohendro and his sons, 
 and follow them to their home. No sooner had 
 they reached the threshold, than all the inmates 
 of the house came crowding round them, and 
 waited in breathless anxiety to hear the result of
 
 KAMINEE'S ANGER. 107 
 
 their interview with Prosonno. It was soon told. 
 Every countenance fell. 
 
 " He refused to come back to me ; to her who 
 bore him I" exclaimed Prosonno's mother ; and 
 the poor woman fell senseless on the floor ; for in 
 the secret recesses of the Hindoo mother's heart 
 springs up the same deep, deathless love, that flows 
 from the bosom of the English mother to the 
 child she has borne. Kaminee's grief was more 
 silent, but not the less deep. She seemed deter- 
 mined to disguise her feelings, and with all the 
 pride of injured woman exclaimed: 
 
 " He has made me a widow in the bloom of my 
 youth, and I shall yet have my revenge. The 
 gods are holy and just; they will never let him 
 go unpunished!" 
 
 "Oh no," said Nobo; "he has not made you a 
 widow, he wants you to join him ; he has sent you 
 a message;" and he repeated it to Kaminee, not 
 in the sweet spirit in which Prosonno spoke the 
 words, but in a tone of bitter raillery, adding 
 
 "Of course you will go, sister, and the next 
 thing we shall hear of you will be that you have 
 been making merry at a feast, where men were 
 your companions, where the viands were the
 
 108 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 loathsome flesh of the cow and the hog, and where 
 the drink was intoxicating liquor."* 
 
 "Silence, Nobo," said Kaminee angrily. "But 
 tell me, do you really mean to say that your 
 brother had the effrontery to ask me to go to 
 him?" 
 
 "Of course he had," replied Nobo: "I have 
 told you his exact words." 
 
 "Then here is my answer," exclaimed Kami- 
 nee; "instead of love, tell him I send him dead- 
 liest hate; instead of forgiveness, vengeance and 
 anger; tell him it is my religion which is pure 
 and holy ; his is unclean and bestial ; tell him, I 
 loathe him, I despise him, and as sure as the sun 
 will rise in the heavens, so surely shall I utter a 
 curse on his name before the altar of my God." 
 
 "Softly, softly, daughter," said Mohendro sadly, 
 " is he not your husband still ? Oh ! then do not 
 curse him; have patience;" and a smile passed 
 his face as he exclaimed, "have patience, Ka- 
 minee, we shall reclaim him yet, and yet be 
 happy." 
 
 During the evening of the same day, the tnis- 
 
 * A suggestion unspeakably disgusting to the Brahinin, who 
 never tastes flesh or liquors.
 
 THE SCENE AT THE MISSIONARY'S. 10& 
 
 sionary, in whose house Prosonno had taken 
 refuge, received a summons to appear before a 
 court of justice on the morrow, bringing with him 
 the body of the minor he had forcibly abducted 
 from such a place on such a day. This was the 
 legal wording of the document. The missionary, 
 of course, prepared to obey it; but how different 
 was the manner in which the ensuing night was 
 spent in his house to that in which its hours were 
 employed in the dwelling of Mohendro. The 
 home of the Hindoo was all noise and confu- 
 sion, wailing and lamentation; at one moment 
 an angry deity was propitiated with offerings and 
 gifts, and the spirits of Prosonno's friends rose as 
 the priest declared he could perceive omens which 
 augured success to their plan; at the next mo- 
 ment, when they remembered Prosonno's resolute 
 refusal to return to Hindooism, and thought of 
 his fixed will and ever-determined spirit, their 
 hearts died within them, and they knew he was 
 gone from them never to return. 
 
 In the Christian's dwelling another scene pre- 
 sented itself. During the early part of the night, 
 one might have looked into a quiet room, and 
 seen three individuals sitting round a table with
 
 110 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 the holy volume of inspiration before them, study- 
 ing its blessed truths. These three were Pro- 
 sonno, the missionary, and his wife. 
 
 They read together of the glorious things God 
 had reserved for those that love Him. The ad- 
 vanced Christians encouraged the new convert, 
 and he felt that he never before had experienced 
 anything so sweet as real, heartfelt sympathy, 
 proceeding from love to the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 They then knelt in prayer, heart joining with 
 heart in beseeching God to preserve Prosonno on 
 the coming day, to give him grace to make a 
 good confession before men, and to bring him 
 forth out of the furnace like silver purified and 
 ready for the Master's use. The prayer finished, 
 they each retired to rest, and calm and holy was 
 their repose until morning dawned. 
 
 At length the time for the trial approached, and 
 the court was crowded with expectant listeners. 
 "Christianity will be foiled this time," exclaimed 
 a bigoted old Brahmin. "Nay," said another, 
 ''it is we who shall be defeated; as their own 
 Shastre predicts, no weapon that is formed against 
 Christianity seems to prosper." 
 
 "But, Mohendro," said a third, "is rich; he
 
 THE MOTHER APPEARS. Ill 
 
 will leave nothing untried ; surely by bribes and 
 by presents he will be able to gain his point." 
 
 "And we have another thing in our favor," 
 exclaimed a fourth; "the magistrate is not one 
 of those saintly Christians who always side with 
 the padre's; he is a liberal-minded man, and will 
 be sure to see us righted, although we are Hin- 
 doos." 
 
 These remarks were interrupted by the entrance 
 into the court's verandah of a closely-curtained 
 palanquin. Such an unusual spectacle attracted 
 all eyes, and the people's astonishment was height- 
 ened, when they saw a female, evidently rich and 
 respectable, alight from it. This was the mother 
 of Prosonno; she had never before appeared in 
 public, and it was a heavy blow to the family 
 pride that she did so now. Surjo and Chondro 
 had violently opposed the measure, but all to no 
 purpose. What were forms and usages to her 
 when her child's well-being was at stake? She 
 would brave ridicule and insult to see her boy. 
 once more. He must yield to her. He could 
 never resist the appeal which only a mother's heart 
 can make. Buoyed up with hopes such as these, 
 the poor woman walked up through the crowd
 
 112 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 towards the bench. Although she was deeply 
 veiled, and immediately surrounded by her hus- 
 band and sons; although her case was so urgent 
 and her grief so heavy, still the lip of scorn was 
 everywhere pointed at her, and one or two of the 
 spectators, more daring and more unkind than 
 the rest, did not hesitate to insult her openly with 
 the expression of every variety of coarse and un- 
 feeling jest. The magistrate saw this. His Eng- 
 lish feelings were moved at the indignity offered 
 to the suffering woman, and beckoning to Mo- 
 hendro, he showed him a private room, where 
 Prosonno's mother might wait unmolested until 
 the arrival of her son. A few moments elapsed, 
 and then Prosonno entered. He was supported 
 on one side by the missionary, and on the other 
 by his Christian friend, Rm Doyal, who had 
 himself passed through a similar scene of trial, 
 and was now whispering words of comfort and 
 hope to his afflicted brother. Two European 
 gentlemen also, friends of the missionary, accom- 
 panied this little party, to act as a guard, in case 
 Prosonno's relatives should attempt to use any 
 violence towards him. The moment the crowd
 
 THE TRIAL BEGINS. 113 
 
 caught sight of the young man a buzz of exulta- 
 tion arose. 
 
 " We are sure of gaming our cause," was heard 
 on every side. "See how faint and ill the boy 
 looks. The padres must have kept him in close 
 confinement. Shame upon them. Their evil 
 practices will come out now." The trial then 
 proceeded with the usual forms. Soon it was 
 proved, to the entire satisfaction of all, that the 
 missionary, far from abducting Prosonno, had 
 received him into his house, only at his own most 
 urgent request. Granting this to be true, Mo- 
 hendro now deposed that his son was under age, 
 and on this ground required him to be restored 
 to his guardianship. The magistrate shook his 
 head, remarking "To me the lad looks as if he 
 had almost attained our English age of majority, 
 instead of being, as you say, a minor, according 
 to Hindoo law; but what have you in proof of 
 your assertion that your son is under age?" 
 Mohendro immediately produced Prosonno's horo- 
 scope, supposed to have been drawn out on the 
 day of his birth. According to this document, 
 his age was just fifteen years and nine months. 
 But the moment Prosonno saw it he sprang up 
 
 8
 
 114 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 with unaffected indignation, exclaiming, "You 
 do not mean to say, father, that is my horoscope; 
 indeed, sir, it is not mine;" and the magistrate at 
 once perceived it was a forgery. Merely observ- 
 ing therefore that the paper looked remarkably 
 clean and new, he continued, "Religion is a sub- 
 ject on which every individual, able to discrimi- 
 nate between truth and falsehood, must be allowed 
 the right of private judgment. I shall therefore 
 question your son, and if I find him of sound 
 mind and good understanding, shall leave him at 
 liberty to follow the dictates of his own con- 
 science." Prosouno's friends were prepared for 
 this emergency, and Surjo immediately stepped 
 forward to say 
 
 "I am the elder brother of that young man, 
 sir, and am ready to take my oath that he has 
 been imbecile since his birth, and is not account- 
 able for any of his actions." 
 
 "Your brother shall speak for himself," an- 
 swered the magistrate sternly, "and then we shall 
 soon be able to decide on the truth of your state- 
 ment. Now, young man," he continued, turning 
 to Prosonno, "did you, as has been deposed by 
 this missionary gentleraan, go to his house yester-
 
 PROSONNO IS EXAMINED. 115 
 
 day morning and beg to be allowed to remain 
 there?" 
 
 "I did, sir," answered Prosonno, "and had I 
 consulted my own wishes only I should have left 
 my home a month since; but he it was who 
 desired me to wait and consider the subject ma- 
 turely before I made the important decision; and 
 it was only yesterday, when he felt satisfied I had 
 done so, that he consented to receive me." 
 
 "And what were your reasons for determining 
 to become a Christian?" asked the magistrate. 
 
 "In the first place, sir," said Prosonno, "I 
 knew that the idolatrous worship of Hiudooism 
 must be utterly false; in the second place, I 
 believed Christianity to be the true religion re- 
 vealed by God to man, and therefore I determined 
 to adopt it." 
 
 "What led you to this belief, young man?" 
 said the magistrate. 
 
 "Sir," said Prosonno, "it would be out of place 
 here were I to lay before you the evidences of 
 Christianity; let me assure you, however, I have 
 studied them with attention, and feel satisfied in 
 my own mind that my choice has been made in 
 accordance with God's will."
 
 116 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 "But let me ask you to name some of those 
 evidences, for the satisfaction of your friends?" 
 
 Well did Prosonuo reply to this question, 
 showing how clear were the grounds upon 
 which he had decided to change his religion, 
 and how ready he was to endure all griefs that 
 he might attain everlasting life, and honor the 
 Saviour. 
 
 When Prosonno had concluded every eye was 
 turned, in breathless expectation, to the magis- 
 trate. Each thinking man among that great 
 crowd felt that Christianity had triumphed. One 
 exclaimed: "Well, the padre's have made good 
 use of their time with that young man, at any 
 rate!" A white-headed Brahmin moved sadly 
 and silently out of the court, murmuring to him- 
 self, "Our gods are fallen, are fallen." Others 
 gnashed their teeth at the missionary, in impotent 
 rage. 
 
 Mohendro alone seemed to hope on. He had 
 heard Prosonno's words indeed, but they had 
 conveyed no meaning to his mind ; he had stood 
 as if in a dream, his whole soul filled with one 
 agonizing anxiety, that of being able to call his 
 son his own once more: and now that he had fin-
 
 MOTHER AND SON. 117 
 
 ished speaking, the poor old man, scarce conscious 
 of what he d ; d, clasped the feet of the magistrate, 
 exclaiming hurriedly, "He may go home with us 
 now, may he not, sir?" Even the official was 
 moved; but he replied, decidedly though kindly, 
 "No, I cannot oblige your son to do that; he has 
 embraced Christianity, and given most excellent 
 reasons for so doing; he is at liberty to go where 
 he will, and will return, I suppose, as he came, 
 with the missionary." Mohendro uttered a 
 scream and would have fallen had not Surjo and 
 Chondro, who had foreseen the termination of this 
 dreaded scene, stepped forward and supported 
 him. "He has not yet seen his mother," said 
 Mohendro. The magistrate heard his words, and 
 said immediately, "Young man, I had forgotten; 
 your mother waits for you in the adjoining room; 
 go to her, and go alone." 
 
 Prosonno turned to the door indicated, his 
 whole frame quivering with excess of emotion. 
 In vain he attempted to walk with his wonted 
 firm step, silent agony convulsed his every move- 
 ment, his hand was cold as marble, and, as if to 
 gain a momentary relief, he pressed it over his 
 burning brow, where the large veins, distended
 
 118 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 and swollen, told the tale of anguish he would 
 fain have concealed. Involuntarily a prayer es- 
 caped his lips, "Saviour, thou of woman born, 
 look and pity;" and Prosonno was in his mother's 
 presence. 
 
 "My treasure, my moon, the star of my life, 
 what have my ears heard this day," she exclaimed, 
 bursting into a flood of bitter tears, "that you are 
 going to leave me? Leave me who have borne 
 you in sorrow, and loved you from your baby- 
 hood, have nourished and cherished you till you 
 have become a man! You leave me! No, no, 
 it is all a dream, a hideous dream; but it is past, 
 we are awake now; you will go home with us, 
 my boy; yes, yes; I know you will." 
 
 ' Mother, mother," exclaimed Prosonno, "this 
 is killing me. Oh, desist! or you will drive me 
 mad. My God! this is a sacrifice, but not too 
 costly for thine altar," murmured the poor young 
 man in vainly suppressed agony. "Mother, you 
 must let me go!" 
 
 " Let you go? Never never ! jewel of my exist- 
 ence," shrieked the heart-broken woman, clasping 
 her son in her arms, and resting her head on his 
 shoulder, while she poured forth a gush of Ori-
 
 MOTHER AND SON. 119 
 
 ental imagery, at one time the most touchingly 
 plaintive, at another, frantic with wild despair. 
 "How dark it is! no sun, no moon, no 'stars, all 
 have set in wrath. Woe is me! What have I 
 done to bring down this curse on my head? My 
 child, you have been the light of our house; will 
 you leave it dark, and cold, and drear? I can- 
 not live without you; your love has been to me 
 what the dew is to the flowers; what the cool 
 shady thicket is to the hunted fawn ; what the 
 protecting boughs of the peepul tree are to the 
 little birds when lightnings are abroad ; what the 
 luscious melon with its rills of sugared juice is to 
 the traveler in the desert. I cannot live without 
 you, my moon of gold, my star of silver, my 
 necklace of pearl, my diamond, my jewel, my 
 bird, my heart-treasure. Oh, if you do not re- 
 turn your mother must die, must die. Bring me 
 the poison cup, I will drink it; pierce my heart 
 with a dagger, and let my life blood flow ere I 
 see the child I have nursed and cherished leave 
 me to herd with unclean Christians, with filthy 
 outcasts. Pah ! must that sweet mouth, never 
 touched by anything but fruit and milk and 
 sweetmeats, Se defiled with the accursed flesh of
 
 12C LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 the heifer and the hog! Must those coral lips, 
 which have never quaffed aught but heaven's own 
 drinks, the limpid water, or the juice of the cocoa 
 and the palm, be now stained and besmeared with 
 that disgusting, reason-destroying English liquor 
 they call wine? Pah! it must not be! it must 
 not be !" shrieked the half-frantic woman in un- 
 affected horror. 
 
 " Mother, mother," interposed Prosonno, speak- 
 ing wildly and hurriedly ; " do not, oh, I entreat 
 you, do not go on in this way; I cannot tell 
 you how precious your love is to me, more 
 precious than aught else, except my Saviour and 
 my duty." But he checked himself, for he felt 
 he might as soon speak his thoughts to the 
 winds. 
 
 " Saviour !" " Duty !" The words conveyed no 
 meaning to the poor ignorant Hindoo woman ; 
 while Prosonno, almost involuntarily, gave pas- 
 sionate vent to his grief in the words he had 
 somewhere read ; " A terrible sacrifice thou 
 claimest, O God, from creatures in whose agoni- 
 zing hearts nature is strong as Death." 
 
 But the sacrifice was offered ; he repented it not, 
 recalled it not; but casting one last look of love
 
 MOTHER AND SON. 
 
 121 
 
 towards his mother, he rushed into the open air. 
 The next moment found him surrounded by his 
 Christian friends, on his way to his Christian 
 home.
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 QJ ABBATH evening had now arrived ; Prosonno 
 K-) had spent the greater part of the day in earnest 
 prayer to God to fit him for the holy service on 
 which he was entering. Ail fear of his heathen 
 relatives carrying him off forcibly, or using per- 
 sonal violence to himself, had entirely passed 
 away, for it was now five days since he had seen 
 them. It was with a lightened and grateful heart, 
 therefore, that he stepped into the carriage, that was 
 to convey him, with the missionary and his faithful 
 friend Rdm Doyal, to the place of baptism. The 
 missionary gave directions to the coachman to 
 drive to their usual house of worship, and taking 
 his seat, said cheerfully, " Now thanks be to God 
 who has brought this painful business to such a 
 happy issue." He did not then know that his 
 young disciple had yet a fiery trial awaiting him, 
 out of which he should come forth like silver 
 seven times refined. 
 122
 
 Fifty armed men surrounded them instantly 
 
 Page 123.
 
 THE CONVERT'S FUTURE. 123 
 
 A few minutes' drive brought them to a turn 
 in the road, slightly more secluded than that 
 which they had already traversed. Prosonno's 
 mind was engaged in preparing a reply to the 
 questions he anticipated would be put to him at 
 his baptism, while the good missionary seemed 
 lost in a reverie. He was looking into the future, 
 and a. bright vision rose up before his mental eye. 
 Ram Doyal alone was not at ease. He looked 
 suspiciously among the trees. At length he ap- 
 peared to see something, and sprang out of the 
 carriage, exclaiming, " I feared it ; I feared this 
 was but a false peace." But it was all too late. 
 Mohendro's influence and money had bribed the 
 retainers of a wealthy acquaintance, and fifty 
 armed men surrounded them instantly. To drive 
 through the crowd was impossible. Two men 
 took hold of the horses' heads; three others 
 dragged the coachman from the box and kept 
 him prisoner : while Ram Doyal, with a bravery 
 of which the Bengalee is said to be incapable, 
 was wrestling hand to hand with two athletic 
 soldiers from the Punjab, who stayed his progress 
 in going for help; when Surjo's voice was heard 
 calling out, "Fools, let the Christian dog alone;
 
 124 " LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 it is my brother, men my brother that we 
 want." 
 
 To push the missionary violently to one side of 
 the road, and drag the defenseless Prosonno out 
 of the carriage, was the work of a second. The 
 next found him bruised and blindfolded at the 
 bottom of another vehicle, which dashed over the 
 stones with the speed of lightning. 
 
 The missionary and Rdm Doyal stood as in a 
 dream. In a moment, as if by magic, their con- 
 vert, horses, carriages, armed men, all had disap 
 peared, and they were left in utter darkness ! The 
 ruffians had accomplished their object ; to elude 
 justice was now their only care. With heavy 
 hearts the two Christians pursued their way to the 
 church, but they were not utterly cast down: for 
 a still small voice whispered, "Lo, I am with you 
 alway." At length the missionary broke out 
 with the words; "What an iniquitous piece of 
 business; Ram Doyal! We must bring it before 
 the civil authorities to-morrow morning." 
 
 "Sir," replied Ram Doyal, "if I might ven- 
 ture to make a suggestion, I should say, No, to 
 that proposition." 
 
 "Indeed, why so?"
 
 WHAT IS TO BE DONE? 125 
 
 "Because, sir, notwithstanding all we may say 
 V the contrary, there certainly is a floating idea 
 a* long the people, that Christianity progresses in 
 India because it is the religion of the conquerors 
 of the country; and I think we ought to avoid 
 aiiy act which might tend to foster an idea so hos- 
 tile to Christianity. Suppose we apply to the 
 magistrate and succeed through him in discover- 
 ing my poor friend, which I confess appears to 
 me exceedingly improbable ; we could not avoid 
 the impression going abroad that he became a 
 Christian through the interference of the British 
 Government." 
 
 The missionary replied musingly, "There is 
 something in that : but would you do nothing for 
 poor Prosonno?" 
 
 "Only what the Church did for Peter; pray 
 for him unceasingly; he belongs to that flock of 
 whom it is written, ' not one of them shall perish ;' 
 and mark my words, sir, he will be delivered safe 
 to us again." 
 
 "But are you not afraid of personal violence 
 for him? These great Hindoo families are not 
 strangers to the properties of poisons, and know 
 how to use them too; do they not? Female dis-
 
 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 honor is often hidden in death ; do you think they 
 would hesitate to use the same means to put a son 
 out of the way, where that son was likely to cast 
 an indelible blot on the family name? Or, even 
 if they considered this as going too far, they 
 might administer to him, what always seemed to 
 me to be a device of Satan's own, that mind- 
 destroying drug so well-known in these parts. 
 To think of that noble intellect being crushed 
 forever. I dare not contemplate it?" 
 
 " Pardon me, sir, but I cannot think it likely 
 his friends would resort to such measures. I 
 would fain believe that the stories we hear respect- 
 ing these matters are exaggerated." 
 
 "I am thankful to hear you say so, Ram 
 Doyal ; God grant that our dear young friend be 
 preserved from all evil ; but I feel sad, very sad 
 for him." 
 
 To return to the party in the carriage. For 
 some moments, neither of the two brothers spoke 
 a word. Prosonno was stunned. The faith, the 
 hope, the holy joy that a moment before had been 
 his, whither had they flown ? The darkness that 
 wrapt his physical vision was not more dense than 
 the darkness that had fallen upon his heart.
 
 THE TEMPTER'S WILES. 127 
 
 "Was there a God in heaven after all?" "If 
 Christ were God indeed, would He have allowed 
 so shameful a defeat to His cause as this ?" were 
 questions that came across his mind, but died 
 away unanswered on his lips. "Oh, would to 
 heaven," exclaimed the young man in the bitter- 
 ness of his grief, " would to heaven that the 
 whole universe were annihilated if it were only 
 just to settle by fair experiment whether Christi- 
 anity or Hindooism had the slightest claim to 
 truth." 
 
 Courage ! poor faltering disciple. The tempter 
 has laid his deep snares for you ; and for the mo- 
 ment he has well nigh prevailed. He has landed 
 you at the very bottom of the bottomless pit ; but 
 courage ! a Greater than he hath the key of that 
 pit, and He will lead you safely ; it may be by a 
 way that you know not ; but be assured He will 
 lead you safely into the sunlight of His presence ! 
 
 Surjo saw that his brother Prosonno's thoughts 
 were wandering far from the immediate cause of 
 trouble, for instead of trying to free himself, he 
 was lying as he had been thrown, motionless at 
 the bottom of the carriage ; and yet he was not 
 seriously hurt. His brother had prevented that.
 
 128 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 Interpreting his stillness to imply indifference on 
 the subject of going home, or perhaps even posi- 
 tive pleasure that he had thus been rescued, before 
 he had made the final sacrifice, and knowing that 
 all fear of a pursuit was ended now, Surjo briskly 
 tore off the bandages from his eyes, and attempted 
 jocosely to rally his brother. It was a feeble at- 
 tempt at best. The moment he caught sight of 
 his brother's pale, sorrow-stricken face, he saw that 
 the arrow had entered into his soul, and he 
 changed his tone to one of persuasion and remon- 
 strance. 
 
 "Come, come, Prosonno," he said, "I am sure 
 if the truth were known, you are as glad as I 
 am, that you are well out of the hands of those 
 Christians, with their abominable practices and 
 delusive hopes." 
 
 "Delusive or not, I was happy in them an hour 
 ago; and what have you given me in their place? 
 The blackness of despair; for a Hindoo I will 
 never, never be again. You will make me an in- 
 fidel, and the life and death of an infidel are worse 
 than the life and death of a beast. That I well 
 know. Yes, it is coming to that. Heaven, earth, 
 hell, are all disappearing. O God (if there be a
 
 CONVERSATION BETWEEN THE BROTHERS. 129 
 
 God), blot me out of this hateful universe." 
 Surjo was not prepared for this sudden outburst, 
 but he was wily enough to take advantage of it. 
 
 "Just so, brother," he said, "just so. If your 
 God had been really God, could he not have 
 delivered you out of my hands? Your God, 
 indeed! The cudgels of a few strong Rajpoots 
 proved stronger than He, when put to the proof! 
 And you were about to trust yourself to a God 
 like that? A good thing I am sure, that there are 
 some people in the family left in. possession of 
 their senses, or you would have been I know not 
 where by this time!" Were not these words a 
 very echo of those suggested by Satan to Pro- 
 sonno's own heart but a moment ago? And yet 
 coming from the lips of another, and clothed as 
 they were now in this tangible form, they roused 
 the better spirit of the young man, and he ex- 
 claimed almost fiercely, 
 
 "Do not blaspheme; do not blaspheme. What 
 did I say? Forget what I said. My God is 
 God ; He will save me yet. He has a purpose to 
 accomplish by this; yes, a purpose, and you shall 
 feel it and acknowledge it." 
 
 Prosonno did not himself then know the ter~
 
 130 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 rible import of his words, nor how literally they 
 were destined to be accomplished at a later pe- 
 riod. 
 
 " Where are you taking me?" he next inquired; 
 " we are not on our way home." 
 
 "Home!" replied Surjo, "no, not home; your 
 flight made that too hot for us; it used to be sur- 
 rounded from morning to night by a set of im- 
 pertinent priests, declaring we had all lost caste, 
 through this foolishness of yours! Think of 
 that, Master Prosonno! Think of our father, the 
 pure and austere Hindoo, who never neglected a 
 poojah in his life; think of his being told that he 
 had now no name or place in Hindooism, and all 
 for you, you wretch ; my blood boils at the bare 
 recollection of it, curse you !" 
 
 " Did he curse me ?" 
 
 "No, he quieted the Brahmins with gifts of 
 money as well as he could, and told them you 
 were insane, and a thousand other things; but 
 nothing would do; the more they got the more 
 they wanted ; it was insult and extortion, and ex- 
 tortion and insult, from day to day, till we could 
 bear it no longer. And then your wife's father 
 brought things to a climax by coming to claim
 
 THE UNCLE'S HOUSE. 131 
 
 his daughter, and insinuating that we had encour- 
 aged and abetted your becoming a Christian for 
 the sake of pecuniary gain; and that Karainee 
 was intended as a sacrifice on the same shrine." 
 
 "Did father let her go?" 
 
 "No, he did not," replied Surjo, eagerly draw- 
 ing encouragement from the first gleam of interest 
 that had lighted up Prosonno's languid counte- 
 nance. "No, he said he would on no account 
 part with Kaminee, for he believed that she 
 would be the one attraction that might possibly 
 draw you home again." 
 
 Prosonno murmured, " My darling, and I could 
 have you again by only but no, I must not, will 
 not; for he that loveth father, or mother, or wife, 
 more than Christ, is not worthy of Him; and, so 
 help me God, I will be found worthy." 
 
 Surjo thought it best not to seem to hear, and 
 went on " Well, it was with great difficulty that 
 we got your father-in-law away, and he went 
 vowing vengeance on the whole family, in case 
 Kaminee was persuaded to join you, and mutter- 
 ing something about returning at night to carry 
 her off by stealth; but that disgrace was not to be
 
 132 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 risked, so we adjourned to uncle's house in the 
 country, and there you will find us all." 
 
 Prosonno aked no more questions. Escape 
 from his uncle's house would be ten times more 
 difficult than from their house in Calcutta; that 
 he knew, but loving trust was fast returning to 
 him, and to that faith stone walls and iron bars 
 presented no barrier whatever. 
 
 Hard driving for four hours brought them to 
 their destination. As they approached the gate, 
 a flaring torch held out of the carriage (a sign 
 previously agreed upon) showed the family within 
 that Surjo had been successful; and a wild shout 
 of triumphant Hori Bol ran through the halls, 
 though it was near midnight, and retainers and 
 household servants now joined in full chorus. 
 Never a word did Prosonno utter, while he was 
 literally dragged out of the carriage amid joyful 
 congratulations and noisy vociferation ; his father 
 burst into tears and fell on his neck; while Chon- 
 dro and Nobo had a thousand questions to ask 
 respecting the plan of escape and the discomfiture 
 of the hated missionary. But as long as the ob- 
 ject of all this rejoicing continued dejected and 
 silent, their triumph was incomplete; so they be-
 
 PROSONNO CARRIED HOME. 133 
 
 thought themselves of sending Prosonno to the 
 women's apartments in hope that his mother 
 might be successful in rousing him from his 
 seeming apathy. As he went along, Prosonno 
 carefully took notice of each unguarded passage, 
 or frail-looking bar, laying up his observations 
 ior future use. His mother met him in the 
 verandah. At sight of her his long pent-up 
 feelings found vent for the first time, and he 
 burst into a flood of tears. " O mother, mother, 
 this was not right of you !" he exclaimed ; " why 
 have you brought me back after all I told you in 
 court? I am a Christian by choice, indeed I am. 
 O mother, why did you not believe me? Now I 
 am of all men the most miserable. You keep 
 me from joining the Christians, and a Hindoo I 
 can never be again. I see no shore to my sea." 
 
 "But why should you not be a Hindoo again, 
 my boy ?" asked his mother, mistaking his mean- 
 ing ; " atonement shall be made for you ; we will 
 spare no expense. Oh ! my child, we would 
 rather beggar ourselves to the last farthing, than 
 that you should be put out of caste. Besides, you 
 have not really lost caste. You have not been 
 baptized. That hateful charm has not been ut-
 
 134 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 tered in your ear. The morsel of beef has not 
 been put into your mouth ! Oh ! say it has not !" 
 
 " No, mother, of course not ; nor would it have 
 been had I been baptized. Baptism has no charm 
 nor moutro, nor has it anything whatever to do 
 with food. It is a washing with pure water, in 
 token of faith, that thus the soul is purified from 
 all sin and uncleanness." 
 
 " So they made you believe," said the woman ; 
 " so they made you believe : you would have found 
 it as I tell you ; but the gods be praised, that ca- 
 lamity has been averted. Prosonno, would you 
 not like to see your wife again, your beautiful, 
 your much loved wife?" she continued. "I 
 know you would ; but no wife can be yours, until 
 you have made full atonement. Kaminee said 
 she would rather die than see you whilst you are 
 out of caste ; so that the sooner you make up your 
 mind the better. To the Christians you do not 
 return : your alternatives are these ; either a life 
 of imprisonment and suffering, or your former 
 life, as the darling of the family, the light of our 
 dwelling." 
 
 "Then I choose the former," said the noble 
 young man. "O mother, I had wished to see
 
 DISCUSSIONS AS TO HIS RESTORATION. 135 
 
 Kaminee to-night, I had so much to say to her. 
 But since that is denied me, show me into a room ; 
 I want to be alone ; to think and to pray." 
 
 The poor mother hardly knew her son again. 
 His very phraseology was altered. " What is it 
 to pray ?" she thought. But she did not think 
 long about that. Her mother's instinct told her 
 he wanted rest, and putting him into a quiet 
 though well-guarded room, she left him with a 
 sad countenance and an anxious heart. 
 
 Except in the case of Prosonno, who snatched 
 a couple of hours' refreshing sleep towards the 
 morning, no other eye of all that vast household 
 was closed in slumber that night. The Brahmins 
 were sent for to plan and devise how the erring 
 one might be received into caste, as quickly as 
 possible. They were all of one opinion ; Prosonno 
 must give his full and free consent, or the thing 
 could not be done. The atonement was to be 
 made by the young man shaving off the hair of 
 his head, and his moustache, before some idol 
 shrine, and then offering some hundred rupees' 
 worth of cowrie shells, which were afterwards to 
 be taken by the Brahmins. These Brahmins 
 were also to have large gifts in money, and a
 
 136 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 sumptuous feast. Thus it was supposed the jus- 
 tice of their gods would be satisfied, their auger 
 be appeased, and the sinner be saved ! 
 
 But the morning brought with it no change in 
 the constancy of Prosonno. He deeply felt the 
 degradation of having his breakfast served out 
 to him, much in the same fashion as it would 
 have been to a dog, and that in a house where 
 every one but a few days since would have de- 
 lighted to do him honor. But even this disgrace 
 he knew had been borne by his Master, when in 
 the house of the proud Pharisee; He was denied 
 the salutation kiss and the anointing oil that 
 would have been accorded had he come of a 
 higher caste; and Prosonno loved to suffer with 
 his Master. 
 
 His relatives grew more and more anxious, and 
 determined to carry out a system- of operations 
 that had proved successful in similar cases. Know- 
 ing that Christianity is a religion of holiness, and 
 that no men of evil lives care to embrace it, they 
 were ready utterly to corrupt his moral nature, 
 and lead him by the practice of wickedness from 
 the religion which he had in heart embraced. 
 "Wme and dancing-girls were on several occasions
 
 THE GRIEF OF THE FAMILY. 137 
 
 introduced into the house, and, as if in kindness, 
 he was urged by their means to shake off the sad- 
 ness in which he lived. But strong in faith, put- 
 ting his whole trust in the mighty help of God, 
 he was able to resist the spells and sorceries that 
 had been prepared for his ruin. He resolutely 
 shut himself up in the silence of his own room, 
 which he barred against the intrusion of tempta- 
 tions so dangerous. 
 
 Many bitter days followed in Prosonno's history. 
 The plans of his relatives had been frustrated ; 
 their money had been thrown away ; each moment 
 the priests were becoming more clamorous that 
 the atonement should be made ; failing that, they 
 threatened to put the whole family out of caste 
 for harboring a Christian. They wanted their 
 gifts, and they knew this threat would hasten 
 them. The mother's heart yearned to embrace 
 her son. The wife pined in her widowhood. 
 Grief and shame were fast doing their work on 
 the old father ; his hair had grown whiter, and 
 his step less steady, during the last few days. 
 The stern and bigoted Surjo, who considered 
 himself in some sort the head of the family, bit 
 his lip with rage each time a slur was cast on the
 
 138 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 honor of that family. The uncle hinted he had 
 had encngh of strange doings in his house, and 
 that he would be glad to be left in quiet once 
 more. The grandmother, sad, silent, tearful, stole 
 softly backwards and forwards from Prosonno's 
 room, (now become a prisoner's cell), and said 
 nothing. But she watched, and watched, and 
 watched ; what did the old woman suspect ? She 
 had constituted herself Prosonno's sole attendant ; 
 everything that he ate she prepared with her own 
 hands, and she was jealous lest any one should do 
 aught for her favorite. Perhaps it was this that 
 made her so watchful. 
 
 His relatives had almost given up speaking to 
 the young Christian, except to load him with 
 abuse. Wine, pleasure, money, all had been 
 offered him in vain. Hindooism had nothing 
 more to offer; so now it resorted to persecution, 
 to cruelty, to abuse. But for his grandmother, 
 who insisted that starvation was not the way to 
 win him over, Prosonno would have been fed on 
 rice and water. As it was, every luxury and 
 comfort were denied him. His bed was taken 
 away, smoking was forbidden ; coarse clothes were 
 substituted for his fine ones; he was not allowed
 
 PROSONNO IS HARDLY TREATED. 139 
 
 to go to either tank or river for the purposes of 
 bathing, (an immense privation to a Bengalee); 
 and, worst of all, he had no books, no writing 
 materials, no employment of any kind. Consti- 
 tutions less tenderly organized have suffered under 
 such an ordeal as this. A man could hardly go 
 through it, and come out unchanged. Surjo 
 seemed to calculate on this. He constantly af- 
 firmed that his brother was insane, and that he 
 was not accountable for his actions; though an 
 unprejudiced examiner would have discovered 
 nothing beyond the deep dejection of his mind, 
 consequent on the painful circumstances in which 
 he was placed. However that might be, he man- 
 aged to raise the question among the Brahmins, 
 (without seeming to be the propounder of it), 
 whether or not atonement could be made for a 
 man out of his senses. There was much discus- 
 sion on the subject, and a variety of opinions was 
 expressed. Only on one point the disputants 
 were agreed; that atonement was impossible, un- 
 less the subject of it were willing thus to receive 
 absolution. Just as they arrived at this conclu- 
 sion, Surjo by chance happened to pass through 
 the room.
 
 140 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 "It seems to me, gentlemen," he remarked, 
 with a slight degree of irritation and impatience 
 in his tone; "it seems to me, that you are wasting 
 your time over a mere quibble. An idiot may 
 be persuaded to anything, and, I fancy, would 
 make no stronger objection to having his sins 
 pardoned in any way you chose, than he would 
 make to a good dinner. Why not say at once, an 
 idiot may be saved?" 
 
 "Ah, I see, I see," muttered the oldest Brah- 
 min, on whose clouded intellects Surjo's words 
 seemed to have thrown a new light. "Well, 
 then, suppose we do say that a man out of his 
 senses may be put all right." 
 
 "Thank the gods that admission is something 
 tangible at last," murmured Surjo between his 
 teeth, as he glided, snake-like, out of the apart- 
 ment. 
 
 In the meanwhile, the ladies, always the most 
 credulous, the most superstitious, and the most 
 loving of the human family, set on foot a curious 
 ceremony, the purpose of which was to gain back 
 for his wife those lost affections which he and the 
 rest foolishly believed Prosonno had bestowed on 
 some strange woman among the Christians. A
 
 INCANTATIONS. 141 
 
 wily magician was sent for, a Brahmin of the 
 very lowest class. His peculiar talent lay in the 
 art of Bosee Koron, or making one man subject 
 to another; and Kaminee, with tears in her eyes, 
 related every particular of her sad story, and 
 begged him to use all his divinations, to make 
 her husband's heart yield to her once more, as it 
 was wont to do in times past. He declared he 
 could accomplish this difficult matter, but only 
 with immense pain and danger to himself; and 
 that, therefore it would cost a great deal of money. 
 Kaminee readily agreed to his demand, and so he 
 proceeded with his incantations. He first asked 
 for a suitable apartment in the house, where he 
 erected a small rude altar to Chondi, one of the 
 numerous forms of the goddess Durgd, sur- 
 rounded the shrine with leaves of the mango tree, 
 and offered on it rice, vermillion, and other such 
 articles. Ten whole days, the magician said, he 
 must spend before this idol, repeating various 
 charms and prayers. For the next ten days, a 
 prayer must be daily offered at a place when 
 three roads meet. For ten days after that, incan- 
 tations and offerings were to be presented to the 
 Granges ; and, most horrible of all, the three days
 
 142 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 pucceeding those were to be spent by the magician 
 at the burning-place of the dead, amid half-con- 
 sumed bodies, dying men, and corpses, in every 
 stage of putrefaction; the last rite of all being 
 that he should get the corpse of a Pariah, and 
 seating himself on its chest, h- should invoke 
 Durga with special earnestness. It was expected 
 that the goddess would then appear to him. If 
 he had the presence of mind to say, at the right 
 moment, "Holy mother, now thou art here; 
 grant me my request," then all would be well, 
 and on the thirty-third day, Kaminee would find 
 her husband all her own again ; but if, on the 
 contrary, the magician were to allow evil thoughts 
 to fill his heart at the sight of the goddess, then 
 the ghost of the dead Pariah, on whose body he 
 was seated, would suddenly appear, leap on him, 
 and strangle him, and he would never be heard 
 of more! 
 
 But, oh, those long three-and-thirty days! 
 How were their weary hours to be dragged along, 
 while a foul outcast remained in the house, while 
 the family was threatened with a suspension of 
 all its religious privileges! No, they could not 
 wait, it was impossible; something else must be
 
 THE POISONED SHERBET. 143 
 
 done. So, at least, thought Surjo. Besides, he 
 had not much faith in the magician's power over 
 a Christian. "Physical force is the only thing 
 for these men," muttered he; "as for charms, we 
 have tried those already ; but they have a coun- 
 ter-charm ready for all emergencies." Surjo went 
 out frequently during the next few days, and had 
 one followed him, it would have appeared that 
 the end of all his walks was the abode of a hide- 
 ous hag or sorceress, in a lowly spot many miles 
 away. There were women of the same character 
 much nearer home. It was impossible to say 
 why Surjo did not consult them. His grand- 
 mother alone seemed to guess at some reason, for 
 each time he came in, she watched his every look 
 and action ; though so long as he kept away from 
 her favorite Prosonno, the old lady seemed satis- 
 fied. 
 
 At length, to the astonishment of all, even of 
 the priests, Surjo gave out that in two days full 
 atonement would be made by his younger brother 
 for his sin of going among the Christians. This 
 he declared had been intimated to him in private 
 by Prosonno, who, after holding out so long, was 
 now naturally shy of publicly recanting ; but the
 
 144 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 grandmother, who alone of all the family had 
 constant intercourse with him, saw no symptoms 
 of a change. However, the preparations for the 
 rite of atonement went on, and great rejoicings 
 prevailed in the house. As his grandmother was 
 going into Prosonno's room with his supper that 
 night, Surjo stopped her, as if by accident, saying: 
 "Here, Thdkur M&, I have been brewing some 
 sherbet for myself; you may as well take Pro- 
 sonno a glass of it, as a loving cup from his 
 brother." 
 
 " I am glad to see you acting in rather a more 
 brotherly way lately, Surjo," replied the grand- 
 mother, while she took the glass out of his hand. 
 As soon as he was out of sight, she coolly threw 
 the contents out of the window, murmuring, 
 " There ! that puts an end to our grand feast of 
 atonement, but I cannot help it. I cannot have 
 that glorious intellect destroyed." To get some 
 more sherbet ready, and give it to Prosonno from 
 his brother, was the work of a moment. As she 
 presented it, Prosonno looked inquiringly at her, 
 merely saying 
 
 "From Surjo, grandmother?" 
 
 " Yes, boy, drink it. I say so."
 
 SURJO BAFFLED. 145 
 
 His grandmother had never deceived him yet, 
 and so he drank the delicious draught. 
 
 The whole of the next day, Surjo appeared very 
 uneasy. He did not go into Prosonno's apart- 
 ment, but he hung round it, as if expecting to 
 hear some startling news; but his grandmother 
 went in and out, and had nothing to communicate. 
 The great day of the feast arrived. Nothing 
 could control his impatience. Now he burst into 
 his brother's room saying 
 
 "Come now, Prosonno; you promised you 
 would make atonement to-day: come all is 
 ready." 
 
 "Promised what? I don't know what you 
 mean, brother," exclaimed the astonished young 
 man. " Oh, it is all very fine to say so now," 
 replied Surjo in a passion of rage. " Don't you 
 remember telling me the day before yesterday, 
 that you repented of your errors, and were ashamed 
 of your folly, as well you might be, you young 
 fool ! And now you pretend to have forgotten 
 again !" 
 
 " I repent of nothing, and the only error I am 
 ashamed of is the error of having remained a 
 
 Hindoo so long, worshipping idols instead of the 
 10
 
 146 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 God of heaven and earth," quietly answered Pro- 
 son no. 
 
 "Hear him," exclaimed Surjo, "this in a Hin- 
 doo house, surrounded by Brahmin priests ! But 
 he is mad ; that is the fact of the matter. I al- 
 ways knew he was mad, but people would not 
 believe me. Will they believe it now ?" 
 
 " I don't see it :" muttered the head priest, who 
 began to think he had been trifled with, in the 
 matter of the ceremony of that day; "but we 
 grant that it may be so. You said, Surjo Baboo, 
 that an insane man might be persuaded to any- 
 thing, pray be quick then, and persuade this mad 
 brother of yours ; for our rites wait for no one, 
 and unless the atonement be fulfilled this very 
 day, I and my fellow Brahmins leave this house 
 under our censure and CURSE. You have had 
 a Christian living here this fortnight, and yet 
 you pretend to be orthodox Hindoos ! Stuff and 
 nonsense ! We will not bear it any longer." 
 
 In vain Surjo raged, and declared it was mad- 
 ness to listen to madmen, and folly to hearken to 
 fools. Prosonno was both a madman and a fool ; 
 and surely atonement might be made for him, and 
 he. be restored to caste, without all this fuss on
 
 PROSONNO'S FIRMNESS. 147 
 
 the subject of willingness and unwillingness? 
 But the Brahmins were firm; and even had they 
 been inclined to yield, Prosonno dashed all their 
 hopes to the ground, by saying in his calmest 
 manner, " The moment I am set free again I shall 
 return to the Christians. Your money and your 
 pains will all be thrown away on me." 
 
 "You shall never return to the Christians," 
 almost shrieked out Surjo, quite livid with pas- 
 sion. 
 
 " I am prepared for that," replied Prosonno ; 
 "this room will prove my grave, with you for 
 my guardian ; I see that plainly enough ; but for 
 that very reason am I the more determined not 
 to yield up my Christian faith. I have served 
 Satan all my life, and had hoped that I might be 
 spared yet some years to serve Christ. But if 
 that is denied me, I rejoice to have at least this 
 one opportunity of testifying my love for Him. 
 He has promised that if I am faithful unto death, 
 He will give me a crown of life. You have no- 
 thing like that to offer me." 
 
 "And you believe that nonsense?" asked a 
 dozen voices. 
 
 " Yes, I believe it fully, firmly," said Prosonno.
 
 148 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 "Then those Christians do use sorceries and 
 enchantments; they have bewitched you," cried 
 out the chief Brahmin. 
 
 "As you please," replied Prosonno. "It is 
 quite true that the word of God is quick and 
 powerful, and sharper than any two-edged sword. 
 It is like a fire, and like a hammer, that breaketh 
 the rock in pieces. The sharpness of that sword 
 has cut through prejudices that date back as far 
 as my babyhood. That fire has consumed the 
 love of sin in me, though alas ! I still sin, for 
 what I would not, that I do. And that hammer 
 has broken in pieces this hard heart, and made it 
 melt at the remembrance of Jesus' love. But 
 beyond this, I know of no sorcery or enchant- 
 ment, nor will anything that you can say deprive 
 me of my hope. You can kill me outright ; but 
 vou cannot change my mind." 
 
 "I doubt whether I can ever kill him," thought 
 Surjo, who like all thorough idolaters was blindly 
 superstitious, and who believed, in spite of all his 
 brother might say, that he certainly did possess 
 some counter-charm to his machinations. "I 
 cannot conceive how that poison could fail to act. 
 The old hag told me that in twenty four hours it
 
 SURJO BAFFLED AND ENRAGED. 149 
 
 would be certain to send its victim raving mad, 
 for a time at least; and then I have known so 
 many instances; how is it? I cannot make it 
 out; I wonder if he ever drank that draught." 
 Such was the burden of Surjo's soliloquy, while 
 he said aloud 
 
 "Well, I suppose you want me to disbelieve 
 the evidence of my own senses. I tell you I 
 won't, young man ; I repeat that, the day before 
 yesterday, you promised me that the atonement 
 should be made on this day, and it shall be 
 made." "I never promised," replied Prosonno; 
 "and your foolish, impious atonement shall not 
 be made: I am a free agent in that at least, thank 
 God. You must either be a dreamer or a liar, 
 Surjo, to say that I promised anything of the 
 sort," 
 
 "That to me! That to your elder brother I" 
 shouted Surjo; "but hold, I have proofs: did you, 
 or did you not drink a cup of sherbet I sent 
 you in token of our compact on the night of 
 which I speak?" 
 
 "I drank the cup of sherbet, and grandmother 
 said it was from you; but I heard of no compact, 
 and acknowledge none," returned Prosonno.
 
 150 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 "Foiled again," muttered Surjo; "he has & 
 charm, I am sure he has. Ah ! those vile Chris- 
 tian sorcerers!" 
 
 Mohendro here interposed with tears in his eyes, 
 "Let the boy go, my son," he said, "we shall 
 have no more comfort in him. Surely I must 
 have committed some unpardonable sin in a 
 former birth to have drawn down such a curse on 
 my head! Oh! what a fool you are, Prosonno. 
 If you only knew how contrary to your own 
 interests you are acting; but I might as well talk 
 to the wind as to you." 
 
 "And to just as much purpose, father," replied 
 Prosonno; "if it is my religion that you wish me 
 to change, that I will not do." 
 
 "There we have heard quite enough of that," 
 said his uncle angrily; "this is my house, Surjo, 
 and I insist on that senseless fellow being turned 
 out of it. Let the Brahmins change this day's cer- 
 emony to the purification of us all from the sin 
 of having harbored him, and let us never name 
 the wretch's name again." 
 
 But before this last expedient was resorted 
 to, Surjo pleaded for a further delay of only four 
 days.
 
 DISGRACE TO THE FAMILY. 151 
 
 "O uucle! father!" he exclaimed, "think of the 
 disgrace to our family should one of its members 
 embrace Christianity. Wait till you wish to get 
 Hemlota a husband ; you will find out your mis- 
 take then; no one will marry into a family 
 tainted with this Christian pollution." 
 
 "Alas!" groaned the two old men, "there is no 
 shore to our sea of misery ; it seems to widen 
 every moment. None but you, Surjo, would have 
 thought of this; but it is too true too true. Do 
 as you please then about Prosonno, that is to say, 
 if you can satisfy the priests." 
 
 "Oh, leave that to me," growled Surjo; "more 
 money, more money, that will do it; by the way, 
 father, this whole business will cost us many a 
 rupee ; I hope you are prepared for that." 
 
 "Be it so," rejoined Mohendro, "I will give to 
 my last pice if I can only save my son. Oh ! My 
 son, my son !" 
 
 Surjo's character was one that is fast dying out 
 of India. "Young Bengal" represents a class of 
 men of loose, free-thinking ideas; religion is the 
 last subject that ever occupies their minds; they 
 will tell you they are neither Christians nor Hin- 
 doos; that they have adopted the good out of
 
 152 ' LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 each system, which means pretty much that at 
 home they take care not to shock the prejudices 
 of their families, while abroad they eat, drink, 
 and enjoy whatever pleases them, without the 
 slightest regard to caste, rite, or ritual. Their 
 women are not more educated than those of the 
 other class; they are just as far from the kingdom 
 of God as their stricter brethren, though, they 
 are in some respects less hostile to those who em- 
 brace Christianity than are the Hindoos of the old 
 school. 
 
 Surjo belonged to the latter class. Not only a 
 Brahmin by caste, but a priest by profession, he 
 believed implicitly in all the formulas of Hindoo- 
 ism. Shrewd enough in matters of worldly wis- 
 dom, he was stupid, almost senseless, as regarded 
 religion. Hence, that his brother should reject 
 that ancient faith, in which he could see no 
 absurdities, seemed to him horror beyond com- 
 pare. The loss of his reason was nothing to him 
 in comparison with loss of caste; and death itself 
 was preferable to life, if it must be spent in apos- 
 tacy and disgrace. It was not hatred to Pro- 
 sonno that led Surjo to adopt the severe measures 
 he resorted to; far from it; for, did he not risk
 
 THE AGED GRANDMOTHER. 153 
 
 nis own safety to save him while the rest of the 
 family sat bemoaning at home? It was hatred to 
 Christianity; it was dread of the shame that must 
 fall upon the family through that Christianity, 
 which impelled him to act as he did. 
 
 The grandmother of the two young men, on 
 the contrary, though still a Hindoo, had no hatred 
 to Christianity. Christianity had first dawned 
 upon her soul in beams of love. She looked back 
 through the vista of half a century to that dread 
 scene on the sands of Saugor, when her mother's 
 heart was riven to its very core; and she recalled 
 to mind that it was a Christian Government that 
 saved her darling; that it was Christian love that 
 applied that relief to her own peculiar case; a 
 Christian had spoken a few calm, holy words 
 which had comforted her, she knew not how; she 
 had kept the Book of the Christians carefully 
 concealed for years; it had brought no curse, on 
 the contrary, only a blessing. Excepting her 
 husband, who was a very old man, no one be- 
 longing to her had died; her sons were wealthy 
 and prosperous, and their children were like unto 
 them ; altogether it appeared to her that her long 
 happy life was owing in some sort to Christianity.
 
 164 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 When the rest of the family spoke of the mis- 
 sionary who had perverted the faith of Prosonno, 
 and loaded him with every species of abuse, his 
 grandmother remembered that missionary of old 
 who had told her that the Master whom he served 
 was a sea of love; and she would not believe that 
 a follower of the same Master could be the un- 
 lovely and hateful character which her friends 
 represented. Besides this, the old woman was 
 more attached to Prosonno than to any of her 
 sons or grandsons ; and if Christianity made Pro- 
 sonno happy, why not let him be a Christian? 
 
 Again she watched the bigoted elder brother. 
 He grew more morose and irritable each day, but 
 never mentioned Prosonno, just as if it were no- 
 thing to him what he chose to do or think. What 
 did this calm portend ? The old lady was deter- 
 mined to find out; and she bribed a little boy, the 
 son of their milk-woman, whom Surjo had never 
 seen, to follow him unperceived in one of his 
 walks. Surjo passed through his own village, 
 then went along the river for about three miles, 
 until he arrived at a lonely hut, far from all habi- 
 tations of men. The only door to this miserable 
 abode (window there was none) was on the north
 
 SURJO VISITS THE OLD WITCH. 155 
 
 side, so that the genial rays of the sun never 
 shone in. For the space of fifty yards round that 
 hut, there was no sign of tree or green thing of 
 any kind, as though its unhallowed air had killed 
 all that was fresh and beautiful. Surjo stood at 
 the door of this den, and called to some one by 
 name. He was answered by the low growl of a 
 half-blind cur covered with sores. There was no 
 other living being inside, but presently a hideous 
 old woman presented herself with some noxious 
 herbs in her hands, which she had gathered in 
 the jungles. Her countenance was truly dreadful 
 to behold. Every trace of feminine softness had 
 long been erased from those harsh features, which, 
 owing to unbridled passions, had assumed the ap- 
 pearance of an animal rather than of a human 
 being. She was covered with a single piece of 
 filthy rag, and her matted hair seemed as if it 
 had been untouched for years. 
 
 "You here again, Baboo!" she growled; "I 
 thought our compact was that you should never 
 return. Do you think I am tired of life? Do 
 you want to get me hanged, or what ?" 
 
 " I am compelled to return, mother ; your med-
 
 156 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 icine failed. You must give me a stronger potion 
 this time," said Surjo. 
 
 " My medicine failed, indeed ! Your brother 
 no more drank that draught, than you did your- 
 self, young man, if at this moment he is alive and 
 of sane mind." 
 
 "Yes, he did drink it; but he is a Christian. 
 He has charms against everything but deadly 
 poison ; he has confessed that himself," whispered 
 Surjo, misinterpreting Prosonno's words about 
 their being able to kill him, while they would be 
 utterly unable to change his mind. 
 
 " Hum ! I see what you want now," muttered 
 the hag ; " you are a loving brother, I must say ; 
 but that sort of thing, good sir, is not brewed 
 except in a cup of silver, ornamented with gold. 
 Do you understand ?" 
 
 "Perfectly," replied Surjo, opening a bag in 
 which there appeared at least thirty or forty shi- 
 ning coins ; " but come into the house ; this is no 
 place to discuss such matters : there may be 
 listeners." 
 
 There had been a listener; and while that 
 murderous brother went into the witch's den to 
 accomplish his wicked purpose, the spy returned
 
 THE GRANDMOTHER'S DETERMINATION. 157 
 
 to her who had sent him, and told her all. Pro- 
 sonno's grandmother was in intense distress of 
 mind. Her darling must not die -that she had 
 determined ; but to prevent it seemed beyond her 
 power, shut up as she was within the walls of the 
 zenana. Surjo would this time probably admin- 
 ister the poison himself, and then nothing could 
 save Prosonno ; for he had assured her he had no 
 charms against poison or anything else ; and she 
 believed him. Besides, she desired at last to end 
 his persecutions, and send him back safely to the 
 missionary. The poor lad had grown thinner 
 and weaker each day, and she was fearful that, 
 even without the aid of poison, he would sink 
 under the privations he had to endure. It may 
 seem strange to Christian readers that this loving- 
 hearted woman had not the moral courage to open 
 some private entrance, and thus let Prosonno es- 
 cape, or perhaps even escape with him ; but every 
 entrance to the house had been jealously guarded 
 by Surjo, who kept the keys in his pocket. And 
 apart from this, English readers cannot appreciate 
 the iron strength of the trammels that bind a 
 Hindoo female to her family and to her caste. 
 For a man to abjuie his faith is sufficiently haz-
 
 158 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 ardous, as we have already seen ; but a woman 
 who loses her caste, loses all that makes life valu- 
 able to her ; her good name, her reputation, her 
 husband, her children, and the very means of 
 subsistence itself. 
 
 Like the English lady, she is unaccustomed to 
 menial work, but unlike her, the Hindoo lady 
 has no resources whatever; she has no education 
 to enable her to teach, and no knowledge of 
 needle- work or the fine arts; so that if she casts 
 off the support afforded by her family, she must 
 either be dependent on Christian charity or starve. 
 Prosonno's grandmother was not prepared for 
 such a sacrifice, though she dared more in his be- 
 half than most would have cared to do. 
 
 After well digesting her plan in her own mind, 
 she applied to her son Mohendro for leave to 
 absent herself for one day, on the plea that she 
 wished to visit some distant idol shrine, with 
 offerings to entreat that a new mind might be 
 given to the apostate, in whom they were all so 
 interested. 
 
 "But why should you go, mother?" asked Mo- 
 heudro ; ' it is not seemly. Tell me which God
 
 THE PRETENDED DREAM. 159 
 
 you desire to propitiate, and I will carry your 
 offerings and perform your pooja for you." 
 
 "No, no, my son; that will not do," rejoined 
 the mother. "I have had a dream on three suc- 
 cessive nights, in which the exact spot has been 
 revealed to me; but the oracle expressly added 
 that it must be kept a profound secret, and that 
 unless the person at whose hands Prosonno first 
 received food in this world were to go, and go 
 alone, to make the offerings, they would be of no 
 avail whatever. Now I am that person; do you 
 not remember how ill the boy's mother was after 
 his birth, and how constantly I fed him with 
 goat's milk from the first day till he was nearly 
 two months old?" 
 
 Mohendro remembered it perfectly, and to his 
 mind a belief in superhuman agency seemed natu- 
 ral and necessary. His mother knew well that 
 he had a faith in dreams that no philosophy could 
 ever conquer. Mohendro made some slight show 
 of resistance to his mother's request, but in his 
 heart he thought that as she was an old woman, 
 no great harm could come of her leaving the ze- 
 nana for a few hours. Besides, owing to the very 
 naturj of her errand, she must keep it secret; no
 
 160 LIFE BY TI1E GANGES. 
 
 disgrace, therefore, could accrue to him, and 
 thinking thus, he yielded. 
 
 The old lady, with all her native shrewdness, 
 took good care to shroud her journey with such 
 superstitious terror and awe, as should prevent 
 any of the family i blowing her in private. Her 
 object was no other than to gain the abode of the 
 same miserable hag who had been visited by 
 Surjo. Following the directions of her little 
 spy, the courageous woman pursued the unaccus- 
 tomed way, till she entered a dark wood. Here 
 she heard the low growl of the hyena in the 
 thicket, but her heart failed not, for she had a 
 purpose to accomplish. At a sharp turn in the 
 wood, she suddenly encountered the very witch 
 she was seeking. She had never seen her, but 
 judging from the description of the boy, she felt 
 she could not be mistaken. There surely could 
 not be two such hideous creatures in the world; 
 so she determined to pay the wicked woman in 
 her own coin, which was to work upon her super- 
 stitious fears, and thus deceive her as she had 
 deceived others. 
 
 " I knew I should find you here, daughter of 
 bell," she exclaimed; "so you thought to send
 
 THEIR CONVERSATION. 161 
 
 an intoxicating draught to a Christian, did you? 
 and you thought to make him mad? Well, he 
 drank the draught: to him it became the most 
 delicious sherbet; and what is more, it opened his 
 eyes to see you preparing another draught of a 
 more deadly nature. You were gathering the 
 poisonous Datura for that very purpose. Confess 
 that you were. You see, I know it all; he told 
 me, and he told me that the moment Surjo Baboo 
 I know the name of your employer too, you 
 perceive should attempt to administer that poi- 
 son to him, that moment it would be changed 
 into death for you, and you would be struck dead 
 wherever you might be. If you are crossing the 
 river, the flood will drown you; if you are in the 
 wood, the lightning will blast you; if you are 
 asleep in your den, the venomous cobra will bite 
 you." 
 
 The wicked sorceress trembled from head to 
 foot. Prosonno's grandmother had boldly drawn 
 her bow at a venture; the arrow had hit home. 
 All that she had said the witch knew was true, 
 ami she too exclaimed like the rest "Then these 
 Christians do use sorceries and enchantments, and 
 I am undone !" 
 11
 
 162 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 "You deserve to be undone, wretched woman 
 that you are!" said the other, "but I can show 
 you a way of escape. When does Surjo come for 
 your charmed potion?" 
 
 " To-morrow night," muttered the hag, humbled 
 in the very dust. 
 
 " Well, can you not change that deadly Datura 
 into a strong sleeping draught ? You have such 
 things, I suppose?" 
 
 "The witch of the Bamboo grove has all 
 things. She has that which will bring life to yon 
 little bird in the cruel talons of that hawk, and 
 she has that which will bring death to the strong 
 man. But what use will a sleeping draught be 
 to you?" 
 
 " Presume not to ask questions of one whose 
 fathers were magicians before you were born. 
 Will you change the potion, or will you not? 
 If you do, you save your life, and have one mur- 
 der less on your polluted conscience." 
 
 "But I lose my money," muttered the hag. 
 " Sordid wretch !" retorted Prosonno's grand- 
 mother ; " how much did Surjo give you ?" 
 
 " I have received forty rupees, and he has pro- 
 mised me fortv more when his brother is dead."
 
 THE GRANDMOTHER'S PROPOSAL. 163 
 
 " How much do you suppose this necklace is 
 worth ?" asked the old lady, taking a string of 
 pearls from her neck. 
 
 "A hundred rupees," suggested the hag, gree- 
 dily eyeing the costly trinket. 
 
 " It cost twice that sum ; nevertheless it is 
 yours if you change that poison ere Surjo conies 
 for it to-morrow." 
 
 " I will change it." 
 
 " Swear by the head of your mother." 
 
 " I have sworn." 
 
 " Well, then, listen. I want it to be such a 
 sleep as shall wear the semblance of death." 
 
 " I will so prepare it." 
 
 " How long will the sleep last ?" 
 
 " Twelve hours at least, unless any great exter- 
 nal heat be applied to the body." 
 
 " Is that sure to waken the patient?" 
 
 " Perfectly sure." 
 
 "Good-bye, then; if you deceive me you die. 
 Remember ! On the river, in the wood, in your 
 den, nowhere shall you escape me!" 
 
 Prosonno's grandmother returned home in 
 safety. Her son Mohendro, was the first to meet 
 her.
 
 164 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 "Well, mother, what said the oracle?" he in- 
 quired with eagerness. 
 
 " It said," replied the shrewd old woman, " that 
 at twelve o'clock to-morrow night Prosonno's sin 
 will be atoned for ; you and his mother will em- 
 brace him as your son ; and his elder brother will 
 carry him in his arms." 
 
 " Oh, what happiness !" exclaimed Mohendro ; 
 " the gods grant it may be so. But what a strange 
 hour, mother, twelve o'clock at night ! Surely if 
 Prosonno consents, we shall hold the feast of 
 atonement in the day-time." 
 
 " Strange or not, I cannot help it. I have told 
 you what said the oracle. I do not pretend to 
 interpret revelations," replied the old lady. On 
 the next evening she gave Prosonno his supper 
 sooner than usual, and retired to her room early. 
 As she expected, about nine o'clock she heard 
 Surjo call stealthily, " Thakur-ma, Thakur-ma !" 
 "What is it?" U I wish you would go to my 
 brother and see if he is well, I fear he is not, I 
 heard him breathe so heavily just now : he does 
 not like me; so I will not go in to annoy him." 
 
 " Murder !" thought the Thakurma ; and while 
 she went she trembled lest any part of her plan
 
 PROSONNO'S APPARENT DEATH. 165 
 
 should fail. It was a fearful risk to run ; but 
 though she believed now that he carried about 
 with him no charms, at least no charms in the 
 common acceptation of the term, yet she had a 
 vague undefined belief that the same God who 
 fifty years before had saved her, who was not His 
 worshipper, from being the murderer of her own 
 child, could now deliver one of his most devoted 
 servants from a dreadful death. Thus she tried 
 to quiet her fears and still her fluttering heart. 
 
 As soon as she entered the room, she saw that 
 the opiate had done its work. If Prosonno were 
 not really dead, the likeness to death was perfect. 
 He was stretched out cold and motionless with 
 glassy half-open eyes, and, so far from breathing 
 heavily, there seemed to be no breath in him. 
 Had the witch deceived her? She could not tell; 
 and the horror of this suggestion gave a reality 
 to her cry of agony, as she shrieked out, " Is my 
 boy ill ? Ah ! no, he is dead, quite dead ; nothing 
 wakens him. Alas, my boy !" 
 
 All the family flocked in, and we must do them 
 the justice to say, that their grief was most real 
 and heart-felt. His mother could hardly be re- 
 strained from throwing herself on the corpse and
 
 166 LIFE B? THE GANGES. 
 
 breaking out into the sharp, plaintive wail that is 
 their wont. But as he died an outcast, this was 
 forcibly prevented. The old father's silent agony 
 was even more sad to behold. Chondro and Xobo 
 mourned truly as they looked on that pale, ema- 
 ciated form that had, till the last few weeks, been 
 their companion in every joy and sorrow; and 
 even.Surjo's grief was not all dissimulation when 
 he exclaimed, " Alas, my brother !" 
 
 The Brahmins were all in the house, and the 
 eldest brother eagerly inquired of them if atone- 
 ment might be made for the dead ? They an- 
 swered, "Yes." He knew that before; and so 
 they immediately set about the purifications and 
 the rites connected with that ceremony. They 
 shaved his head; placed beside him a huge heap 
 of cowrie shells, from which all broken and im- 
 perfect ones had been carefully excluded ; sprinkled 
 them with saffron, and then offered them up to 
 the god Narayan. 
 
 After other minor ceremonies had taken place, 
 and numerous incantations had been muttered, the 
 dead body was pronounced clean, and the rel- 
 atives hastened to take a last look. The father 
 and mother embraced the corpse of their son,
 
 PROSONNO'S APPARENT DEATH. lt)7 
 
 shedding over it bitter tears. The sin he had 
 committed, the grief he had caused them, were 
 all forgotten ; he was their child again, their most 
 loved child ; they saw and felt nothing beyond. 
 Surjo seemed inexpressibly pained by this scene, 
 and determined to end it by giving the signal to 
 the bearers to lift the light couch on which Pro- 
 sonno was laid. He did so by taking the corpse 
 up in his arms, and adjusting the funeral garments 
 before carrying it to the river-side to be burned. 
 Just then the clock struck twelve. Prosonno's 
 parents had embraced him as their son, his elder 
 brother had lifted him in his arms ; the oracle had 
 spoken truly. Mohendro's eyes met those of his 
 mother. "It is even so, my son," she said. 
 " This, then, is what the oracle meant." 
 
 " Alas, who can ward oif the decrees of fate !" 
 sighed the old man, while they carried Prosonno's 
 body out of the house, amid the most piercing 
 shrieks and the loudest lamentations. Arrived at 
 the river-side, they placed the lower extremities 
 of the corpse in the sacred tide, with its head 
 resting on Surjo's breast. The Brahmins planted 
 a branch of the tulsee tree beside the body, and 
 then broke out into spells and incantations. This
 
 168 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 ceremony was in reality a deception, being one 
 used for a dying, not a dead man ; but since dying 
 at home and not by the side of the holy Ganges, 
 involved a serious disgrace, Surjo was anxious 
 to give the passer-by the impression that no such 
 disgrace had fallen to the lot of his family. Be- 
 sides, as he said, they could not be quite sure but 
 that there might be still some breath left in him; 
 and was it not best to let his erring brother have 
 the benefit of the sin-destroying water of the 
 sacred stream? 
 
 Meanwhile the funeral pile was prepared, the 
 wood arranged, new clothes were brought, and 
 then arraying Prosonno in those clothes, Surjo 
 prepared to lay the body on the pile. 
 
 But the time for the deliverance was come. 
 The opiate, administered early in the afternoon, 
 had done its work, and Prosonno's life was fast 
 struggling into new activity. The motion of 
 the bearers over rough ground and in deep dark- 
 ness; the cool air of the early morning; the shock 
 of the water on his feet laid in the stream ; even 
 the cries, and shouts, and lamentations, had all 
 tended to produce a change. Prosonno was fast 
 waking from his lethargy; and when Surjo put
 
 PRuSONNO IS ALONE AND FREE. 169 
 
 on him the dry clean clothes, his consciousness 
 rapidly returned. Before Surjo had time to lift 
 him from the cot, and get the light which should 
 kindle the pile, Prosouno started to his feet, and 
 with a loud cry seized him by the throat. Surjo 
 had all along been in an excited state: even his 
 dead conscience had begun to upbraid him for his 
 murderous work; and now that clutch on his 
 throat, in the black night, by one whom he had 
 murdered, struck him with peculiar horror. It 
 seemed as if his own hour of doom had come, 
 and as though he was already fixed to that wheel 
 of the eternal world, whose rotations eternity 
 alone can number. 
 
 "Hell opens its mouth for me. Hell's king 
 holds me fast. Oh ! let me go !" shrieked the terri- 
 fied man; and disengaging himself with a violent 
 effort from his brother's grasp, he fled from the 
 place, a raving maniac. There was great confu- 
 sion, and then the rest fled after him, terrified 
 likewise, but scarcely knowing, in the darkness, 
 what had happened. 
 
 Thus Prosonno found himself alone. ' He felt 
 very riuch confused: he saw spectre forms run- 
 ning from the spot, and heard those terrific
 
 170 LIFE BY .THE GANGES. 
 
 shrieks; but the river, and the bank, and the pile 
 even dimly seen, told him where he was. Grad- 
 ually his shattered nerves gained strength; his 
 eyes took in the scene more clearly; and he 
 started up to a partial consciousness of what had 
 brought him there. He thought he was going to 
 be burnt alive; that the grim spectres he had seen 
 were Surjo and the rest, who had disappeared in 
 the wood ; but they would soon be back ; or per- 
 haps they had been pursued, else why those dis- 
 mal shrieks? 
 
 However that might be, escape from his perse- 
 cutors was the one hope that now filled his mind; 
 and he saw plainly that to secure his liberty he 
 must speedily cross the river. Only a few miles 
 away on the other bank lived a native missionary, 
 whose name he knew; and it could not be difficult 
 to reach his house before sunrise. He therefore 
 pushed his way along the bank; and growing 
 stronger by the effort, at length ventured, by 
 wading and swimming, to cross the stream at one 
 of its well-known shallows. Through God's 
 help he reached the bank in safety, exhausted but 
 safe. 
 
 How can \ve describe the joy of his heart when
 
 HE CROSSES THE RIVER 4.ND ESCAPES. 171 
 
 he found his feet once more upon firm ground ! 
 A. two hours' walk would bring him to the home 
 of the missionary: he knew that; but the state of 
 ferment in which his thoughts had been so long 
 kept, demanded a brief repose; and throwing 
 himself beneath the shelter of a peepul tree, he 
 continued for some time in a sort of vague, wak- 
 ing dream; sometimes passing in review the 
 scenes of that night's tragedy, and sometimes, 
 with his eyes fixed in drowsy vacancy, receiving 
 passively the impressions of the bright scenery 
 around. 
 
 The morning was now in its first freshness, 
 and the day was breaking over the waking 
 earth. The banks of the river were luxuri- 
 antly wooded; and under the tufts of the light 
 and towering palm were seen the acacia and the 
 citron interlacing their boughs; while here and 
 there a rustling peepul tree thickened the shade. 
 The gay golden-winged birds that haunt those 
 shores were in every direction skimming along 
 the water, and the activity of the morning hour 
 was visible everywhere. Flights of doves and 
 lapwings were fluttering among the leaves; and 
 the white paddy bird, which had been roosting
 
 172 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 all night in some date tree, now stood sunning 
 its wings on the green bank, or floated like living 
 silver over the flood. The flowers, too, both of 
 land and water, looked all freshly awakened; and 
 as the noble young man gazed and gazed, the 
 flower of Hope too once more budded in his 
 bosom. He was too happy to move or speak, for 
 he had tested by experience the truth of that 
 glorious promise, "FEAR NOT; for I have re- 
 deemed thee, I have called thee by thy name, thou 
 art Mine. When thou passest through the waters, 
 I will be with thee, and through the rivers they 
 shall not overflow thee ; when thou walkest through 
 the fire, thou shalt not be burned, neither shall 
 the flame kindle upon thee. FEAR NCT, for I am 
 with thee."
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Ql ABBATH evening had come again. It was 
 M exactly four weeks since Prosonno had been 
 carried off by his heathen relatives on his way to 
 the place of baptism. He had traversed that way 
 safely this time, and now he stood boldly forward 
 before a large Christian congregation to receive 
 the sacred rite. His friend Rdm Doyal had 
 spoken truth when he said, " Let us do what the 
 church did for Peter, pray for him unceasingly ; 
 and he will be delivered safe to us again, for he 
 belongs to that flock of whom it is written 'not 
 one of them shall perish.'" 
 
 "What think you of Christ?" was the first 
 question put to the young candidate, who stood 
 there waiting to receive the outward and visible 
 sign of that inward and spir'tual grace that had 
 already been bestowed on him. 
 
 " This is what I think," exclaimed the young 
 
 173
 
 174 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 man, his whole countenance lighted up with holy 
 joy, while his closely-shaven head, and pale ema- 
 ciated form, betokened the persecuted sufferer that 
 he had been ; " this is what I think. It is said 
 in one of our sacred writings, that one night the 
 full moon shone out in all her splendor ; the stars 
 were dazzling in their brilliancy, and every moun- 
 tain was in a blaze; the three combined their 
 strength of light to turn the night into day. But 
 all was in vain ; it was night still, until the SUN 
 rose. I think and I know Christ to be that Sun. 
 He is the Sun of Righteousness. Until He rose 
 in my heart, nothing else could ever dispel the 
 darkness that reigned in it; but He has arisen, 
 and now the blackness and the mists are gone; 
 and I can see clearly that heavenly country, which 
 through faith in Him alone shall one day be my 
 glorious inheritance." 
 
 The missionary went on : " You said that 
 through faith in Christ, you expect salvation or 
 life eternal in heaven, how so ?" 
 
 "Because Jesus Christ is God, and was once, 
 nearly nineteen hundred years ago, incarnate as 
 man. In that form he obeyed the righteous law 
 of God, and finally suffered as a sinner, though
 
 ANSWERS AT HIS BAPTISM. 175 
 
 he was Himself no sinner; but suffered for us, 
 not for Himself. This substitution God has ac- 
 cepted, and I humbly accept it too. I place faith 
 in the sacrifice that has been offered ; thus, having 
 had my transgressions blotted out, I hope for the 
 promise of life eternal." 
 
 " Could you not in any way have saved your- 
 self?" 
 
 " No ; since the fall of our first parents, man's 
 nature has become so corrupt, and his works, 
 thoughts, and words are so utterly evil, that I 
 feel that I could not, by any endeavor of my own, 
 have freed myself from the sin of my nature, or 
 have kept the law of God." 
 
 " Did Hindooism, the religion you are quitting, 
 speak to you of no atonement for sin, or way of 
 pardon for the transgressor ?" 
 
 " Hindooism is a religion of impurity, lies, and 
 imposture. The only atonement it teaches is per- 
 formed by puerile, outward acts, which cannot by 
 any means satisfy God's offended law." 
 
 " In professing yourself a Christian, as you are 
 now about to do, by what rule do you intend to 
 regulate your lifo ?" 
 
 For the first time Prosonno hesitated. He
 
 176 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 looked back on the painful history of the last few 
 weeks, and asked himself by what rule he had 
 regulated his actions. He could not tell. There 
 was no parallel case to his in the Bible ; or if there 
 was, he was not sufficiently acquainted with the 
 Bible to know. Then why not have listened to 
 his father's entreaties, and yielded to his mother's 
 tears ? Why ? Because he could not ; he loved 
 Christ. But this was no answer to make before 
 such an assembly ; the minister had asked for his 
 rule of life; what should he say? The poor 
 young man became nervous, confused, all but un- 
 able to speak ; at length he stammered out : 
 
 "I do not know the rules yet; but I love 
 Christ with all my heart, and strength, and mind. 
 Oh, do not say that I may not be baptized to- 
 night. I have waited so long, I shall learn the 
 rules hereafter." 
 
 "There are no more rules to learn, Prosonno, 
 after you have learned the grand rule of love. 
 Hold that fast, and you wall endure to the end." 
 Then followed the baptism. The Hindoos fool- 
 ishly believe this rite to consist in a charm being 
 whispered in the ear, and a small quantity of 
 beef and wine being put into the mouth of the
 
 HE IS BAPTIZED. 177 
 
 candidate. How different was the holy ceremony 
 by which the young soldier was duly sworn 
 "with true and fearless mind to serve the Virgin- 
 born." 
 
 He stepped forward, took off the Brahminical 
 thread, and laying it on the table he received a 
 Bible instead, in token that he renounced Brahm- 
 inism, with all its honors and social privileges, 
 and chose rather to become a follower of the 
 meek and lowly Nazarene. A few calm words 
 of faith and prayer were said, and then he was 
 imprest with the sign and seal which Christ him- 
 self appointed baptism with water. By faith 
 he recognized that water baptism as a token be- 
 fore men that he had put on Christ; and an 
 emblem of his soul's being washed in that blood 
 which cleanseth from all sift. 
 
 When Prosonno returned home with the mis- 
 sionary, he was introduced to his new abode. It 
 consisted of one room in a long barrack-like 
 building, where he found eight or nine young 
 men similarly situated with himself. Most mis- 
 sionary stations near Calcutta have such buildings, 
 in which to accommodate their young converts 
 
 while they lead a student's life, and till they 
 12
 
 178 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 obtain employment. Prosonno had expressed a 
 strong desire to study for the ministry. His 
 natural qualifications, his piety, and the knovv- 
 ledge-of all he had suffered for Christ, rendered 
 this wish highly gratifying to his Christian 
 friends; he was accordingly installed in the above- 
 named barrack, and admitted into the Missionary 
 Institution of that place as a theological student. 
 Here he enjoyed the pleasures of Christian soci- 
 ety, the benefit of religious instruction, and above 
 all, the peace that comes with the consciousness 
 that self has been sacrificed and duty has been 
 done. 
 
 But that it was a life of privation to Prosonno, 
 it would be useless to deny. To take only the 
 matter of pecuniary means. During the whole 
 time that he attended the classes at the Presidency 
 College of Calcutta, his mother was accustomed 
 daily to tie a half rupee * in the corner of his 
 chudder or mantle, which money he daily spent 
 on his lunch, the only meal he partook of away 
 from home. Now, a half rupee a day was the 
 entire sum the missionaries could afford him from 
 the public funds intrusted to their care; breakfast, 
 
 * The Rupee is about equal to a silver half dollar
 
 HIS TROUBLES ABOUT FOOD. 179 
 
 , clothes all had to come out of that little 
 sum. As for lunch; he learned to do without 
 that luxury altogether. Then, again, his food 
 was no longer prepared by the skillful and- loving 
 hands of a mother or a wife, with all the condi- 
 ments and spices, a judicious use of which is the 
 pride of Hindoo ladies. It was cooked by a 
 poor Christian widow, who acted as servant to all 
 the Baboos who were living in the barrack. 
 They, from a longer residence among Europeans, 
 had become accustomed to have their food sea- 
 soned with onions, to eat fowl, and some of them 
 even went so far as to take other meats occasion- 
 ally. Now, to Prosonno these things were abhor- 
 rent in the extreme. It was as though an English- 
 man had been asked to eat the flesh of the horse, 
 or things vastly more repulsive. For many months 
 all enjoyment of his food was at an end. He 
 dined from duty and necessity, rather than from 
 any sense of gratification to the palate. 
 
 But there was another trial, in comparison with 
 which, what has already been noted faded into very 
 nothingness. This was "the shadow of his de- 
 parted home," the home he had known before the 
 pain of reserve had come between him and the
 
 180 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 hearts of those he loved best on earth. For, 
 strangely enough, at the twilight hour, the harsh- 
 ness and unkindness of the last few weeks would 
 be all forgotten, and then Prosonno would catch 
 himself listening for the tones of each household 
 voice. His Christian friends were most kind, 
 but they and their ways were strange to him, and 
 he felt at times a yearning anguish to behold his 
 own again. Christian families lived around him 
 happy and prosperous. Some young men, who 
 like himself had come out of heathenism, had 
 since been joined by their wives. Others had 
 married women from the Christian community 
 that was fast increasing at the missionary station. 
 To such, the palm's low rustling leaves seemed as 
 glad music, intermingling with their wives' sweet 
 voices, and their children's laughing play; but to 
 poor Prosonno it brought other thoughts. His 
 eye grew dim, while he tremblingly recalled the 
 bitter hatred which Kaminee had evinced to the 
 religion he had embraced. Beautiful, loved, and 
 loving as she was, he feared that his wife would 
 never be his own again. No laughing children 
 would wile away the hours for him. He would 
 never, at the morning hour or at the sunset's
 
 CHRISTIANITY ELEVATES WOMEN. 181 
 
 light, hear again his mother's voice; there was no 
 more a father's blessing for him, or a brother's 
 love, or a sister's endearments; these were the 
 thoughts that filled his spirit, and no wonder 
 
 " If they waked a wish 
 To turn aside and weep." 
 
 But he was not always thus sad. In a few 
 weeks Prosonno became more accustomed to his 
 new mode of life, and then he began to see how 
 superior was the conduct that was regulated by 
 Christian principles, to that which had Hiudooism 
 only for its guide. One thing particularly struck 
 him, that it was by raising the standard of female 
 character that Christians had chiefly improved 
 the ground-work of their society. The native 
 converts who had embraced Christianity a few 
 years before had already educated their wives, as 
 far as they were able, and already the happy 
 fruits of this training began to appear in all the 
 domestic arrangements, which so deeply affect the 
 interests of man. Their wives, though they still 
 retained much of their native shyness and reserve, 
 and continued, as was their custom, to perform all 
 ihose household duties for their husbands which 
 are the proper sphere of a woman in every land,
 
 182 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 were treated by those husbands in a manner very 
 different from that to which they had been accus- 
 tomed in their Hindoo homes. The men now 
 felt that their wives were no longer ignorant and 
 uneducated, and consequently treated them with 
 respect. Formerly they had no religious princi- 
 ples to guide them ; now many of them were 
 under the teaching of the Holy Spirit, and there- 
 fore were not suspected. They sat down to meals 
 together; and if a male friend came in, it was no 
 longer incumbent on the wife to run and hide 
 herself. 
 
 But it was not until Prosonno came in contact 
 with English ladies, and was admitted into the 
 inner recesses of an English household, that he 
 learned how full and unsuspecting was the trust 
 reposed in woman, and how richly she deserved 
 such confidence. About a fortnight had elapsed 
 after his baptism, when Prosonno was asked one 
 evening to go and drink tea with the missionary. 
 His new clothes had come home that day, so he 
 thought it a fitting occasion to put them on, for 
 he knew he would be in the society of a lady. 
 These clothes were not made in the European 
 fashion, as is supposed by most Hindoos, but con-
 
 PROSONNO'S NEW CLOTHES. 183 
 
 sisted of a tight-fitting long coat (termed chap- 
 khan), and trowsers, such as are worn already in 
 the country by Mohammedan gentlemen. As 
 Prosonno put off his two thin muslin wrappers, 
 which, till now, had constituted his sole dress, 
 and put on the new clothes, made of thick close 
 calico, he could not but be struck, even in this 
 trifling circumstance, with the strength that 
 female influence exerted the moment a man came 
 under its power; and his thoughts assumed a 
 shape like this "If we, Hindoo men, were 
 accustomed to meet our ladies in society, we 
 should soon be compelled to do away with our 
 effeminate muslins, and adopt a decent costume 
 like this. While they, on the other hand, if they 
 associated with us, would, as an immediate conse- 
 quence, make a change most desirable, in the 
 single garment they now wear." And Prosonno's 
 thoughts were true and just. The missionary 
 and his wife had intended to be alone, on this 
 first evening of entertaining their young convert; 
 but, as it happened, two gentlemen dropped in 
 unasked, and the missionary was obliged to enter 
 into conversation with them, so that Prosonno 
 talked chiefly with the lady.
 
 184 LIFE BY THE 3ANGES. 
 
 The husband and wife both met him on the 
 stairs, and led him into the room that he might 
 feel himself perfectly at home. This was not 
 easy, the scene was so new and strange to him. 
 He was ushered into a neat, brightly-lighted 
 apartment. At the table in the middle of the 
 room were seated the two gentlemen already 
 named. Prosonno was motioned into a chair, 
 and then the host and hostess also took their 
 seats, making a snug, cosy party round the tea- 
 table. This evening meal of tea among the 
 English strikes the Hindoo as a new and strange 
 thing. They have nothing like it among them- 
 selves. Their meals are never social ; they usually 
 eat separately; each wife, not sitting beside her 
 husband, but standing behind him to serve him; 
 the business of the hour is to eat, and they do 
 nothing else. 
 
 The conversation flowed freely, and gave rise 
 to an animated discussion, on how far the na- 
 tural features of a country are capable of influ- 
 encing the moral and intellectual nature of its 
 inhabitants. It seemed to Prosonno that the lady 
 was inclined to give undue prominence to such 
 an influence; while the man of science repudiated
 
 INFLUENCE OF DOMICILE UPON CHARACTER. 185 
 
 the notion altogether, maintaining that it was en- 
 tirely a matter of race, and that a Bengalee reared 
 amid the eternal snows of the Alps, would remain 
 a Bengalee still. They could not settle it, so 
 they turned to other subjects. From the natural 
 features of Swiss scenery, to the politics of Italy, 
 was an easy transition, and the host and his 
 European guests began to discuss them with 
 much warmth; while the missionary's wife, who 
 knew that Prosonno could not have seen an 
 English newspaper while he was in confinement, 
 and would probably, therefore, be little acquainted 
 with the matter, took him on one side, to draw 
 him out on the manners and customs of his own 
 people. This was a subject which it was her 
 great desire to sift to the very bottom; for she 
 knew well, that without an intimate knowledge 
 of the people among whom one labors, there is 
 but small chance of doing them good. 
 
 Leaving her husband to entertain his guests, 
 his lady asked Prosouno what most forcibly 
 struck him among Christians as new and strange. 
 He replied, as all new converts would be sure to 
 do: 
 
 "The ladies, madam, most decidedly."
 
 186 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 "An equivocal compliment, at best!" returned 
 the lady, laughing. "Well, and what is your 
 verdict on these new and strange articles ?" 
 
 "To tell you the truth, madam, they puzzle me. 
 Our ladies are not wanting in beauty and sweet- 
 ness, and even in intelligence; and yet they are as 
 different from English women, as is the jungly 
 marigold from the garden rose." 
 
 "And surely the difference in both cases arises 
 from the same cause, Baboo namely, the want 
 of culture. Now tell me, what are the surround- 
 ings of your women while they are yet children? 
 Is there aught in their early education to lead 
 their minds to what is true and elevated?" 
 
 "Alas, no!" replied Prosonno. "A little girl 
 among us is supposed to have no religion at all. 
 Religion is not thought to be a child's matter. 
 The first text, or montro, is ^whispered into her ear 
 when she is about fourteen. Till then she is 
 allowed to grow up in utter ignorance of the na- 
 ture of a prayer; that is, at least, if we except 
 one trifling religious ceremony, which has more 
 evil in it than good." 
 
 "And what is that?" asked the lady. 
 
 "I hardly like to tell you, madam; it is so
 
 TRAINING OF A HINDOO GIRL. 187 
 
 utterly foolish; and yet, as you say, this want of 
 training and evil training combined, account for 
 so much that is wrong in Hindoo females, that 
 perhaps it is but fair that they should get the 
 benefit of the excuse. The ceremony is this: The 
 little girl is taught to dig a tiny toy-pond in the 
 garden, to stick a branch of the Bel tree in the 
 middle, and then to worship the goddess Lilabotee 
 in words something like these : 
 
 "'At holy tank with holy flower, 
 Who comes to pray this mid-day hour? 
 'Tis I ! Lilabotee, hear ! 
 And save thy child the burning tear, 
 Which e'en must fall, should one> be brought 
 To share my lord's love. Curse the thought! 
 And curse all co- wives ! One more boon, 
 Make me a joyful mother soon.' " 
 
 "And do you mean to say," asked the lady, 
 " that that is all the religion a girl is ever taught? 
 Surely it cannot be !" 
 
 "Yes indeed, madam, I am ashamed to say 
 that is all. I suppose the training of a little girl 
 in England is something very different." 
 
 "Different! Yes," said the wife of the mis- 
 sionary, while her eyes filled with tears at the 
 remembrance of her childhood's home, and of the
 
 188 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 father and mother she was never more to see : for 
 it was at once her joy and her sorrow to be the 
 "child of parents passed into the skies." Pro- 
 sonno saw her emotion, and rightly judged that, 
 now that her mind had travelled back to those 
 days, she would be pleased to dwell on them. 
 Besides, he really wished to learn the early history 
 of an English woman ; so he further inquired, 
 "How is it different, madam? How are female 
 children educated among you ?" 
 
 "Well, Baboo," replied the lady, looking quite 
 interested now, "I have had little to do with the 
 education of English children, having none of 
 my own, as you know : and since my arrival in 
 India, it has been nothing but Bengalee schools 
 and Zenana teaching, Zenana teaching and Ben- 
 galee schools. But I will tell you about my own 
 childhood, if you like. My first recollections 
 stretch back to the time when I was four years of 
 age ; and almost the first thing I can recall is go- 
 ing on a party of pleasure, with a great many 
 ladies and gentlemen, to walk through a beautiful 
 park. In vain did I try with my little feet to 
 keep up with the rest; I was always falling back. 
 At one time my shoes would be full of stones; at
 
 EARLY TRAINING OF AN ENGLISH GIRL. 189 
 
 another my progress would be impeded by my 
 tiny frock catching in the rose bushes; till a min- 
 ister in the party (our Gooroo,* Baboo, you under- 
 stand), came to me and said, 'You cannot walk 
 with the others, my child : I see that plainly ; 
 come with me across the soft grass ; we will reach 
 the place where we are going to dine, as quickly 
 as they will, though you take ever such tiny steps/ 
 
 "And then he took me by the hand and led me 
 on, he and I alone. Baby as I was, I knew it 
 was an act of self-denial ; so I looked up in his 
 face, and said, 'Why do you come with me, when 
 you were talking so nicely to papa ; I am sure you 
 are sorry to come/ 
 
 "He answered, 'No, not at all sorry, my little 
 girl ; I am very glad ; and you too will learn, as 
 you grow older, that there is no happiness like 
 that which comes from trying to help others.' 
 This lesson was the first I remember from a 
 Gooroo, and I never forgot it." 
 
 " Happy the child who has such recollections 
 of a Gooroo !" exclaimed Prosonno. " With us the 
 advent of a Gooroo is too often the sign for the 
 father to frown ; for the little children to run and 
 
 * Goc jo, religious teacher.
 
 190 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 hide themselves ; and for the mother to look anx- 
 ious and fidgety ; for well she knows that the 
 teacher has come only for money and presents; 
 and that, whether she has them or not, they must 
 be forthcoming, nevertheless But will you kindly 
 proceed ?" 
 
 " I was about to tell you," said the lady, " that 
 I was born in England, where females are more 
 independent than even our own country-women 
 are in this land. Here the warm climate keeps 
 us prisoners ; and I fancy we have also unknow- 
 ingly ' -ibibed some of our neighbor's false notions 
 about female delicacy and female reserve. But 
 there, as the little song has it, 'Birds are free, so 
 are we; and we live as happily.' Though we 
 lived in the great city of London, with its thronged 
 squares and public thoroughfares, you might have 
 seen my mother, who was a very beautiful woman, 
 each Sabbath morning leading my sister and my- 
 self by the hand to our place of worship, through 
 the most crowded streets ; while no person dared 
 to address us or molest us in any way." 
 
 "And then the teachings we received in that 
 place of worship, how pure and holy they were ! 
 And the prayers we heard, how different from the
 
 ENGLISH AND HINDOO GIRLS CONTRASTED. 191 
 
 one you have told me ! Instead of heaping curses 
 on our fellow-creatures, we were taught to embrace 
 all in the arms of love. And as for praying that 
 we might become mothers! I don't think that 
 sort of thing ever enters the head of English 
 children. The love of their parents, together 
 with their books, and work, and play, fills all 
 their thoughts and bounds all their wishes." 
 
 " And the poor little Bengalee child," exclaimed 
 Prosonno, "has her mind filled with notions of 
 marriage and nonsense like that from her very 
 infancy, and that by her own mother! It was 
 but yesterday I heard the Catechist's wife teach- 
 ing her infant of a year old to imitate the sounds 
 made by animals ; that was well ; but a Hindoo 
 mother would have said instead, 'Baby, show me 
 how you will cry when your husband comes to 
 take you home;' or 'Baby, show me the little ears 
 in which you will put the rings your husband 
 will give you ;' and Baby goes through the panto- 
 mime, while her mind expands into unhealthy 
 womanhood, before she can barely be called a 
 child! Oh it is sad, very sad!" 
 
 "Yes, English mothers would never talk in 
 that way," said the lady ; "but then you see they
 
 192 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 are educated, and have something else to talk 
 about; whereas a Hindoo mother has nothing. 
 We must always remember that ere we condemn 
 them. Now I learnt almost all I know from my 
 mother ; for I was not sent to school, except for 
 two years, and that was when she and my father 
 had to go over to America." 
 
 " But how is it that English ladies get time to 
 educate their children ?" asked Prosonno. "Do 
 they, then, do no household work at all ?" 
 
 "Oh! yes, they do a great deal," replied the 
 missionary's wife, "excepting ladies in the very 
 highest classes. But there are sixteen waking 
 hours in the day, and it is astonishing how much 
 may be accomplished in them, if judiciously laid 
 out." 
 
 Prosonno listened, deeply interested, whilst the 
 daily life of a Christian woman in England was 
 detailed, in its freedom, industry and activity, but 
 he heaved a sad sigh. Oh, how different had been 
 that description from the history of a day in the 
 very best of Hindoo homes, as was his own ! 
 There, if he excepted his own studies and those 
 of his brother Nobo, no work whatever was done 
 but what related to the preparation of food, or to
 
 MARRIAGE AMONG THE ENGLISH. 193 
 
 the still greater trivialities of their religion. In- 
 deed, the number of people living together in a 
 Hindoo house, sometimes as many as thirty or 
 forty, seemed to preclude life from being made a 
 serious and earnest thing ; so much of it was ne- 
 cessarily spent in idle talk or gossip. And yet 
 Prosonno was not prepared to give up a certain 
 liking for the fashions in which he was brought 
 up. To bis mind the plan of living in a house 
 with only one's wife and children, seemed dull 
 work ; so he asked the lady, whether it were al- 
 ways as she had described. 
 
 "Nearly always," she replied. "A man does 
 not marry until he is able to maintain a separate 
 establishment for his family, and as his wife is 
 not a child, but at least twenty years of age when 
 she marries, she does not need the care of a 
 mother-in-law, and is perhaps better without her." 
 
 "But is it right to leave parents in their old 
 agre to live all by themselves, while each son cares 
 
 / / 
 
 only for himself and his wife?" inquired Pro- 
 sonno. 
 
 "Well, perhaps not," said the lady; "but such 
 a case seldom occurs. Often there will be one of 
 the daughters who remains unmarried, and she 
 
 13
 
 194 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 will continue to live with her parents, and take 
 care of them. Or when a mother is a widow, she 
 often lives with her son." 
 
 " There is one thing, ma'am," exclaimed Pro- 
 sonno, "that I cannot quite understand. Do you 
 mean to say that there are young ladies in Eng- 
 land who never marry at all?" 
 
 "Numbers of them," replied the wife of the 
 missionary. 
 
 "Well, then, surely that is not as it should be?'* 
 asked the young man. 
 
 " I do not pretend to say that it is," replied the 
 lady ; " at the same time it cannot be helped. In 
 England, where no man is allowed more than one 
 wife, and where the emigration of the male part 
 of the community is of such frequent occurrence, 
 there are really not husbands enough for the wo- 
 men." 
 
 " That seems very strange to us," returned Pro- 
 son no ; " I wonder what my good mother would 
 say to facts like these. She would think I had 
 got among an extraordinary people indeed. But 
 it is one of the advantages of mixing with men 
 of other nations and other habits, that we learn 
 that our notions do not rule the entire world, and
 
 CUSTOMS OF VARIOUS NATIONS. 195 
 
 more than that, that our own notions are not al- 
 ways the best." 
 
 " Exactly so," said the lady ; " and besides this, 
 an intimate acquaintance with foreigners often 
 tends to correct harsh and erroneous views we 
 may have formed of them. I, for instance, before 
 I visited in the houses of Hindoo families, used 
 to think that, living as they do, there would be 
 nothing but quarrelling among their inmates 
 from morning till night. But I did not find it 
 was so. Even the wives of the same husband, in 
 spite of all the curses you say they heap on each 
 other, seem happy on the whole." 
 
 "Oh, they have dreadful quarrels, sometimes!" 
 returned Prosonno; "but on the whole, as you 
 say, they are happier far than your ladies would 
 be under the same circumstances, I fancy." 
 
 Here the conversation was interrupted by the 
 other visitors expressing a wish to take leave, 
 whereupon the missionary, as was his wont, pro- 
 posed that they should have prayers together 
 before they separated. He read a chapter out of 
 the Holy Book of the Christians, and then, while 
 they all knelt round the table, he offered a prayer, 
 in which each heart must ha^e joined. Not only
 
 196 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 were the petitions of such a nature that every 
 man would use them in coming before the Most 
 High God ; but there was also something to suit 
 the individual case of each one there. Prosonno 
 thought within himself, "Oh! that my heathen 
 friends could hear prayer like this, and feel its 
 value as I do. They would never more use those 
 stupid charms and incantations of which they 
 hardly understand a word !" When the worship 
 was over, the little party separated. Prosonno 
 did not remember ever having spent so pleasant 
 an evening. 
 
 After awhile his dullness and his home-sickness 
 vanished by degrees. He was frequently in the 
 house of the missionary; on two evenings in the 
 week he went for a special lesson on theology, 
 and often visited it at other times. Whenever he 
 went, the missionary's wife always received him 
 kindly, and talked to him so encouragingly about 
 Kaminee, that a faint gleam of hope began to rise 
 in his heart, that one day she too might be a 
 Christian. But the missionary and his wife were 
 English people, and could not entirely sympathize 
 in his every thought and feeling; so, after all, the 
 native converts were his best and most intimate
 
 NO CASTE AMONG CHRISTIANS. 197 
 
 friends, and new ones were daily added to the 
 number. 
 
 There was one thing among the Christians that 
 specially struck Prosonno as right and just; al- 
 though being a Brahmin, he might have been 
 expected to chafe a little under the new regime. 
 This was the total absence of caste. Hitherto all 
 the lower castes, had considered it an honor to 
 be allowed to taste food prepared for him; his 
 blessing was thought to be the highest privilege; 
 and some had even gone so far as to drink the 
 water in which he had dipped his feet. All this 
 was ended now. He was treated like a man, and 
 being a gentleman in character, education and 
 manners, he was treated like a gentleman also. 
 But this was not on account of his Brahminhood. 
 Had he been educated like his poor brother Surjo, 
 he would have found the lowest Soodras taking 
 their place above him in the social scale. Then, 
 again, there were no distinctions of food in this 
 community. Each man ate what he liked, or ab- 
 stained from what he disliked. 
 
 Prosonno did not learn the lesson of the 
 brotherhood of man in a day. Perhaps he 
 never learnt it so completely as his friend Ram
 
 198 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 Doyal, who surprised him greatly one morning, 
 by asking him to be present at his marriage. 
 Prosonno had only lived among the Christians 
 about four months, and had not yet seen a Chris- 
 tian wedding, so he exclaimed in some astonish- 
 ment 
 
 "You to be married, Rdm Doyal! To whom? 
 I do not understand. The daughters of the gen- 
 tlemen converts of this station seem all little 
 girls; but perhaps you have gone elsewhere to 
 seek a bride?" 
 
 "No, she is here," replied Rdm Doyal, laugh- 
 ing. "But I expected your aristocratic high 
 mightiness would be offended at my choice; so, 
 though you hold the first place among my friends, 
 you are the last to hear my secret." 
 
 "You puzzle me," said Prosonno, "you surely 
 cannot mean to marry " 
 
 "Marry whom?" asked his friend. "Out with 
 it, I believe you will hit it off exactly." 
 
 "Not one of the girls out of the orphan school? 
 No, no, Rdm Doyal, that must not be !" 
 
 "'Tis even so, however, Prosonno; and if bet- 
 ting were allowed among Christians, I would bet
 
 CHOICE OF A BRIDE. 199 
 
 you ten to one, that in less than three months you 
 will say I have done the right thing." 
 
 "But, Ram Doyal, think a moment; what is 
 her caste? They say those girls are the poorest 
 of orphans rescued in some famine. Why, her 
 parents may have been basket-makers, or shoe- 
 makers,* for aught you know!" 
 
 " I hardly think it, from her sweet face and fair 
 complexion," answered his friend. "But sup- 
 posing they were as you say, *I do not marry the 
 parents, who are dead and gone, but the daughter, 
 who is as good, and as clever, and as pretty as any 
 girl you would wish to see." 
 
 "Oh, then I know her!" answered Prosonno. 
 "She is the one who sits first in the second row 
 at church, on the women's side, and they call her 
 Suseela. Is it not so?" 
 
 "Yes." 
 
 "Well, she is pretty; but fancy a Brahmin 
 marrying nobody knows who. For my part, if 
 God ever gives me my Kaminee! well! =but if 
 not, Protestant monkhood for me! If I am a 
 Christian, that is no reason why I should sully 
 my blood." 
 
 * Castes whose very shadow would defile a Brahmin.
 
 200 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 " As you please," returned Edm Doyal, shrug- 
 ging his shoulders. "Now, will your Brahmin- 
 ship condescend to attend the wedding?" 
 
 "Yes, indeed; his Brahminship will come; he 
 wants to see the fun. Pray are the Baboos to 
 feast with the bride's school-fellows, on the school- 
 lawn, where they usually dine ?" 
 
 "No, you provoking fellow. I did think of 
 that, till the bride herself told me that her school- 
 fellows preferred to have their feast apart. You 
 see these basket-makers' daughters have some 
 sense after all ; so as they have refused our com- 
 pany, I ask you to a wedding dinner at the chief 
 catechist's, whose wife has kindly undertaken it 
 for me. I cannot promise, however, that all the 
 guests shall be Brahmins. Baboo S. was of the 
 brazier's caste ; Baboo G. of the doctor, and Baboo 
 T. only a " 
 
 "Oh yes, yes, I know that," returned Prosonno. 
 "Still they are educated men and gentlemen; and 
 we as Christians have done with all other distinc- 
 tions." 
 
 "Oh, have we? Only we will not marry a 
 basket-maker! I am truly glad of it, because 
 there is but one Suseela in the world, and I want
 
 THE BRIDE AND BRIDEGROOM. 201 
 
 her for myself." So saying the happy bridegroom 
 elect went to complete his arrangements with a 
 native confectioner, respecting the quantity of 
 sweetmeats to be furnished for the wedding feast. 
 On the appointed day, about eleven o'clock in 
 the morning, a large Christian congregation, con- 
 sisting of men, women, and the girls of the orphan 
 school, about sixty in rr.mber, assembled in the 
 little church. When all was ready, the mission- 
 ary beckoned to Rdm Doyal, who was seated 
 among the men, to come and stand before him 
 and the assembled witnesses. At the same mo- 
 ment the missionary's wife led in the bride, and 
 the two stood side by side. She was about sixteen 
 years of age, very modest and pretty, and was 
 attired in a white muslin Saree, which served the 
 purpose of a veil, and under the folds of which a 
 tight-fitting pink silk bodice, trimmed with silver 
 lace, showed to great advantage. Her beautiful 
 long black hair was neatly plaited and fastened 
 up with pins; while Rdm Doyal, who was in a 
 good situation, and able to aiford the present, not 
 caring to be wiser than the inspired writer, who 
 asks, " Can a maid forget her ornaments, or a 
 bride her attire?" had bought his bride a few gold
 
 202 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 jewels also, after the fashion of the country. She 
 wore them now for the first time, and they suited 
 her well, and heightened the eifect produced by 
 her native beauty. The bridegroom himself wore 
 his usual costume, with the addition of only a 
 Cashmere shawl thrown over his shoulders, the 
 gift of a heathen uncle, who, lately pacified to- 
 wards him, had taken this fitting opportunity of 
 showing his kind feeling. 
 
 The marriage service was very simple. It con- 
 sisted in the missionary asking the bride and 
 bridegroom in their native language whether, in 
 the presence of God and of those witnesses, they 
 took each other for their lawful and only partner 
 through life, to have and to hold until death 
 parted them. They both joined hands, and an- 
 swered, "We do." Then he pronounced them 
 man and wife, and said, " What God hath joined 
 together let no man put asunder." After that a 
 marriage hymn was sung, and then the missionary 
 commended the newly-wedded pair to the keeping 
 and the blessing of God. Last of all, they signed 
 a contract, containing promises similar to those 
 already made in words, and then the marriage 
 was complete.
 
 SIMPLICITY OF THE CEREMONY. 208 
 
 Prosonno contrasted this chaste and holy service 
 with the disgusting proceedings that had taken 
 place on the day on which he had brought home 
 his wife from the house of her father: and the 
 contrast tended to heighten his admiration of 
 Christianity, that chosen religion in which he 
 daily saw something new to love and respect. As 
 the bride and the bridegroom were going out of 
 church to the house of the catechist, where the 
 feast was to be held, Prosonno whispered to his 
 next neighbor 
 
 "Of course, as the bride is already a woman, 
 there will be no second-marriage ceremony needed 
 in a year or two, as is the custom among us?" 
 
 "Oh no, certainly not," was the reply. "You 
 know the cottage that Rdm Doyal has lately taken 
 and furnished? Well, thither he and his wife 
 will repair as soon as the feast is over. What 
 need will there be of another ceremony?" 
 
 " Oh ! I see none at all. But will they live 
 alone ? Can the bride be trusted by herself, all 
 the time her husband is at office ?" 
 
 " Live alone ! Yes, of course. Ram Doyal 'a 
 relatives are all Hindoos. With whom should he 
 live ? And as for the bride, you had better not
 
 204 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 let her husband hear that question of yours, if 
 you wish to keep friends with him ; that's all." 
 
 "But I thought I thought," said Prosonno, 
 blushing, and hardly knowing how to get out of 
 the dilemma, " I thought she would be too inex- 
 perienced to get on well alone. There are dozens 
 of things our wives have to learn from their 
 mothers-in-law, as you know very well. Fancy 
 our little brides being set down alone in a great 
 empty house the day they were married ! Why 
 it would be the death of them !" 
 
 " Perhaps ; but that would be just because they 
 are so little. There is some difference, you must 
 allow, between a young woman of sixteen and a 
 child of eight." 
 
 " Well, yes ; I was forgetting that," returned 
 Prosonno. " But do none of the native Christian 
 girls marry till they reach this age ?" 
 
 "Hardly any, and some are older; and as for 
 English young ladies, I dare say our missionary's 
 wife has told you, they often do not marry until 
 they are twenty-five or thirty years old." 
 
 The wedding feast went off remarkably well. 
 There were some four and twenty native gentle- 
 men guests, who dined in the verandah off China
 
 THE WEDDING FEAST. 205 
 
 plates, it is true, but still preserving the Bengalee 
 custom of sitting cross-legged on the floor, and 
 eating with their fingers in preference to knives 
 and forks Their ladies were to take their dinner 
 in an inner apartment. The viands consisted of 
 rice, and six or seven varieties of curry, made of 
 meat, fish, and vegetables ; they had nothing 
 roasted or boiled. The above was their first 
 course ; while the second was made up of curds, 
 milk, and sweetmeats. 
 
 It may seem strange to our readers that Chris- 
 tian converts, such as these, had not yet learned 
 the European fashion of men and women sitting 
 at meat together. Such must remember that the 
 converts were in a transition state; they had cast 
 off their old religion ; but they were not prepared 
 all at once to cast off every social usage that they 
 had followed ever since they had possessed con- 
 scious being. By degrees they would do so. The 
 husbands had already begun to eat with their own 
 wives, when in the privacy of their homes ; but 
 at a large party, men and women were still shy 
 of mingling together in social intercourse, such as 
 would have been unheard of in their native state. 
 
 The dinner for the ladies was to be served
 
 206 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 About half an hour later than that of their hus- 
 bands, to allow time to the catechist's wife (who 
 was directress of the whole) to see that they were 
 both properly attended to; she herself, kind crea- 
 ture, never attempting to sit down at all ; she 
 could easily have something special for supper, 
 she said, when all the rest were gone. At length 
 it was ready, when lo ! the bride was nowhere to 
 be found. It was not difficult, however, to con- 
 jecture where she must have gone ; and one of the 
 female guests immediately set out for the orphan 
 school, which was but a little way off, remarking 
 as she went, "To eat off a plantain leaf with 
 those one loves, is sweeter than to feast off the 
 golden dish of a stranger," thus thinks the I 'ide, 
 I fancy. Her proverb was literally verified for 
 she found Suseela .in the midst of her sc ool- 
 companions, who were dining on the lawn, -ach 
 girl being furnished with a plantain leaf > r a 
 plate. They had done wisely in asking to be left 
 to themselves. Both parties were the more c >m- 
 fortable for it, and theirs was the merrier party 
 of the two. The bride had not dined with th^m ; 
 she had merely been there to watch their ei\ jy- 
 ment; that was natural. She now put on a very
 
 CONSECRATION OP THE NEW HOME. 207 
 
 matronly, dignified air, and followed the woman 
 who had come for her ; that was natural too. 
 
 A few hours later found her alone with her 
 husband in their neat cottage home. 
 
 "Shall we kneel down, my Suseela, and ask 
 that this house may become a temple in which 
 God shall deign to dwell with us ?" he said. 
 
 " Do so," was Suseela's reply. " Ask Him to 
 live with us here, until we are ready to go to Him, 
 and inhabit the mansions that His love has pre- 
 pared for us." And then they knelt down, those 
 travelers together to that distant land, and asked 
 for blessings on that sweet home-nest that God 
 had given them to sojourn in for a while. Ear- 
 nestly did they pray that it might be flooded with 
 light, and joy, and melody ; and be " a shadow 
 faint, yet in its lines complete," of that better 
 home of promised beauty, which had been pur- 
 chased for them by the peerless LOVE OF CHRIST.
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 IT is time to turn once more to Prosonno's hea- 
 then home, and see what scenes were being 
 enacted there. The horror and consternation that 
 filled most minds at the recital of the terrible 
 scene that had taken place on the river's bank, 
 may be better imagined than described. Almost 
 the first question that arose was, whether Kaminee 
 ought to divest herself of her ornaments, and 
 begin the austerities of a state of widowhood. 
 The grandmother decided it. Kaminee was not 
 a widow. "As surely," she said, "as the sun 
 would rise when that dreadful night should be 
 passed, so surely would Kaminee's husband be 
 given back to her one day. And Kaminee be- 
 lieved her; for had not the magician promised 
 him to her longing heart? Those thirty-three 
 days were not yet passed. Alas, poor child! All 
 hope from that source was doomed to disappoint- 
 ment. The magician she never saw again; and if 
 
 208
 
 SURJO MAD. 209 
 
 ever her husband should be brought back to her, 
 it would be through no divinations of his. 
 
 The family were horribly shocked at Surjo's 
 miserable condition. Had they been acquainted 
 with the full extent of his guilt, their feelings 
 would have partaken more of indignation than 
 of pity; but the grandmother, the only person 
 who could have told the truth, thought it wiser 
 to hold her peace. So the tide of the family 
 prejudice turned against the innocent and uncon- 
 scious Prosonno; while they all agreed that it was 
 utterly impossible to harm a Christian or turn 
 him from the error of his way; the devil, they 
 said, helped his own. The Hindoos have an un- 
 conquerable dislike to hospitals, alms-houses, or 
 asylums of any kind. Thus it happened that 
 although Surjo's madness assumed at times a 
 violent character, and in reality needed skillful 
 treatment, it never occurred to them to place him 
 under restraint beyond such as they were able to 
 contrive for him within the family home. At 
 first they thought even this was cruel, and it was 
 not until he had struck his own mother, and at- 
 tempted to throw his infant daughter out of the 
 window, that they gave orders for hi? confinement; 
 
 14
 
 210 LIFE BY THE GANGES 
 
 and where should his cell be? There was no 
 room in the house so secure as that in which 
 Prosonno had been placed ; indeed, no other room 
 was in the least secure. So Surjo was locked up 
 In the very place that he had bolted and barred 
 and nailed with his own hands for his Christian 
 brother. 
 
 His madness did not always assume a violent 
 form. He would crouch down in a dark corner 
 with his glaring eyes fixed on the wall, and mut- 
 ter curses and incantations, and sometimes seem 
 to be talking to some one who was not visible to 
 the eyes of his family. He was put under the 
 charge of one of the servants, who remained \vith 
 him, gave him his food at regular hours, and 
 attended to the lighting of his room at night; for 
 the wretched man could not bear to be left in 
 darkness. His father anH brothers at first would 
 often go to see him; but he rarely recognized 
 them; and it became such a painful duty, that 
 after a while they gave it up. 
 
 Mohendro himself was most anxious to go on a 
 pilgrimage, and was only dissuaded from doing so 
 by the earnest entreaties of his mother, who asked 
 him if he could leave his eldest son in such a
 
 MOHENDRO'S FEELINGS. .211 
 
 miserable condition, and his mother and wife iu 
 his brother's house? The old man, however, en- 
 deavored in some slight measure to atone for the 
 family sins of the last six months, by performing 
 his poojas with greater strictness than he had ever 
 done. Prosonno, the cause of all the evil, was 
 never mentioned in the family. They had heard 
 of his baptism with indifference, and not a word 
 was said about reclaiming him again. "He had 
 been the root of all this sorrow and disgrace," 
 Mohendro said ; " why should they grieve to get 
 rid of him? He was their son no longer, but an 
 outcast, a dog, a Christian !" 
 
 The women all this time had been living quietly 
 on, each performing her household work and giv- 
 ing the spare time to sleeping or thinking. Shou- 
 daminee and Nistarinee slept nearly all day long; 
 Shoudaminee, to forget her cares: and Nistarinee, 
 to drown the dullness; for she loved excitement, 
 and half regretted that it was over. She forgot 
 that she had suffered nothing in the matter; while 
 Shoudaminee and Kaminee felt that their pleas- 
 ant prospects in life were ruined. Kaminee 
 would sit for hours in her own room, going over 
 in her mind the events that had occurred since
 
 212 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 the morning that Prosonno first left his home. 
 It seemed so long to her, and she was afraid she 
 should never see him again. The long-wished- 
 for thirty-third day was over; the magician had 
 not appeared, and she was fast giving herself up 
 to despair. She clung to Hindooism, and yet 
 longed to know more about the new religion that 
 her husband professed. "Ah!" she thought, 
 "there is no end to my trouble: would that I had 
 never been born !" 
 
 The old grandmother also reflected much on 
 what had lately passed in the family, but in a very 
 different way from Kaminee. Her mind dwelt most 
 on Prosonno's calm trust in the God he wor- 
 shipped; and his faith that that God would in the 
 end deliver him from his enemies. And then 
 she thought of Surjo's wicked schemes, and how 
 they had all been frustrated; how Prosonno had 
 got safe to the missionary; and how Surjo was 
 lying chained in the room he had prepared for his 
 brother. "Surely," she thought, "Prosonno's 
 God must be the true God." She took great care 
 of the Testament that the missionary had given 
 her so long ago, and often longed to read it, and 
 learn more about the religion of the Christians;
 
 SURJO'S TRAGICAL END. 213 
 
 but she could not read herself, and she was afraid 
 to ask any of the servants to read it to her, lest 
 fresh suspicion should be awakened. She had 
 to be content with thinking on these things, and 
 hiding them in her heart. 
 
 Things went on in this way for some little 
 while ; but the family peace was soon again to be 
 disturbed by another unexpected event. 
 
 One night, about two months after the tragedy 
 on the river's bank, the servant who had charge 
 of Surjo was awaked by a piercing scream proceed- 
 ing from the room in which Surjo was locked. 
 He had gone in himself, an hour before, and left 
 the miserable man asleep. Surjo had been much 
 more tractable lately, and had begun to show signs 
 of returning reason ; indeed, his father was enter- 
 taining the hope that he would soon be quite 
 restored. The man, knowing this, was all the 
 more surprised, and being very superstitious also, 
 thought some evil spirit was with him. Without 
 a moment's thought he rushed away, taking the 
 key of the door with him ; for the screams were 
 becoming louder and louder, and he was thor- 
 oughly frightened. Soon the whole family were 
 at the door, calling in vain to the keeper for the
 
 214 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 key. It took several minutes to break through 
 the numerous bars on the outside, and when the 
 door went back with a crash, they saw the wretched 
 Surjo biting his chains, tearing his hair, and ra- 
 ving, for he was surrounded with flame. 
 
 At first they were too stunned to think of the 
 cause; but Chondro Kumar soon gave the order 
 to bring water, which they threw over the mise- 
 rable man. This seemed only to increase his 
 agony; and when the fire was quenched, and 
 Mohendro and his sons went to see the condition 
 in which Surjo was left, they found him on the 
 ground dead. All kinds of restoratives were 
 employed, but in vain. Surjo had gone to hear 
 the terrible sentence from the righteous Judge, 
 " Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer dark- 
 ness." The little oil-lamp had fallen from its 
 niche in the wall on Surjo while he was sleeping, 
 and had set fire to the thin muslin dress that he 
 wore. So the light which Surjo could not bear 
 to be without, proved the cause of his death. 
 
 The family were far more shocked than in Pro- 
 sonno's case ; and the old grandmother pondered 
 long over Surjo's end. She made Nobo write and 
 tell Prosonno ; and tried to cheer Shoudaminee'g
 
 Surjo's sad fate. 
 
 Page 214.
 
 FUNERAL RITES. 215 
 
 drooping spirit ; for she was looking forward with 
 great dread to the life of hardship before her, as 
 a widow. 
 
 The funeral ceremonies were very strictly at- 
 tended to ; the father was determined to think of 
 him only as the religious Hindoo, and seemed to 
 forget the last two months of his life. If they 
 would cross his mind unpleasantly, the fault was 
 laid on Prosonno, and Surjo was called the victim 
 of his brother's anger and spite. 
 
 Whc the feast which concludes the funeral 
 rites was over, Mohendro told his family that they 
 had better return home. They all readily agreed ; 
 for they said they had been living on their 
 brother's hospitality long enough ; and they would 
 be delighted to go away from the scene of so 
 much trouble. So they returned to the old house, 
 which was half a mile from the missionary station 
 where Prosonno lived. 
 
 Grief in Bengalee households, though very 
 violent at first, is soon forgotten. In a few weeks 
 the life in Mohendro's family quite regained its 
 usual spirit, and a stranger would scarcely have 
 imagined that they had recently passed through 
 BO much sorrow. At length Mohendro determined
 
 216 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 to carry out his wish of making a pilgrimage to 
 Benares,* to offer atonement for Prosonno's sin in 
 becoming a Christian, and to wash out the stain 
 on the good name of the family. His mother 
 and wife both tried to dissuade him from his pur- 
 pose ; but he had decided, and would not listen to 
 them. " I am growing an old man," he said ; 
 " and if I delay, I shall never be able to go. I 
 long to see the holy city, and it is time that 
 Chondro and Nobo Kumar should learn to be the 
 head of this house, as Surjo is dead, and I shall 
 soon follow him." The day of his departure was 
 a sorrowful one for the family. Mohendro blessed 
 them in the name of the gods, and gave his sons 
 instructions about the management of the house- 
 hold. They parted from him with much weeping. 
 Chondro and Nobo accompanied him to the oppo- 
 site side of the Ganges, and saw him fairly begin 
 his journey. Both the brothers agreed that Pro- 
 sonno was a most hard-hearted wretch to have 
 caused this separation, which almost broke his 
 father's heart. A fortnight after, Nobo Kumar 
 
 * Benares, or Kasee, the Golden City, is a place esteemed 
 most holy ; on the Ganges, four hundred and sixty miles abov 
 Calcutta.
 
 MOHENDRO'S LETTER TO NOBO. 2l7 
 
 received the following letter, which gave great joy 
 to the whole household : 
 
 " I, Mohendro Kumar Chatterjea, am always 
 blessing you, and in my daily worship to the 
 father Siva, am begging for your prosperity and 
 success. I hope you and all the other members 
 of the family are quite well in body and mind. 
 O my dear son Nobo Kumar, though I am at 
 Benares, and enjoying the pilgrimage in every 
 way, my spirit is with you in Calcutta. If ever 
 you should be sick (which I do not wish) send for 
 my friend Dr. Komol Dutt, and tell him that 
 your father will not mind the expense if he treat 
 you well ; and he must send the bill to me, and I 
 will pay it at once. Nobo, my son, I hope you 
 have borne in mind all the counsels that I gave 
 you before my starting for Benares. I shall repeat 
 them again, that you may keep them the better in 
 mind. Never walk in the sun. If you wish to 
 go out anywhere, order the Sirkar to get you a 
 garie or palkee.* Never quarrel with anybody, 
 especially with your college friends. Don't get 
 into bad company. Speak pleasant words to the 
 servants ; never be harsh or rough with them ; for 
 
 * Carriage or palankeen.
 
 218 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 it is written in our Shastres that subjects and ser- 
 vants ought to be treated like sons and daughters. 
 
 " Do not sit up at night to study ; go to bed 
 soon after eleven. Ah, my dear boy do not read 
 that fascinating book, the Bible ; do not read any 
 Christian books or associate with Christians, and 
 especially with that apostate for whom I have left 
 HOME, FAMILY, FRIENDS, and CotnsrrnY. 
 
 "Write me letters as often as you can, and 
 mention in them everything respecting home and 
 yourself. Go to Kalighat* once a month. Re- 
 peat your Shondhya every morning and evening. 
 Be humble and forbearing; do not get angry sud- 
 denly, nor be hasty in anything. If you go out 
 anywhere, always pray first to the goddess Kali, 
 who will bless you and make you prosperous. 
 Remember, my son Nobo, that the above counsels 
 are from a father who is to you a god ; so make a 
 garland of them, and wear it round the neck of 
 your mind, and act accordingly. 
 
 "Where is the apostate? Does he ever write 
 to you? If he does, never reply. Has the Padre" 
 given him any situation ? How is he supporting 
 
 * To the temple of the hideous Kali. Calcutta is a corruptioa 
 of Kalighat
 
 MOHENDRO'S LETTER TO NOBO. 219 
 
 himself now? Has he received a Sahib's name? 
 Keep up no connection with him; forget that he 
 is my son and your brother. He has now become 
 an outcast by receiving baptism; and he has no 
 right to give out to the world that he is my son. 
 Pluck him out of your mind, and think that he 
 is dead. By the advice of the Bhottacharias 
 here, I am about to perform a Sraddha* for him 
 who is now dead to me. 
 
 "How is that neighbor of mine, who has 
 troubled me in the magistrate's court for the last 
 six years? If he try to do anything again, let 
 me know at once; and tell him that though I am 
 at Benares, I am still living, and it will not take 
 more than five days to go down to Calcutta. 
 Never be afraid of him, my son ; he is as great a 
 coward as a woman ; and always, like women, jiis 
 talking is everything; in his speech he can con- 
 quer all the kings of the world, kill the bravest 
 soldiers, and destroy the finest countries; but that 
 is all and nothing more; so do not be afraid of 
 him, my son. 
 
 "Now I wish to close my letter, as I am going 
 to see the father Siva in company with my Bhot- 
 
 * Funeral service.
 
 220 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 tacharia, who is waiting for me; but for the sake 
 of the promise made to you before I left, I shall 
 give you a brief account of this holy place. On 
 my reaching Benares I almost lost myself, think- 
 ing that I had entered into heaven. Oh ! how 
 beautiful is this city. It is adorned with numer- 
 ous temples of various shapes, and is crowded 
 with people of every clime, color, and country. 
 Some of these holy pilgrims who have the good 
 luck of living in this holy place, always sit 
 around the father Mahadeo,* and worship him 
 continually, while others loudly repeat the father's 
 name, that is Bom, Bom, Mahadeo. Pilgrims 
 come in thousands to bathe in the river Ganges, 
 the deliverer of the fallen, every day repeating 
 the words, HORIBOL, HORIBOL, BOM MAHADEO. 
 Rich pilgrims expend thousands of rupees in 
 giving food and raiment to the holy Brahmins 
 and the poor. Truly, Nobo, this is a holy place. 
 Truly the god Mahadeo resides here. Happy are 
 they who can aiford to spend their lives in this 
 place by seeing and worshipping the father Siva 
 every day. We are all enjoying good health by 
 the mercy of the father Mahadeo. I bless you 
 
 * Mahadeo, Mighty God, Siva.
 
 QUIET LIFE AT HOME. 221 
 
 heartily, my son, Nobo. I hope the father Siva 
 will bless you in all your engagements, and 
 make you happy forever and forever. Report the 
 contents of this letter to my friends." 
 
 All Mohendro's letters were in this style, and 
 his sons answered them regularly. For the next 
 three months, life in Prosonno's family went on 
 rather monotonously. Except to go to college, or 
 to visit a friend, Chondro and Nobo scarcely left 
 the house. Their old friends had never got over 
 the feeling that there was terrible disgrace on the 
 family name, and were not nearly as warm as 
 they used to be. The young men sometimes felt 
 a wish to see Prosonno, for their anger disap- 
 peared with time; but they were afraid of incur- 
 ring their father's displeasure, and it never came 
 to anything. The old grandmother was growing 
 more aged every day ; she often longed to see her 
 favorite boy again; but Mohendro had exacted 
 the promise that none of the women should leave 
 the house while he was away. 
 
 All this time Shoudaminee was experiencing 
 the hardships of widowhood. It seemed doubly 
 hard for her; for being the Boro Bo, that is, the 
 wife of the eldest son, she had been treated with
 
 222 LIFE BY THE GANQS. 
 
 even greater consideration than the others. The 
 grandmother seemed most anxious that she should 
 fulfill with great exactness all the rules in the 
 Shastres relating to widows, for she fully believed 
 that a wife, by mortifying her own flesh, may win 
 for her dead husband, however great his sins, the 
 greatest blessings and highest honors in the Hin- 
 doo heaven; and she had a feeling in her heart 
 that all that could be done for the benefit of Sur- 
 jo's soul ought to be done; for after all, was he 
 not her grandson as well as the rest? 
 
 The trials of a Hindoo widow are many. She 
 is not allowed to sleep on anything but the floor; 
 she is allowed only one meal a day, and that 
 must be of the simplest kind, rice and vegetables; 
 meat and fish are strictly forbidden ; while twice 
 a month she has to fast altogether. She is for- 
 bidden to wear a single ornament; and her saree 
 must be made of thick white cloth; she is not 
 allowed to plait her hair, or ornament it with 
 vermillion. Now, the wearing of jewels and 
 plaiting of hair are the greatest pleasures of a 
 Hindoo woman ; it was no wonder, therefore, that 
 Shoudaminee felt the privation keenly. She was 
 young, about twenty-five; and this life of trial
 
 LIFE OF A HINDOO WIDOW. 223 
 
 had come upon her so unexpectedly, which seemed 
 to make it all the harder. Her grandmother 
 tried to cheer her; and Kaminee suggested that it 
 ought to be some consolation to her to know that 
 she was doing something for her husband, while 
 she herself could do nothing. Happily her tem- 
 per was good ; so she tried to bear it patiently 
 without murmuring. 
 
 Kaminee was getting more and more dissatisfied 
 with Hindooism. She found no rest in it, she 
 was growing tired of the daily poojas, which she 
 performed with great exactness. At the end of 
 each day she would ask herself if she were bene- 
 fitted by what she had done; she felt she was not; 
 yet did not know where to learn better. If ever 
 she broached the subject to Nobo, he always 
 turned it off, saying, " A woman's thoughts ought 
 to be in the household, and not go roaming about 
 seeking after a new religion ; there was something 
 bad in everything, and he supposed Hindooism 
 was not an exception." 
 
 One morning as Kaminee and Nistarinee came 
 up-stairs from washing the plates and finishing 
 other domestic matters after their morning meal, 
 Kaminee said
 
 224 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 "Oh! sister Nistar, as we have nothing partic- 
 ular to do just now, suppose I get ray Sim shikJiya 
 (Spelling-book), and begin to teach you the alpha- 
 bet." 
 
 "Teach me to read!" exclaimed Nistar; "why, 
 all the old women tell us that if we learn to read 
 we shall become widows." 
 
 "Oh! do you believe that?" replied Karninee. 
 "In my father's house there used to be a school 
 for little girls, and do you think they all became 
 widows? Look, besides, at the families we 
 know. Kartik Baboo's wife can read and write 
 beautifully, and is she a widow?" 
 
 " Well, we don't know what may happen," said 
 Nistar; "may be, if we were not widows, we 
 should turn Christians." 
 
 "Christians! Well, perhaps there are worse 
 people in the world than Christians/' said Kami- 
 nee quietly. 
 
 Nistarinee fired up directly. 
 
 "You like the Christians! Kaminee, after 
 what has happened in our family, what would our 
 father-in-law say?" 
 
 "Oh! I said nothing about being a Christian 
 myself; so pray say nothing more about it. Do
 
 NISTARINEE AND KAMINEE. 225 
 
 you know that in Bholanath Baboo's house the 
 Boes (young married women) are learning to 
 work?" said Kaminee, Quickly changing the sub- 
 ject; though she had been thinking a good deal 
 nbout it lately, but saw at once that it was a dan- 
 gerous one. 
 
 " Needle- work ! now that must be rather 
 pleasant," said Nistar. " I suppose learning work 
 won't make us Christians. Who teaches them, 
 Kaminee?" 
 
 "Why, it seems their milk-woman has a friend, 
 who knows some one who can work. She went 
 one day, and they were all so delighted with it, 
 that they have engaged her to be their teacher, 
 and are going to give her three rupees a month 
 for it." 
 
 "What are you talking about?" asked Shouda- 
 minee, who had just joined them. 
 
 "Oh! about learning to work," said Nistar. 
 "When our father-in-law comes home, I should 
 like to go to Bholanath Baboo's house to see how 
 the women do work there." 
 
 "And see what the new bride is like," said 
 Kaminee, rather mischievously; "and examine 
 all her jewels!" 
 
 15
 
 226 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 "Well, if you think I am curious, }^ou are 
 mistaken," said Nistarinee, who was rather mor- 
 tified at having her weak point discovered; "so to 
 show you that I am not so, pray go yourself, 
 Mistress Kaminee." 
 
 "Now, Nistar, do not get angry so easily," said 
 Shoudaminee, who was generally peace-maker; 
 for she possessed by far the best temper of the 
 three. "You are as soon set on fire as a lucifer 
 match. Besides, I do not care for jewels, as I 
 cannot wear them myself; and Kaminee, you 
 know, is not allowed to go out since her husband 
 went away; so you are the only one who can 
 go." 
 
 "Well," said Nistar, who carried her resem- 
 blance to lucifer matches to the extent that her 
 fire went out as soon, "well, perhaps I may! 1 
 should very much like to tell you if the new 
 bride is fair or dark; what her eyes are like; and 
 whether she is good-tempered or not." So the 
 conversation ended for that day. 
 
 At the end of four months, Mohendro returned. 
 The family rejoicing was delightful. All sorts of 
 small feasts were planned; "For it is to be hoped," 
 said his wife, "that we have had enough misfor-
 
 GOPAL INVESTED WITH THE POITA. 227 
 
 tune to last us till we die, and that now Ae shall 
 live in peace for the rest of our days." 
 
 It happened that about this time Surjo's eldest 
 son, Gopal, reached the age of eight years, the 
 time when all the children of Brahmins are 
 invested with the poita or Brahminical thread, in 
 token of their caste and position in society. His 
 mother thought that there could be no more fit- 
 ting time for this ceremony than the present, and 
 it was settled accordingly. Mohendro intended 
 to perform it himself. 
 
 On the day appointed, Gopal was taken from 
 the women's apartments into the outer court. 
 Here there were a great many Brahmin priests 
 assembled ; and in their presence, with innumer- 
 able prayers to the gods, Mohendro gave his 
 grandson a new umbrella, a new pair of wooden 
 shoes (khorom), a new bamboo stick, and a new 
 dhooty and chudder, the Hindoo man's dress. 
 After this he was presented with a poita, very 
 like a skein of cotton in appearance, with a piece 
 of leather and some kusa grass bound round it. 
 For the next three days Gopal was kept in a 
 room by himself, to be purified; it was specially 
 necessary that he should not see a woman's face,
 
 228 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 nor hear a woman's voice. At the end of the 
 third day, he went in company with his relatives 
 aud friends to the side of the holy river, and 
 offered the seven things he had received three 
 days ago to the goddess Gunga. After bathing 
 himself, he received a new suit of clothes, and 
 was invested in a new poita. Then he returned 
 home, a BRAHMIN on his own account. The 
 ceremony concluded with a grand feast. Not- 
 withstanding the heavy expenses that had fallen 
 upon the household, Mohendro spent no less than 
 five hundred rupees on this worthless form. He 
 was too proud to suffer his friends to see that the 
 troubles that had come on his family had altered 
 his position as a wealthy man, if they had affected 
 his reputation as a spotless Hindoo.
 
 CHAPTER VIM. 
 
 "17 AMINEE'S mind was ill at ease. The sep- 
 JLV. aration from her husband made her unhappy, 
 and the cause of the separation made the wretched- 
 ness doubly bitter. To her it would have been 
 far better that he should be dead, as his family 
 had supposed him to be, when they took him to 
 the river-side, than to live to be an outcast. Then 
 she could have mourned for him as a faithful 
 Hindoo widow should. Now she could only weep 
 in secret, and long in vain for his return ; though 
 she could not help indulging the secret hope, that 
 if by rigorous austerities, she could in any way 
 atone for his sin, and appease the anger of the 
 gods, he might yet be restored to her. With this 
 view, as well as to try and find some comfort in 
 her sadness, she redoubled her attention to all the 
 ceremonies of Hindooism. She increased the 
 number of her daily poojas, and fasted so. long 
 and so often as to undermine her strength. Not 
 
 229
 
 230 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 content with performing these poojas herself, she 
 would often coax her husband's little sister, Hera- 
 lota, to learn them from her. Hemlota was a 
 bright lively little thing, and hardly had patience 
 to go through the long tedious repetitious of these 
 various services ; but she could never long resist 
 the winning gentleness of her elder sister, to whom 
 she looked up as to a superior being, and love for 
 her generally made her an apt scholar. But all 
 these things, though they won for her increased 
 esteem in the family, and the hearty love of little 
 Hemlota, brought her no real peace of mind. 
 She was restless and unhappy, and seemed to take 
 but little pleasure in anything. 
 
 While she was feeling thus, the grandmother 
 one day expressed a great wish to pay a visit to 
 her favorite Prosonno. She felt as she got older 
 that her strength was failing, and she longed to 
 see her darling once more. Mohendro, though 
 he would not have allowed any one else even to 
 mention Prosonno's name to him, (so bitter was 
 his feeling against the poor boy), was so accus- 
 tomed to treat his mother with deference, and to 
 accede to all her wishes, that he immediately made 
 arrangements for her to go in a closed palanquin
 
 THE GRANDMOTHER'S TALK WITH PROSONNO. 281 
 
 to the house of an intimate friend of his, whose 
 family she was accustomed to visit in this way, 
 and who lived very near the mission station. It 
 would have been out of the question to allow her 
 to go to the station itself; for a visit to her grand- 
 son, in his Christian home, would have revived 
 the memory of the disgrace, the shadow of which 
 still rested on his family, from one of its mem- 
 bers having become a Christian. As soon as she 
 arrived at the house, she sent a message to Pro- 
 sonno that she was there, waiting to receive him, 
 and he joyfully obeyed the summons. He could 
 hardly express his delight at seeing her again. 
 When his first excitement had a little subsided, 
 he asked eagerly 
 
 " How are they all at home ? My father and 
 mother ; and my beautiful Kamiuee ? You can- 
 not think how I miss her sweet face and gentle 
 ways." 
 
 " Your father and mother are well," she replied ; 
 "and so is Karninee; though of late she has 
 seemed to me to look more sad and anxious than 
 usual. Oh ! my boy, my darling, how could you 
 leave us? How can you live like this, away 
 from us ?H ?"
 
 232 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 " It is hard," rejoined Prosouno, " and I often 
 feel very sad about it ; but I did it to serve a God 
 who calls Himself our Father, who promises to 
 comfort us as a tender mother would comfort her 
 darling child ; and who has made Himself known 
 to us as a Sea of Love ; and He does help and 
 comfort me." 
 
 " A SEA OF LOVE !" repeated the grandmother, 
 " a sea of love ! Yes, those are the very words I 
 heard so long ago from the missionary, when he 
 saved my child's life at Saugor, and gave your 
 father the book I gave you. But he told me 
 something else about some One who has made an 
 atonement for our sins. What was that ?" 
 
 Prosonno had heard his grandmother relate to 
 his uncle Rajendro, how his life had been saved 
 on Saugor Island by the interference of sepoys ; 
 but she had never mentioned the missionary or 
 the Testament he had given her ; and Prosonno 
 had often wondered how the book which had been 
 such a comfort to him had come into her posses- 
 sion. Now his face beamed with joy, as he replied, 
 "The missionary must have told you of Jesus 
 Christ. He is the Son of God, and so great was 
 His love to us, that He willingly bore the punish-
 
 THE GRANDMOTHER'S TALK WITH PROSONNO. 233 
 
 ment that our sins deserved ; and now, if we trust 
 in Him and obey Him, He will make us happy 
 with Him forever in heaven." 
 
 " Yes, yes, that was it," exclaimed the grand- 
 mother. " What wonderful love ! But you said 
 we are to live in heaven forever. Then do not 
 you expect ever to return to the earth in some 
 other form of existence, as the Shastras say we 
 shall?" 
 
 "No, no," answered Prosonno. "The book 
 you gave me says that those who once enter hea- 
 ven shall go no more out. They shall be forever 
 with the Lord, who died for them. They shall 
 see His face, and rejoice in his love; and the 
 heaven where they shall live exceeds in beauty 
 anything that we have ever seen or heard of, or 
 that we can even imagine." 
 
 " Those are beautiful words," said his grand- 
 mother ; " but tell me, my boy, how do you live 
 here ? "Who supports you ?" 
 
 "The missionaries do at present," answered 
 Prosonno, "till I can get my own living. Aa 
 soon as my studies are finished, I shall receive a 
 salary, just enough to live on, that I may spend 
 all my time, telling every one who will listen to
 
 234 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 me of the wonderful love we were talking of just 
 now." 
 
 " And how do you spend your time now ?" 
 
 "In study chiefly, as I did when I was at 
 home; and in spare hours I visit my Christian 
 friends." 
 
 "Have you many friends?" asked his grand- 
 mother. 
 
 "Yes," answered Prosonno, "all the Christian 
 Baboos here are very kind to me; especially my 
 friend Rdm Doyal, whose conversation first led 
 me to think of Christianity, and the missionary 
 and his wife, who live in that large white house 
 over there; they are living in this country, away 
 from their relations and friends, for the love of 
 Christ, so they understand something of what I 
 feel. Oh! if all of you at home only knew that 
 love! Tell Kaminee, if she will hear you, how 
 I long and pray that she may know it, and how 
 often I think of her, and long to have her with 
 me." 
 
 "Yes. I will tell her. But I must go now. 
 Your father would not like me to be longer away 
 from home. Good-bye, my boy. Whatever the 
 others at home may think of you, remember I
 
 THE GRANDMOTHER'S FAILING HEALTH. 23.5 
 
 always loved you, and mentioned your name with 
 vows in my poojas every day. May the goda 
 send you all success and prosperity !" 
 
 Prosonno returned his grandmother's salutation, 
 and sad, yet comforted, he saw her return home. 
 
 The grandmother after this visit began to feel 
 her strength declining, and cared less and less for 
 the little events occurring around her. Kaminee 
 saw this with concern, for she was sincerely at- 
 tached to THAKOOE MA; and of late she had 
 been especially drawn to her, as she was the only 
 one in the house who would speak kindly of her 
 husband. She had received his message from 
 her on the day of the visit, and since then had 
 grown more thoughtful and anxious than ever, 
 though she never seemed inclined to talk to any 
 one of what was passing in her mind. 
 
 As time went on, the grandmother's weakness 
 increased, and she was soon glad to leave all the 
 little household occupations, with which she was 
 accustomed to busy herself, to the younger women, 
 while she passed most of her time in quietness or 
 in sleep, till she was no longer able to rise from 
 her bed. Kaminee and Shoudaminee were then 
 in constant attendant e on her and were most
 
 236 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 dutiful in their attentions. Sometimes she vould 
 question them as to the little news they had heard 
 during thediy, or ask about the children; but 
 oftener she would lie still, with her eyes closed, 
 as they thought, asleep. On one of these occa- 
 sions, after lying in this war for some time, she 
 opened her eyes, and seeing Kaminee and Shou- 
 daminee sitting beside her, she said, "Kaminee, 
 did your husband ever speak to you about One 
 who made an atonement for our sins?" Shou- 
 daminee heard the question, and said in a whis- 
 per to Kaminee, "Her mind must be wandering, 
 from her being so weak. Perhaps she is feverish. 
 Shall I bathe her head?" She rose, and was go- 
 ing for some water, when the grandmother, who 
 had heard the whisper, said, "No, my daughter, 
 my mind is quite clear; stay and hear what I 
 have to say." 
 
 Shoudaminee came near to her, and she repeated 
 her question to Kaminee. 
 
 "Yes," replied Kaminee, "he told me that and 
 many other strange things about a new religion 
 he has found. I suppose, now, it must have been 
 Christianity." 
 
 " Y'js, it was," answered the grandmother. "I
 
 HER BELIEF IN THE GOSPEL. 237 
 
 wish I knew more about it; but this one thing 
 about the atonement I know, because he told me 
 about it; and the missionary told me the same 
 long ago. It was the Son of God who did it, be- 
 cause He loved us." 
 
 "That is what the Christians believe," said 
 Shoudaminee ; " but we know it cannot be true." 
 
 "But I think it must be true; I have long 
 thought so," replied the grandmother, earnestly. 
 "I will tell you why. We all know that God 
 has made us, and made us with hearts to love. 
 Now this religion says that He is a sea of love, 
 and that His Son died for us, purely out of love, 
 that we might love Him and be His servants for- 
 ever; yes, even after death never more to return 
 to the earth in any form, but to be with Him for- 
 ever in heaven. But who ever thinks of loving 
 Shiva or Yishnoo?" 
 
 Kaminee thought for a few minutes, and then 
 said, "But how can you call that a religion 
 of love, which has separated your grandson from 
 us all, and makes him willing to live away from 
 us?" 
 
 "Is it Christianity or Hindooism that has done 
 that?" replied the grandmother. "Hindooism
 
 238 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 has taught his family to try to forget him, or to 
 hate him; but he says his new religion has made 
 him love us more than ever; because it teaches 
 him that the Saviour, who saves him, loves us, 
 and wishes to save us too, if we would only ask 
 Him to do it. I should like to know if He 
 would save me. Often during the last few days, 
 when you thought I was asleep, I have been 
 praying to Him to save me if He will." 
 
 Then after a pause, she added, earnestly, "Yes, 
 I will trust in Him. I do love Him for His 
 great love to me." 
 
 Shoudaminee was startled by this sudden con- 
 fession. That the Thakoor Ma, whom she had 
 always been accustomed to treat with so much 
 respect, should have said such things as she had 
 just heard, seemed to her perfectly dreadful. 
 She was afraid to hear more, so she said gently : 
 
 "Thakoor Ma, don't talk any more now; you 
 are not strong enough. Try to sleep a little." 
 
 So saying, she left the room, to quiet her child, 
 who had awoke from its sleep and was crying; 
 but Kaminee remained a moment longer to ask, 
 "Could I find out any more about this new religion
 
 KAMINEE READS THE NEW TESTAMENT. 239 
 
 you seem to like so much? I should like to know 
 more of it/'* 
 
 "I cannot tell you more," replied the grand- 
 mother; "but your husband left some of his 
 Christian books with me, in the hope that some 
 of his family might read them at some time. 
 You will find them in the large box in the 
 corner of that empty room, next to mine. There 
 is the key, I hope you may think about them as 
 I do." 
 
 Just then Mohendro's wife came in to inquire 
 after her mother-in-law, and Kaminee, her mind 
 full of strange, new thoughts, was glad to escape 
 to the solitude of her own room. 
 
 As soon as she was alone, she said to herself, 
 " How strange that the Thakoor Ma should be- 
 lieve this religion, when she has heard so little of 
 it. I half wish it were true. It must be very 
 happy to believe, as the Christians do, in the love 
 of God. No one will see me now, I will go and 
 get the books she told me of." 
 
 So saying, she went to the room her grand- 
 mother had indicated; and, finding the books, 
 returned with them carefully hidden in the fold* 
 of her robe to her own chambei
 
 240 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 That night Kaminee slept but little. Instead 
 of retiring to rest at her usual hour, she seated 
 herself by a dim light, to read her husband's NEW 
 TESTAMENT. She began at the beginning, with 
 the wonderful story of the birth of Christ; of 
 the wise men who came from far to see and wor- 
 ship Him, guided by the bright star in the east ; 
 and so fascinated was she by the simple story that 
 she read eagerly page after page. It was far on 
 in the night before she thought of sleep; and 
 when at last she did stop in her reading, it was 
 with a serious resolve that she would not let her 
 mind rest till it rested in the truth. 
 
 Many days and nights passed in this way, the 
 days being spent beside the aged grandmother, 
 and long hours in the night poring over the New 
 Testament. The more Kaminee read, the more 
 she was fascinated and attracted by the new reli- 
 gion. Its wonderful purity, and the noble spirit 
 of disinterested self-sacrifice, of love and kind- 
 ness to all men, that it continually inculcated, 
 were entirely new to her ; and she could not help 
 acknowledging in the depths of her heart, how 
 infinitely superior these were to anything she had 
 ever learned from Hindooism. And as each night
 
 THE GRANDMOTHER'S LAST HOURS. 241 
 
 found her returning to her new-found treasure, 
 the wish was growing in her heart, more and 
 more strong, though she was afraid to confess it 
 to herself, that she might find this new and beau- 
 tiful religion to be indeed the true one. 
 
 One day, while she was in this state of mind, 
 when she went to see her grandmother, she per- 
 ceived a change in her appearance. It was evident 
 she was sinking fast ; and all who looked on her, 
 could see plainly that she had not many hours to 
 live. Now and then her mind seemed to be 
 wandering; but as Kaminee approached and spoke 
 to her, a pleasant smile on her features showed 
 that she recognized her, and she said faintly : 
 
 "Stay beside me; let me see you as long as I 
 can see anything." 
 
 Kaminee seated herself beside her, and busied 
 herself in all the little offices of love that could 
 soothe her grandmother's last hours. Indeed, all 
 the members of the family were constantly in ner 
 room that day, for the Thakoor Ma, besides the 
 respect that was due, had won the love of the 
 whole household by her good temper and ner 
 kindness to them all. 
 
 Chondro Kumar, who was now the eldest son 
 
 16
 
 242 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 of the house, had gone to summon the Brahmin 
 priests to perform the religious ceremonies for 
 the dying, while the other members of the family 
 awaited, in gloomy silence, the solemnization of 
 the last rites. 
 
 The grandmother spoke very little to any one. 
 Now and then she would address a question to 
 Kaminee; but the greater part of the time, those 
 around her could see her lips move, though no 
 one heard what she said. Once Kaminee bent 
 over her and said : 
 
 "Thakoor Ma, were you asking for anything? 
 Can I do anything for you?" She answered, 
 faintly, "No one can do anything for me now, 
 but the SON OP GOD ; I was praying to Him to 
 help and save me." These words were spoken so 
 low, that only Kaminee could catch their mean- 
 ing ; but as she heard them, she almost envied her 
 grandmother, and felt for a moment as though she 
 would gladly change places with her, to have, 
 instead of her own troubled thoughts, the peace 
 and rest which she enjoyed in trusting in her new- 
 found Saviour. She continued her sad watch, 
 which she could see was now fast drawing to a 
 close; but the grandmother spoke once again. and
 
 CEREMONIES AFTER HER DEATH. 243 
 
 this time they all heard the words, "O JJESUS 
 CHRIST, Thou Son of God, who didst die for my 
 sins, take me to be with Thee in Thy heaven." 
 
 Kaminee's heart joined in the prayer; and so 
 ausorbed was she in her own thoughts, that she 
 did not see the startled look of surprise on all the 
 faces round her ; but the opportune entrance of 
 the priests at that moment prevented any remark 
 being made on the subject. 
 
 As soon as they entered, one of them began 
 repeating a prayer, while Mohendro gently lifted 
 his mother from her bed, to a couch made of kusa 
 grass, which had been placed ready beside it. 
 The priest then inquired if she were' able to give 
 the offerings of cattle or money always made by 
 dying persons to priests, as their last conscious 
 act; but she lay on the couch quite insensible, 
 breathing gently. Her last act of consciousness 
 had been that prayer to the Saviour whom she 
 had learned to trust. Mohendro, who pretended 
 not to have heard it, replied that he would offer 
 the gifts in her name ; and gave a magnificent 
 offering of money, such as befitted his wealth and 
 his dignity as a priest on such a solemn occasion. 
 
 When this ceremony was performed, Mohendro
 
 244 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 proceeded to sprinkle her head with Granges wa- 
 ter; but before it could be brought, she had gently 
 breathed her last. As soon as the women heard 
 that she was dead, they uttered cries of lamenta- 
 tion, and went on for a long time weeping and 
 wailing most loudly. 
 
 When their excitement had a little subsided, 
 the old woman's sister, and her daughter-in-law, 
 Mohendro's wife, sprinkled the Ganges water on 
 her head. They then washed the corpse, and 
 adorned the bed whereon it lay with wreaths of 
 flowers. When this was done, they covered it 
 with a white cloth, dipped in oil, which had been 
 perfumed with otto of sandal-wood ; while Mo- 
 hendro, his younger brother Rajendro, and his 
 two sons, Chondro and Nobo, prepared to carry it 
 to the river-side, where the body was to be burned. 
 Rajendro's two sons took each two vessels, in 
 which were food and fire, with which they were 
 to precede the corpse on its way to its destination. 
 The priests followed ; and thus the procession took 
 its way through the most unfrequented parts of 
 the town to the place of burning, amid the loud 
 wailings and lamentations of the women, who,
 
 CEREMONIES AFTER DEATH. 245 
 
 with all this ostentatious show of mourning, felt 
 real sorrow, for they had all loved her. 
 
 When they reached the bank of the river, they 
 set down gei tly on the ground the light couch 
 on which the corpse had been carried, with the 
 head towards the south, and then went down into 
 the river to bathe. Their ablutions finished, 
 Chondro and Nobo, as soon as they had found a 
 suitable spot, began to collect wood for the fu- 
 neral pile. When it was ready, Mohendro took 
 the body of his mother in his arms, bathed it in 
 the river, and rubbed over it saffron and sandal- 
 wood, repeating the names of the holy mountains, 
 of Gunga and the other seven sacred rivers, and 
 those of the four oceans. When this ceremony 
 was completed, he dressed the body in new clothes, 
 and placed it gently on the funeral pile, which 
 the young men had been busily decorating with 
 flowers and garlands. Mohendro then took a 
 torch in his hand, and after again invoking the 
 holy places, "May the gods with flaming mouths 
 burn this corpse." 
 
 After this prayer, he walked round the pile, 
 with his right hand towards it; then dropping his 
 left knee to the ground, he applied the fire to it,
 
 246 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 and to the mouth of the corpse, while the prieste 
 recited these words: "O Fire, may she be repro- 
 duced from thee, that she may attain the region 
 of celestial bliss. May this offering be auspi- 
 cious !" 
 
 The whole party then walked in procession 
 round the pile, each throwing fresh pieces of wood 
 on the fire, saying, "Salutation to thee, who dost 
 consume flesh!" 
 
 When the body was burnt, they again walked 
 in procession round the pile, this time with their 
 left hands toward it, and their faces carefully 
 turned away from the fire. After this they pro- 
 ceeded to the river and bathed in it, offering the 
 prayer, "Waters, purify us!" and then made the 
 usual offering of water to the spirit of the departed 
 one. 
 
 They now changed their clothes, and seated 
 themselves on the grass, at a little distance from 
 the burning place, to rest; while they sought con- 
 solation in repeating sentences on the shortness 
 and vanity of human life, such as these: 
 
 " Foolish is he who seeks permanence in the 
 human state; unsolid like the stem of the plan- 
 tain tree; transient like the foam of the sea."
 
 CEREMONIES AT THE HOUSE. 247 
 
 "The earth is perishable; the oceans, the gods 
 themselves pass away; how shall not that bubble, 
 mortal man, meet destruction ?" 
 
 " All that is low must finally perish ; all that is 
 elevated must ultimately fall. All compound 
 bodies must end in dissolution, and life is con- 
 cluded with death." 
 
 The party remained by the river-side during 
 the whole of the day; and towards evening, took 
 their way home, Mohendro carrying a new earthen 
 jar full of water, and the rest walking in proces- 
 sion, led by Rajendro's youngest son, as he was 
 the youngest among them, while one of the priests 
 walked on in front bearing a thick staff in his 
 hand, with which he was supposed to frighten 
 away ghosts and evil spirits. When they reached 
 the door of their own house, Mohendro, after 
 purifying a spot of ground, by washing it with a 
 brush, made of kusa grass, dipped in water, 
 erected on it a small altar of earth, covered it and 
 the ground all round it with kusa grass, and then 
 proceeded to prepare a funeral cake, made of 
 boiled rice, teela-seed, honey, milk, butter, and 
 sugar, which he laid on the altar with these 
 words :
 
 248 < LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 "O mother, may this first funeral cake which 
 shall restore thy head, be acceptable to thee!" 
 
 Then purifying the spot again in the feani( 
 manner as before, he placed some flowers, a lighted 
 lamp, betel leaves, and an earthen vessel contain- 
 ing teela-seed and water, with a roll of woolen 
 cloth, beside the cake, as offerings to the departed 
 spirit, saying, "May these things be acceptable 
 to thee;" after which they all entered the house. 
 
 For ten days the mourning for the Thakoor Ma 
 lasted. During this time, none of the family 
 tasted any food during the day, but partook of 
 one meal at night. This meal consisted only of 
 such things (destitute of all seasoning) as they 
 could procure ready for eating, as no cooking 
 must go on in the house. The men refrained 
 
 O 
 
 from shaving and smoking; the women went 
 without their ornaments, and neglected one of 
 their favorite employments, that of braiding and 
 plaiting their long luxuriant hair. Every one 
 was gloomy and silent, and even the daily poojas, 
 which nothing else could interfere with, were sus- 
 pended. During the ten days, funeral cakes were 
 offered by Mohendro, in the same way as on the 
 first day; the number being increased each day
 
 FINAL CEREMONIES. 249 
 
 According to the number of days. Tnese cakes 
 were supposed each to restore some part of the 
 renewed body of the departed one. On the morn- 
 ing of the tenth day, he offered ten funeral cakes, 
 saying these words, "May this tenth cake, which 
 shall fully satisfy the hunger and thirst of thy 
 renewed body, be acceptable to thee !" 
 
 After this another ceremony was to be per- 
 formed, that of gathering the ashes of the funeral 
 pile, which had been carefully preserved at the 
 burning place for the purpose. After various 
 offerings of food and water to the departed spirit, 
 the priests who were assembled to assist in this 
 rite, recited prayers, after which all the priests 
 were invited to partake of a sumptuous feast, and 
 Mohendro gave a large sum of money to the prin- 
 cipal Brahmin, as a fee for fully completing the 
 obsequies performed in honor of his mother. 
 
 The priests then offered another prayer, after 
 which all the men of the family accompanied 
 them to the burning place. On arriving there, 
 the whole party invoked the deities of the place, 
 by offerings of various kinds of food, water, 
 wreaths of flowers, and incense, while Mohendro 
 repeated the words, " Salutation to the fods, whose
 
 250 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 mouths are devouring fire !" He then repaired to 
 the place where the bones of the dead were con- 
 cealed, sprinkled them with various perfumes, and 
 put them in a kind of casket made of leaves. 
 This he placed in a new earthen vessel, which he 
 carefully closed with a lid, and tied up with strong 
 thread. Then choosing a clean spot, where he 
 thought encroachments of the river were not likely 
 to take place, he dug a deep hole, the bottom of 
 which he lined carefully with kusa grass. He 
 then placed the earthen pot in the hole, and co- 
 vered it with earth, thorns, and moss. After 
 some time had elapsed, he would again visit the 
 spot, throw the ashes of the funeral pile into the 
 river, and fill up with earth the excavation where 
 they had rested. Now the whole party bathed in 
 the river, put on clean clothes, and had themselves 
 shaved. They then returned home, and, according 
 to Hindoo ritual, were considered purified. 
 
 As for Kaminee, she was glad in her heart 
 when these ceremonies were over. They wearied 
 her, and seemed to her more useless and vain than 
 ever. She read every night of those ten days of 
 mourning in the Testament, and had lingered 
 long, thinking an \ wondering, over the Christian
 
 CONVERSATION WITH NOBO. 251 
 
 doctrine of the Resurrection. She longed to know 
 what was truth, and what was error. She was 
 beginning to love the religion she was learning 
 about ; but what if it should be false and mistaken 
 after all ? She thought and thought, but her 
 thought seemed only to grow troubled and con- 
 fused. She determined to question Nobo, and try 
 if he could satisfy her mind on the subject. So 
 one day, when he had finished dinner, while she 
 was in a small room preparing his paun, (a prep- 
 aration of areca-nut, mace, and other spices, wrapt 
 in a piece of betel-leaf, of which the Hindoos are 
 very fond), and he was standing by one of the 
 pillars in the verandah, waiting for it, after look- 
 ing cautiously round, to see that there was no one 
 near and likely to overhear their conversation, 
 she began, "Nobo, have you not read some Eng- 
 lish books about the reasons Christians have for 
 believing their religion to be the true one? I 
 wish you would tell me some of those reasons." 
 
 " Why, sister !" exclaimed Nobo, "what have 
 you got into your head now? You could not 
 understand them if I did tell you." 
 
 "Yes, I could, I am sure I could; I wish you 
 would tell me them, Nobo."
 
 252 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 "I tell you, indeed! surely one in the family 
 believing that nonsense is enough. It brought 
 us trouble enough at any rate. Besides, what 
 business can a woman have with such ques- 
 tions? I see how it is. You are tired of your 
 household duties, which are a woman's proper 
 calling." 
 
 " No, indeed ; I do quite as much as Shouda- 
 minee or Nistarinee ; but Nobo, none of my occu- 
 pations need my thoughts, and a woman can think, 
 you know. I have been thinking a great deal 
 lately about Christianity ; that is, ever since the 
 Thakoor Ma went to see your brother. Nobo, 
 what if it should be true after all ?" 
 
 Nobo was startled by the sudden earnestness 
 with which she said this, but he said quietly 
 
 "Well, sister, and what are your reasons for 
 thinking it might be true?" 
 
 "Why, I have been thinking about what the 
 Thakoor Ma said your brothei told her, about its 
 being all a religion of love. The love of God 
 gave it to us, and the essence of it in us is love to 
 Him. In that it seems to be just w r hat we want, 
 at least I want it. Your grandmother is dead, 
 ind your brother is worse than dead to me. I
 
 KAMINEE'S CONVERSATION WITH NOBO. 253 
 
 have no one here left to love; but I could love 
 the God of the Christians, even from the little I 
 have heard about Him." 
 
 "A woman's reason, truly/' said Nobo, smiling, 
 " which springs only from feeling. But, after all, 
 that is not PROOF." 
 
 "But I have thought of another reason," said 
 Kaminee, earnestly. " It is this. We agree even 
 with Christians in thinking that religion is a pure 
 and holy thing, and if so, it must have a purify- 
 ing influence; for if a tree be good, its fruit will be 
 good. Now Hindooism consists only in forms and 
 ceremonies; the heart is left untouched. I thought 
 of this especially when Surjo wanted the priests 
 to perform the ceremony of atonement for your 
 brother. Offering cowrie-shells and giving money 
 to Brahmins could never have made him a Hindoo 
 in heart again; and yet it would have restored 
 him to caste, and all the privileges of Hindooism. 
 But Christianity, because love to a holy Saviour 
 is its spring, purifies the heart. Your brother 
 told me that the last time I saw him." 
 
 "My brother, indeed!" said Nobo, bitterly 
 "A vile Christian outcast, my brother!" But 
 seeing a shade come over Kamiuee's sweet face,
 
 254 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 and her eyes fill with tears, he added more 
 gently 
 
 "Don't cry, sister; I did not mean to grieve 
 you; good-bye, I am going out nmv. Don't 
 trouble your head with subjects you cannot under- 
 stand." So saying he left her, and went out of 
 the house. 
 
 Kaminee had complained that there was no one 
 left for her to love; but she forgot at the moment 
 her sister-in-law Shoudaminee; and very soon her 
 loving nature began to cling to her, as it had 
 clung to the old grandmother. The sisters were 
 practically in the same circumstance, deprived of 
 their husbands; and although Kaminee had not 
 to endure all the privations, and conform to all 
 the austerities of an actual widow, her life was 
 lonely and aimless enough. Another bond of 
 union between them was the memory of the 
 grandmother's illness and death. They would 
 often talk together of her last strange words, and 
 now and then Kaminee would venture to tell her 
 sister a little of what she read in the Testament 
 about the new religion the grandmother had 
 found and trusted in. Shoudaminee would listen 
 attentively sometimes, because she saw that Kami-
 
 SHE AGAIN TALKS WITH NOBO. 255 
 
 nee liked talking of these things: but they made 
 very little impression on her mind. She was not 
 accustomed to think much at any time, and when 
 she did, the care of her children and her house- 
 hold duties seemed enough to occupy her whole 
 thoughts. However, their friendship, such as it 
 was, grew and strengthened, and was a source of 
 great comfort to both the sisters, though it left 
 Kaminee as much alone as ever in her new 
 thoughts and feelings. 
 
 After the way in which Nobo had treated the 
 inquiries she had ventured to make, she was afraid 
 to ask him more of what she longed to know, and 
 this led her, timidly at first, but by degrees more 
 and more confidently, to pray to the Christian's 
 God, that if He were indeed the true God, He 
 would teach her what was the true religion. At 
 last, however, one day, she summoned up courage 
 to speak to Nobo again, as he was sitting reading 
 in one of the back verandahs of the house. She 
 came up to him, and began cautiously 
 
 "Nobo, do you remember advising me one day 
 not to think of things I could not understand! 
 It might be very good advice, but I want you to 
 tell me how I am to follow it. I am constantly
 
 256 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 thinking of what I have heard about Christianity 
 How can I help it?" 
 
 " Why, sister, you should be the last to ask that 
 question; you who have the advantage so few 
 women have, of being able to understand the 
 prayers and montros of our religion. Why do 
 you not study and repeat them more? If you 
 must think, meditate on the attributes of the 
 gods ; that would be safe thinking for you." 
 
 "But all my thinking will not undo the wrong 
 thoughts I have had about them already, if they 
 are wrong. If we believe that the gods will pun- 
 ish those who offend them, and then, just because 
 they choose, they say 'I forgive you,' how can we 
 expect them to reward those who are good and 
 religious like your father? Now your brother 
 told me that the Christian's God said He would 
 punish sin, and He did punish it. His own Son 
 became incarnate to bear the punishment for us; 
 therefore I could trust him." 
 
 "Well done, sister," said Nobo, laughing; "you 
 have found your way to the favorite argument of 
 the Christians. But how could you trust a Being 
 who could punish the innocent for the guilty?" 
 
 "Because He took the punishment on Himself,
 
 EFFOKT TO GET HEMLOTA MARRIED. 257 
 
 of His own free will, out of love to us. If He 
 was God, it could not have been laid on Him 
 without His will Besides, He said so Himself. 
 I have read " 
 
 Here Kaminee suddenly recollected that she 
 was betraying her secret, and looked up anxiously 
 into Nobo's face, fearing lest he should ask her 
 what she had read; but, fortunately for her, 
 her father-in-law appeared at that moment, and 
 called Nobo away to talk to him in his own room. 
 
 The subject on which Mohendro wished to con- 
 sult with his son was a no less important one than 
 the marriage of his little daughter Hemlota. She 
 was now between seven and eight years of age, 
 when, according to Hindoo custom, a father ought 
 to seek a bridegroom for his daughter. Chondro 
 Kumar was very little comfort to the old man, 
 so that Nobo was the only one with whom he 
 could advise on matters relating to the family in- 
 terests. 
 
 Nobo agreed that it was quite time to think of 
 the marriage. His only objection was the fear 
 that his father would not have money enough to 
 meet the expenses of the ceremony, in a manner 
 befitting his position. 
 17
 
 258 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 "Leave that to me, my boy," replied Mohen- 
 dro; "the family honor must not suffer now, after 
 I have done so much to redeem it. Hemlota 
 must be married; and as for the money, that must 
 go, if is necessary. If it was written on my fore- 
 head that my house should come to poverty, what 
 can I do against my fate?" 
 
 "Yes, indeed," said Nobo, "let the money go 
 if needful; little Hemlota will be delighted with 
 her new dignity, and with the jewels you will 
 give her." 
 
 Then followed a consultatiton between Mohen- 
 dro and his son, as to the number and costliness 
 of the jewels which the little girl was to receive; 
 it ended by Mohendro saying 
 
 "I shall send for the ghottok to-morrow, to 
 look out for a bridegroom from some respectable 
 family, and to make all the needful arrange- 
 ments." 
 
 The way in which marriages are made among 
 Hindoos would seem very strange to English 
 readers. When a father wishes to get his daugh- 
 ter married, he sends for a ghottok or go-between. 
 This man generally belongs to the lowest class of 
 Brahmins, and his business is to introduce the
 
 NOBO RESISTS HIS CONVICTIONS. 259 
 
 father of a young man, who wishes his son to 
 be married, to the father of one who wishes to 
 find a bridegroom for his daughter. If the fa- 
 thers are mutually satisfied with the connection, the 
 marriage takes place, and the ghottok receives a 
 handsome present in money from both families. 
 That evening Mohendro imparted his intention 
 to his wife, and the next day it was the subject of 
 eager conversation among the women. 
 
 While Mohendro and the rest of the family 
 were engrossed with this affair, Nobo's thoughts 
 were very differently engaged. The conversation 
 he had held with Kaminee had not escaped from 
 his mind, and now it made him feel troubled and 
 uneasy. He had felt unsettled on the subject of 
 religion ever since Prosonno's baptism ; but he was 
 not at all prepared to give up his old prejudices 
 in favor of Hindoo customs, or to make the sacri- 
 fice that his brother had done; so he tried to 
 dismiss the subject altogether from his thoughts. 
 Now it came back to him with fresh force. He 
 had been putting the truth away from him; and 
 here was a woman, with little or no teaching as it 
 seemed to him, with nothing but her woman's 
 instinctive sense of what is true and false to guide
 
 260 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 her, feeling her way, as it were, gradually, but 
 surely, to the arguments that proved it true. He 
 did not know that she had the surest of all teach- 
 'ing, even the teaching of Him who hides His 
 mysteries "from the wise and prudent, and reveals 
 them unto babes." But in a few days, two events 
 happened to turn the current of his thoughts in 
 other directions. 
 
 The ghottok who had been employed to look 
 for a bridegroom for Hemlota, in a short time 
 returned to say that he had hitherto been unsuc- 
 cessful in finding one whose position was worthy 
 of Mohendro's daughter, and he feared he should 
 remain so. He had, indeed, heard of several 
 young men, belonging to highly respectable Brah- 
 min families, but they had all heard more or less 
 exaggerated accounts of Prosonno's detention 
 among his relatives : and all were doubtful of the 
 caste of a family which had had a Christian living 
 among them for some weeks. 
 
 In vain had the ghottok protested against the 
 possibility of a blot on Mohendro's caste, and 
 told of his strict austerities and constant poojas, 
 of his recent pilgrimage, and the large sums of 
 money he had spent on the various shrines by the
 
 THE MARRIAGE-BROKER. 261 
 
 way; the feeling against him remained. There 
 were daughters of other families, they said, whose 
 caste had never been questioned, and they pre- 
 ferred that their sons should seek wives from 
 such ; so that the poor man had but a sad story to 
 bring to his employer. 
 
 Mohendro at first received him very angrily, 
 and demanded to know who had dared to call in 
 question the caste of a priest of the strictest or- 
 der; and Nobo had to use all the arguments he 
 could think of, to appease his father's indignation. 
 At last the old man gave in, saying sadly 
 
 "Surjo was right when he foresaw this. It is 
 my fate. What can I do? Well, well, we can 
 let the matter rest for a few months, and then, if 
 necessary, we must remove to some distant place, 
 which the news of the misfortunes that have be- 
 fallen our family has not reached." 
 
 He then dismissed the ghottok with a small 
 present, and sorrowfully betook himself to the 
 poojas he always performed at that hour. 
 
 The other event that occasioned some excite- 
 ment in the family, was that Nobo one day returned 
 from his evening walk with the intelligence that 
 Prosonno had broken a blood-vessel, and was very
 
 262 LIFE B\ THE GANGES. 
 
 ill. He had been to visit at the house where the 
 Thakoor Ma had gone to see Prosonno, and there 
 he had heard the news. On hearing it, he had 
 gone over immediately to see him, for he had 
 always in his heart retained a great affection for 
 his brother; though he never allowed himself to 
 show it at home, for fear of displeasing his father. 
 He told the family that he had found Prosonno 
 well taken care of bv his Christian friends. His 
 
 ^ 
 
 chief friend, Ram Doyal, had removed him to his 
 own house ; as he could make him more comfort- 
 able there than in his own little room ; and his 
 wife, Suseela, could prepare for Prosonno all the 
 little dainties he had been accustomed to in his 
 own home. The missionary and his wife, too, 
 were very kind to him, and often came to see him; 
 and Prosonno felt and acknowledged their kind- 
 ness; though in moments of weakness, when his 
 mind wandered, he would murmur all the dear 
 household names he had learnt to love from 
 shildhood. His mother and Kaminee he con- 
 stantly called for. Nobo went on to say that 
 Prosonno was delighted to see him, and sent his 
 love and remembrance to them all, and would not 
 let him go till he had promised tr tell Kaminee
 
 KAMINEE DECIDES. 263 
 
 that he still prayed that he might see her again 
 before he died. 
 
 Kaminee received this message very differently 
 from the first which her husband had sent her. 
 She had listened eagerly to every word Nobo had 
 said, and now quietly went to her own room. She 
 could not trust herself to speak ; but as soon as 
 she was alone, she burst into tears, and wept long 
 and bitterly. At last a thought came into her 
 mind that made her face light up with joy. 
 
 " Yes," she said to herself, " I can do it, and I 
 will; I long to know more of Christianity. Oh, 
 how gladly he would teach me ! I am a Christian 
 in my heart; I constantly pray to the Christian's 
 God. Why should I not be with my husband? 
 And he is ill, too, but he will get well if he has 
 me to love him and care for him. Yes, I will go." 
 
 And Kaminee lay down to rest that night, re- 
 peating to herself some words she had read in one 
 of her husband's Christian books 
 
 "Whither thou goest I will go; and where 
 thou lodgest, I will lodge. Thy people shall be 
 my people, and THY GOD MY GOD."
 
 CHAPTER 'X. 
 
 WHEN Kaminee awoke the next morning, 
 her first thoughts turned to this new resolve 
 to join her husband. She went over the matter 
 again and again in her own mind, and each time 
 the resolve grew stronger. She longed to talk it 
 over with some one in the house; but who was 
 there whom she could trust? The grandmother 
 was much missed in the family, especially by her. 
 The woman's side of the house, too, was unusually 
 dull; for Nistarinee had persuaded her husband 
 to let her go to her father's house, on a visit of 
 three months, and she was not to return till after 
 the Durga Pooja.* After considering the plan in 
 all its aspects for nearly a fortnight, Kaminee 
 ventured to impart it to Shoudaminee. One day, 
 when they were sitting in the verandah, after 
 having finished their morning work, Kaminee 
 said 
 
 "Do you know, Shoudaminee, I have been 
 
 * Doorga Poojah, a g-eat religious festival in Bengal. 
 264
 
 KAMINEE TELLS HER WISH. 265 
 
 
 
 tiiinking a great deal about the Christian religion 
 that your brother-in-law now professes. You 
 know he told Thakoor Ma something of it that 
 day she went to see him, and she told me what 
 he had said. She also gave me a copy of the 
 Christian Shastres, which she told me a Padre* 
 had given to her fifty years ago, when she paid 
 that wonderful visit to Gunga Saugor. She gave 
 this book to her grandson, when his father forbade 
 him to read it; he left it with her when he went 
 away; and now I have been reading it myself." 
 
 "Have you?" asked Shoudaminee. "I have 
 never seen you read it; when do you find time?" 
 
 "After you have all gone to sleep at night, I 
 get out my book and read. It is a most fasci- 
 nating book ; I think I believe a great deal in it 
 aJ ready." 
 
 "Ah!" said Shoudaminee, "what would our 
 father-in-law say if he knew you were courageous 
 enough to read that book? What would you do, 
 if he found you out?" 
 
 "I don't know," said Kaminee, "but I love to 
 read the book ; and I have been thinking that I 
 should like to become a Christian myself." 
 
 " Become a Christian yourself!" returned Shou-
 
 266 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 daminee; "how could you do so? Think what 
 you would have to give up; your father and 
 mother, brother and sisters; you would lose your 
 caste and all your friends. Now, if I were to 
 become a Christian, and go and live with them, 
 no one would care. I am an orphan, and my 
 only brother has such a bad-tempered wife that I 
 should never mind losing them. Gopal and 
 Komodinee are my only treasures here." 
 
 A bright thought struck Kaminee; what if 
 Shoudaminee would go with her! They would 
 manage better in getting away, and she would 
 take care that her sister-in-law was well cared 
 for. She was longing to see her husband; and as 
 she had said so much to Shoudaminee, she now 
 determined to tell her the whole plan : so she said, 
 rather timidly 
 
 "How do you think it would do, sister Shouda, 
 if we were both to go to the Christians? I long 
 to learn more about their religion ; and you know 
 the Baboo has been ill; and I am sure he would 
 like me to go and nurse him: and you could live 
 with us, and I think we should all be very happy. 
 I must go, if you do not." 
 
 Shoudaminee was bewildered by the thought.
 
 THEY TALK IT OVER. 267 
 
 "What will our father-in-law say?" were the first 
 words she uttered. 
 
 But the more she thought of it, the pleasanter 
 it seemed. The idea of losing Kaminee alto- 
 gether was unbearable. "Thakoor Ma dead! 
 Kaminee gone to the Christians! Nistarinee 
 away from home! What would their part of the 
 house be like?" The sisters sat long together 
 discussing the question. Kaminee could not wait 
 many days; so she brought the conversation to a 
 close by saying 
 
 "Well, sister, it is settled that we go, and take 
 Gopal and Komodinee with us: I will see to the 
 arrangements about our going." 
 
 Day after day they talked together, and the plan 
 seemed to grow more feasible. The time of their 
 consultation was the hour or two which followed 
 the morning meal. Mohendro's wife then gen- 
 erally went to sleep; and Komodinee and Hem- 
 lota were despatched down-stairs to play. They 
 were long, however, in reaching a full and mature 
 decision. Shoudaminee was desirous that they 
 should manage it entirely by themselves: Kam- 
 inee did not see how that could be done. Her 
 view of the case prevailed; and it was agreed
 
 268 ^IFE BY THE GAN3E3. 
 
 that she should write to her husband, and bril>e 
 one of the women-servants to take the letter. 
 
 The next day Kamiuee called one of them, 
 named Durgamonee, into her private room, and 
 asked if she would undertake for her a private 
 errand of great importance: promising that she 
 should be amply rewarded, provided that she told 
 the matter to no one else. The woman, partly 
 by hanging back, and partly by skillful question- 
 ing, managed to learn the whole scheme. But 
 Kaminee, though a little afraid and mortified 
 that her entire plans were in the power of a third 
 person, felt that it was best that her husband 
 should also know them clearly. She ended by 
 drawing from her jewel-box a massive gold brace- 
 let which was to be the reward if the commission 
 were faithfully executed. That afternoon an op- 
 portunity occurred. About five o'clock, Mohen- 
 dro's wife, who was cooking her husband's even- 
 ing meal, asked if there was any sugar in the 
 house, as she wished to make some cakes. There 
 was none; but Durgamonee offered to go and get 
 some from the bazaar. The mistress agreed, and 
 further suggested that she should go to a partic- 
 alar shop some distance on and buy Gopal some
 
 A LETTER SENT TO PROSONNO. 269 
 
 sweetmeats called Sondesh. "Don't be out after 
 dark," she said, "and make the shopman give the 
 sugar cheap." Durgamonee ran quickly to her 
 young mistress. 
 
 "Now is the time," she said; "give me your 
 letter." The letter was given ; and Kaminee sat 
 down in her own room in some excitement to 
 reflect on what she had done. A half-prayer rose 
 to the God whose religion she would soon profess, 
 that He would help her scheme ; and would make 
 all things straight for them, as He had done for 
 her husband. 
 
 In the meantime, Durgamonee went out and 
 walked about rather idly in the bazaar, wondering 
 at this new freak of the younger women in the 
 house. "But what does it matter to me/' she 
 thought, " the bracelet is to be mine, if I do my 
 work well. It will make my fortune : but I must 
 be quick, or the darkness will catch me before I 
 get home." 
 
 The sugar and sweetmeats were bought after a 
 full half-hour's bargaining; and then she pro- 
 ceeded to the missionary station, eating one of the 
 sondeshes by the way. If her mistress thought 
 that they w^re rather few, she had only to say
 
 270 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 that the shop-keeper was a hard man, that she 
 was afraid of the sun setting, and could not stay 
 to argue the matter to the end ! 
 
 O 
 
 The missionary station was soon discovered by 
 a large building at the side of the high road 
 known as the " Padre's School." 
 
 Durgamonee asked the gate-keeper if a Baboo 
 of the name of Prosonno Kumar Chatterjee lived 
 there. The door-keeper answered " yes," and di- 
 rected her to go to the house near the school, 
 and inquire there. Prosonno was just coining out 
 of the doorway. He recognized her at once, 
 went up to her, and eagerly inquired how the 
 family were. Durgamonee informed him of all 
 that had recently happened, and asked him in 
 return how he was getting on, and how he liked 
 his change of life ; where he lived ; and what he 
 ate and drank. After extracting from him all 
 the information she wanted, she brought out the 
 letter, and said, carelessly, " Here, Baboo, is some- 
 thing for you ; the new bride sent it by me." 
 
 Taking it to his room, Prosonno read the letter, 
 lost in thankfulness and wonder. Kaminee wish- 
 ing to become a Christian ! She who had so 
 abhorred everything connected with Christianity J
 
 THE CRISIS ARRIVED. 271 
 
 That she should be longing and seeking for it 
 That she should be wanting to see him again 
 when he had fancied that she hated him ! That 
 his grandmother had died with the name of Jesus 
 on her lips ! That the wife of Surjo, who had 
 been his greatest persecutor, should be wishing to 
 join the Christians with her children ! " Surely," 
 he thought, " God's thoughts are not as our 
 thoughts ; neither are His ways as our ways." 
 
 He had forgotten Durgramonee's presence alto- 
 gether ; and it was only when she asked, " Well, 
 Baboo, what am I to say?" that he came to 
 realities again. 
 
 " Come with me, and I will give you the an- 
 swer," he said as he led the way to the missionary's 
 house. The missionary and his wife were truly 
 glad, they gave Prosonno abundant sympathy, and 
 the lady was indulging in some pleasant air-castles 
 about her future pupils, when the messenger re- 
 minded them that she must hasten home. 
 
 So Durgamonee was told that " the two women 
 and children were to be ready at seven o'clock the 
 day after to-morrow. The missionary and Pro- 
 sonno were to come and wait in a carriage at the 
 end of the narrow lane at the back of the house :
 
 272 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 Durgamonee was to let the women out by the 
 side-door, and see them safely away." Durgamo- 
 nee returned home quite elated with the informa- 
 tion she had acquired, and at the speedy prospect 
 of substantial wealth. The discussion about tiie 
 sweetmeats was soon over ; and when her mother- 
 in-law was busy with the cakes, Kaminee followed 
 Durga into a quiet corner, and heard all that she 
 had to tell. 
 
 The next two days were strange ones to Kami- 
 nee. She longed for the hour of their departure, 
 but felt afraid lest anything should happen to 
 prevent it. 
 
 The wished-for hour at length arrived. Kam- 
 inee and Shoudaminee had spent the day as usual; 
 no suspicion had been raised. Durga had been 
 sometimes tempted to tell one of her fellow- 
 servants, as the matter would have afforded a 
 first-rate subject of gossip ; but the thought of 
 the bracelet held her back. When the twilight 
 was quickly fading into darkness, and Mohendro's 
 wife had retired to prepare her husband's meal, 
 Kaminee and her sister tied up their little bundles. 
 It was with beating hearts that they did so ; and 
 Kaminee's thoughts went back to that evening
 
 THE SISTERS ESCAPE SAFELY. 273 
 
 when her husband had talked with her before he 
 went away. Soon Durgamonee hastened into her 
 room and said 
 
 " Be quick, the time is come. A carriage is at 
 the bottom of the lane, and the Baboo has waved 
 a handkerchief out of the window." 
 
 Shoudaminee was hastily called with the chil- 
 dren, who wondered what was to happen; and 
 they all slipped quietly down-stairs. The garden 
 gate was already open, and in less than a minute 
 they were in the carriage. Durgamonee returned 
 with the gold bracelet in her hand ; and she began 
 inventing all kinds of falsehoods in case any one 
 should tax her with assisting the affair. 
 
 It was with strange feelings that Prosonno be- 
 held his wife after their two years' separation. 
 He wanted to see if she was changed ; but that 
 was out of the question at present, for both the 
 women kept their faces closely veiled. Kaminee 
 perhaps would have spoken if it had not been for 
 the presence of the missionary. The conversation 
 was kept up between Prosonno and Gopal, who 
 was greatly excited with the novelty of his jour- 
 ney. He remembered his uncle well, and amused 
 
 18
 
 274 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 him on the way by giving his version of the 
 family news. 
 
 The strangers were taken at once to Rdm 
 Doyal's house, where the missionary's wife was 
 waiting with Suseela to welcome them. Long 
 and pleasant were the communings of husband 
 and wife together over the story of the last two 
 years ; Kaminee had to tell of the growth of her 
 faith, her convictions, and her peace. Prosonno 
 also had to describe his Christian life and the 
 Christian religion. 
 
 A few weeks were spent at Ram Doyal's where 
 Suseela did her best to secure their comfort. 
 Kaminee felt herself at home much sooner than 
 Shoudaminee, but that was natural, as she had 
 her husband to consult where anything needed to 
 be explained. One thing that struck them both 
 was the treatment of the women. Among the 
 Christians, women (they saw) were considered ca- 
 pable of something more than being good cooks. 
 They were greatly pleased that the missionary's 
 wife had engaged to teach them for an hour a day. 
 Prosonno, in the meantime, was diligently prepa- 
 ring their new home, and it was soon ready to be 
 occupied.
 
 CONSTERNATION AT THEIR DEPARTURE. 275 
 
 The evening that Kaminee and Shoudaminee 
 had left their Hindoo home, Mohendro returned 
 to the house unusually tired and downcast, and 
 said to his wife, " I do not know what is to be- 
 come of us. Chondro Kumar has been gambling, 
 and has suffered several losses : our money is fast 
 being spent : what with that apostate's behaviour, 
 and the expenses that fell on us at that time; 
 what with Surjo's funeral, my pilgrimage, Tha- 
 koor Ma's Sraddha, and the putting on of Gopal's 
 Poita, we cannot hold out much longer. Hemlota 
 is not married, and there seems little chance of 
 her being so." His wife, who dreaded her hus- 
 band's temper, told him he was in low spirits, and 
 tried to enliven him by an unusually good supper, 
 and telling him the gossip of the day. The next 
 morning the house seemed remarkably quiet. No 
 voices of children sounded in the courts of the 
 house, and the younger women had disappeared. 
 Mohendro's wife went to Shoudaminee's room 
 but to her horror found it empty. The house 
 was searched, but neither women nor children 
 could be found. None could imagine whither 
 they had gone ; but Nobo, who called to mind his 
 conversation with Kaminee, declared his suspicion
 
 276 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 that they too had joined the hated Christians. 
 The family distress was great; not so much on 
 account of the women as for Gopal, the only 
 grandson of the house, their eldest son's only boy. 
 Mohendro at first raged and stormed; then he 
 shed bitter tears ; and almost poured curses on the 
 gods for the evils that they had suffered so often 
 to enter his habitation. Nobo proposed to go to 
 the magistrate; but his father, fearful of another 
 heavy expense, which was almost sure to be fruit- 
 less, suggested that he should make only private 
 inquiries. He did so ; but returned disappointed. 
 "Gopal being an orphan and not of age, his 
 mother had full right to keep him." Durgamo- 
 nee had been so zealous in the search that no one 
 suspected her of conniving at their escape. 
 
 At last a strange thing came to light. In the 
 course of the day, while Mohendro's wife was 
 looking over Kaminee's room and possession, she 
 came upon a book that looked old and worn. 
 She carried it straight to her husband. He re- 
 cognized it, though he had seen it but once, and 
 that nearly fifty years ago. It was the New Tes- 
 tament, the gift of the Christian missionary at 
 Saugor ! He gave it in faith, not knowing where
 
 THE SAUGOR TESTAMENT DISCOVERED. 277 
 
 the seed of the word might fall. For forty years 
 it lay silent and hidden, but it had fallen at 
 length on good ground ; and when it sprang up, 
 it had borne fruit a hundredfold.
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 IT was a lovely Sabbath morning ; and all nature 
 seemed rejoicing in the return of the day of 
 rest. The grass and trees looked fresh and green, 
 after the soft showers of the previous night; a 
 light breeze poured music through the boughs of 
 the feathery fir-trees, and the early sunshine rested 
 lovingly on the reviving earth ; typical of the 
 sunshine on many hearts in the mission station, 
 that awoke that morning full of joy and thank- 
 fulness. 
 
 The missionary and his wife began their day 
 with special prayer for a blessing on all their 
 Sabbath work, and chiefly for those who were for 
 the first time to confess their faith in Christ ; for 
 in their little church that day, Kaminee and her 
 sister-in-law were both to be baptized. 
 
 It was now two months since they had first 
 come among the Christian community ; and du- 
 ring that time, it had been Prosonno's delight to 
 
 278
 
 JOY OF THE NEW CONVERTS. 279 
 
 teach his beloved wife the full truth of that 
 blessed religion into which she had begun to in- 
 quire. The missionary's wife had had several long 
 conversations both with her and Shoudaminee, 
 especially the latter, as she naturally felt more 
 lonely than her sister in her new circumstances ; 
 and her gentle kindness had at last succeeded in 
 dispelling a great deal of the stranger's shyness, 
 and in winning her confidence. She did not even 
 know so much of Christianity as Kaminee ; but 
 what she had learned from her sister had won her 
 love, and made her wish to be a Christian. 
 
 As for Prosonno and Kamiuee, it would have 
 been hard to say which was the happier of the 
 two. Kaminee's doubts had given way before 
 the arguments set before her by her husband, both 
 by words and by example ; and now her prayer 
 was, that she might daily gro\\ in love to the 
 Sayiour who had first loved her. Prosonno again 
 had that morning to give thanks with a full 
 heart to the God who had heard his prayers, and 
 brought his wife to him, to be a loving companion 
 to her husband, and a faithful helper in every 
 good word and work. 
 
 Kaminee and her sister, as we have said before,
 
 280 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 were to be baptized in the little native church 
 belonging to the station. Young men, when they 
 embraced Christianity, were usually baptized in 
 the English church at some little distance from 
 the station, that the English friends who helped 
 to support the mission might have the gratification 
 of witnessing the ceremony ; but women preferred, 
 and their Christian friends preferred for them, 
 the more private service of the native church near 
 to their own homes. 
 
 The service was to begin at ten o'clock ; but a 
 little before that hour Shoudaminee entered the 
 missionary's house, and asked to see the lady. 
 After a kind welcome, she said, 
 
 "Ma'am, I have brought you Gopal's poita.* 
 He had it given him only a short time ago ; but 
 I have persuaded him to let me take it off this 
 morning ; and now I bring it to you, as a sign 
 that I will try to bring him up as a Christian." 
 
 The missionary's wife was much pleased with 
 this act, coming, as it did, from the woman her- 
 self; for she knew what a sacrifice of feeling it 
 must have cost her, and she said kindly, 
 
 " May God give you strength and wisdom to 
 
 * The sacred thread worn over the shoulder by Brahmins.
 
 CHRISTIAN WORSHIP. 281 
 
 do so, my dear Shoudarainee. When Jesus came 
 to this world, He showed special kindness to little 
 children, and He loves them still. He will surely 
 smile on your efforts to teach your little ones of 
 His love; and to train them up in His service." 
 
 At the appointed hour of worship, the little 
 sanctuary was full. Kaminee was seated on the 
 women's side of the church, near her friend Su- 
 seela ; and the missionary's wife sat not far off 
 with Shoudaminee. They had often attended 
 Christian public worship before, but Kaminee had 
 not ceased to be impressed with the beauty and 
 simplicity of its order. Hymns of praise to God 
 were sung in pure, simple Bengalee, such as all 
 could understand ; one or two chapters from the 
 Bible were read; and prayers offered, thanking 
 God for all His kindness to the people, and ask- 
 ing Him for all the good they needed, both for 
 this life and for the next. The special circum- 
 stances under which they met that day were not 
 forgotten. The missionary prayed earnestly that 
 the two who were now to devote themselves to the 
 Saviour, might be kept faithful unto death/and 
 that they might be the first-fruits of a large in- 
 gathering of the daughters of India to the Church
 
 282 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 of Jesus Christ. Then he read a few words from 
 the Holy Book, and explained and enforced the 
 lessons they were meant to teach. Last came the 
 holy rite of baptism. The two women stood up 
 in front of the congregation. The missionary 
 asked whether it was their hearty desire to re- 
 nounce Hindooism, and to embrace the religion 
 of Jesus Christ : and on their replying, " We do 
 wish it," they received the sign of pure water in 
 token of their trust in Him, whose blood purifies 
 the heart from all sin. The missionary then 
 prayed to God that His blessing, love, and peace 
 might remain with them then and always ; and 
 the congregation dispersed to their homes. 
 
 Prosonno and Ka'minee, with her sister, returned 
 to Ram Doyal's house after the service. He and 
 his wife were to go to their own home the next day. 
 It was his wish not to enter it till his wife had been 
 baptized, that it might be from the beginning 
 consecrated as a Christian home, in which they 
 should daily ask God to dwell. Shoudaminee 
 had a little house near them where she was to live 
 with her children, and in which she looked for- 
 ward on the morrow, cheerfully and hopefully, to 
 begin her new life.
 
 THE GIRLS' BOARDING-SCHOOL. 283 
 
 Shoudaminee and her boy became earnest stu- 
 dents. Karainee, too, found learning pleasant work, 
 now that she had her husband to teach her. She 
 had no longer to make a secret of her wish and 
 thirst for knowledge ; he found as much pleasure 
 in teaching her, as she had in learning, so that 
 she made rapid progress ; and with her household 
 occupations of keeping her home in order and 
 preparing her husband's meals, (which duty she 
 resumed on entering her own house), her time 
 passed very quickly and happily away. 
 
 It was some weeks after this, that Prosonno 
 went one evening to a native chapel, with the 
 missionary, to hear him preach to a heathen con- 
 gregation. He was hoping, at some future time, 
 to be specially set apart for the work of preaching 
 to his countrymen ; and he was endeavoring, by 
 listening to the missionary's sermons, to gather 
 hints as to the best mode of effective preaching. 
 On his return, he met Nobo, who was taking a 
 walk in that direction, and persuaded him to pay 
 a visit to Kaminee and himself in their new home. 
 He was much pleased with the comfort and order 
 of its arrangements ; and Kaminee was very glad 
 to see him again. U I am so glad you came,
 
 284 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 Nobo," she said to him, "that you may see how 
 happy we are here. Since I became a Christian, 
 I have been quite content." 
 
 "Yes," replied Nobo, "a woman is always 
 happy with her husband. She has nothing to 
 leave in comparison with him ; but with us men 
 it is very different. I could not be happy as a 
 Christian, now, with all I should have to give up." 
 
 " Oh, I wish I could persuade you to try it !" 
 exclaimed Prosonno. "We are so happy now 
 that we are of one heart and mind. I give 
 Kaminee a lesson every day, not only about reli- 
 gion, but on many other subjects, and she is an 
 apt scholar. What a mistake it is that so many 
 of our country-women should be left to grow up 
 in ignorance." 
 
 "Perhaps it is," said Nobo; "but don't you 
 think that learning much would make them neg- 
 lect their household duties?" 
 
 "Why," answered Prosonno, smiling, "you 
 have just been admiring the arrangement of our 
 house, which is all Kaminee's doing; and for 
 further answer, I wish you could come and taste 
 her curries now. They seem to me to be better 
 than ever."
 
 NOBO PAYS THEM A VISIT. 285 
 
 Both the brothers were silent for a few moments. 
 This little speech, trivial as it was, had made 
 them feel what a cruel barrier Hindooism placed 
 between those who were in many respects very 
 near and dear to each other, a barrier so strong 
 that one brother could not accept even the sim- 
 plest hospitality from the other, without breaking 
 one of the first rules of his religion. 
 
 After a pause Nobo said, "Well, perhaps you 
 are right ; I confess I wish sometimes I could be 
 a Christian myself, but I cannot." 
 
 "Why not, brother?" asked Prosonno. 
 
 " I could never give up everything, as you did. 
 Besides, now that Chondro is so extravagant, I 
 am the only comfort our father has. It would 
 break his heart if I left him. I dare not even 
 tell him that I have been to see you." 
 
 "How I wish I could see him!" exclaimed 
 Prosonno. " Is hf much altered since I saw 
 him?" 
 
 "Yes, he looks much older and sadder now. 
 He has had many anxieties lately ;" and Nobo 
 related the vain attempt they had made to get 
 Hemlota married. Then followed a long talk 
 about family affairs. Prosonno made Nobo tell
 
 286 Ltt'K fcr THE GANGES. 
 
 him every little particular he could think of, and 
 eagerly asked so many qusestions that no one who 
 might have heard the conversation could hav 
 thought for a moment that Christianity had at all 
 lessened his love for his own people. Nay, it had 
 even strengthened and deepened his aifection. 
 Then, it was Nobo's turn to ask questions. He 
 inquired after Shoudaminee and her children, who 
 by this time were there to answer for themselves, 
 as Kaminee had gone, while the brothers were 
 talking, to fetch them in. Little Gopal was de- 
 lighted to see his uncle. He immediately entered 
 into a long story of his doings, his school, his 
 playmates, and his new books. At last Nobo 
 regretfully rose to go, but not before his brothei 
 had made him promise to come and see them as 
 often as he could. 
 
 Nobo often came to see his brother when he 
 could do so without his father's knowledge, and 
 always received a hearty welcome. But he still 
 remained undecided on the subject of religion. 
 He knew the truth, and believed it in his heart; 
 but he was doing what so many of his class in 
 India are now doing halting between two opin- 
 ions. As he had confessed to his brother, he could
 
 CONVERSATION BETWEEN THE BROTHERS. 287 
 
 not make up his mind to become a Christian, and 
 to give up everything for the truth; and so he 
 never possessed the settled repose of mind that 
 Prosonno and Kaminee enjoyed. As they had 
 told him, now that they were of one heart, they 
 were very happy; and before long their happi- 
 ness was increased by the birth of a son, whom 
 they hoped to train up. as God should give them 
 grace, to be His faithful servant till his life's end. 
 Kaminee and her husband were very proud of 
 their little treasure, and great was the rejoicing 
 among their friends at the happy event. 
 
 " See how God has blessed us, my Kaminee," 
 Prosonno said to his wife. "He taught me to 
 know His truth, and to believe in it, and when I 
 had almost given up hoping for it, He gave you 
 back to me, a Christian wife : now He has com- 
 pleted our joy with this new blessing." 
 
 Prosonno was holding his child in his arms, and 
 as Kaminee kissed her little darling, she said 
 
 " Yes, He has indeed been good to us. Let us 
 thank Him for it !" And then Prosonno prayed 
 with her, that God would ever keep them thank- 
 ful for all His love, and long spare them and their
 
 288 LIFE BY THE GANGES. 
 
 child to each other, that they might live together 
 a loving, happy Christian family. 
 
 Here we must leave our friends. We have 
 followed some of them, through the mazes of 
 Hindooism, into the straight but pleasant path of 
 Christian life that leads to life everlasting. May 
 many of the natives of India be induced to fol- 
 low their example, to leave their dumb idols for 
 the worship of the one living and true God ! 
 May He give them courage to cast aside the 
 shackles that so long have held them, to profess 
 what they believe in their hearts to be the truth, 
 and to enrol themselves in the small but noble 
 band of those to whom our Saviour has given the 
 promise : " Verily, I say unto you, there is no 
 man that hath left house, or parents, or brethren, 
 or wife, or children, for the kingdom of God's 
 sake, who shall not receive manifold more in this 
 present time, and in the world to come LIFE 
 
 EVERLASTING !" 
 
 THE END.
 
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