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AND

Daily Life in Bengal

BY Z. F. GRIFFIN
Missionary for Ten Years in Southern Bengal
and Northern Orissa

(*(oZ!

PUBLISHED FOR THE AUTHOR
Buffalo, N. Y.
1896

Copyrighted, 1896, by
Z. F. GRIFFIN.

PREFACE.

In traveling in different States of America during
the past two years as field secretary of our Foreign
Mission Society, I have been asked many questions.
Those questions suggested this book, and in it I
have tried to answer theml There is no attempt
at rhetorical flourishes ; but plain, practical ques
tions of every-day life, and facts in history and re
ligion are discussed by a practical man. I have
not tried to write an exhaustive article on any of
the subjects, but enough is said to give the reader
a bird's-eye view of this interesting land and peo
ple. If a spirit of inquiry is awakened, he can
find exhaustive treatises on some of the subjects
suggested. There are many well-written histories
of India. There are also histories of mission work
in India, and books on the religion of the Hindus.
There may be books treating on the daily life of
this people, their productions, occupations, char
acteristics, rputine of mission work, etc., but I
have not seen them. All the books which I have
"read on India, take it for granted that we in Amer-
[3]

4 PREFACE.
ica know more than we do about that country.
To tell the little things which others have not told,
I have written this book. All but two of the illus
trations are from my own negatives. The mission
house in Balasore and the presentation of a Bible
to Brother Thomas Stacy, by the native brethren
of Balasore, are from ' ' In the Path of Light around
the World." z. f. g.

CONTENTS.

Chapter I. — An Outline of the History from the
Time of the Rig- Veda to the Beginning of the
Reign of Queen Victoria as Empress of India, 7
Chapter II. — Political Divisions, and How the
Country is Governed .... 25
Chapter III. — Roads, Highways, and Waterways, 36
Chapter IV. — Architecture .... 47
Chapter V. — Productions, Natural and Other
wise . . . . . . . . 54
Chapter VI. — Climate .... 60
Chapter VII. — Scenery and Sights . . 64
Chapter VIII. — Some of the Pests of India . 77
Chapter IX. — Some Characteristics of the Na
tives . . . . . . 86
Chapter X. — Occupations .... 100
Chapter XI. — A Glance at Hinduism . . 132
Chapter XII. — An Outline of the History of
Protestant Missions . . . . .148
Chapter XIII. — Mission Work and How Carried
On  155
Chapter XIV. — The Prospect for Success . 178
[5-1

ILLUSTRATIONS.

Mr. and Mrs. Z. F. Griffin  Frontispiece
Group of Free Baptist Missionaries in Southern
Bengal, 1891  24
Temple of Juggernaut  47
Mission House in Balasore  47
Taj Mahal at Agra  51
Building a Mud House  51
A Bengal Hindu Village  ¦¦¦•¦•.  65
A Group of Oriya Christian Bible Women  65
Women Hulling Rice  71
Bullocks Taking Rice to Market  71
Hindu Devotee  140
Juggernaut with his Sister and Brother on their
Car  142
Pilgrims Going to Juggernaut  142
A Devotee Making a Pilgrimage to Juggernaut by
Prostrations  145
A Group of Free Baptist Missionaries of Southern
Bengal, 1893  155
A Group of Native Preachers, Oriya and Bengali . . 184
Presentation Address of Native Christians to Rev.
T. H. Stacy, Mission Secretary  184
[6]

India: Daily Life in Bengal.

CHAPTER I.
AN OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY FROM THE TIME OF THE
RIG-VEDA TO THE BEGINNING OF THE REIGN OF
QUEEN VICTORIA AS EMPRESS OF INDIA.
The early home of the Aryans was no doubt
somewhere in Central Asia. In course of time the
country in which they lived became too small for
their numerous offspring, and adventurous bands
left their homes in quest of food or plunder or
pastures new. These marauding bands went in
different directions farther and farther from the old
home land. Some of them settled in Persia; some
of them founded the Greek and Italic nations ;
some, the Celtic and Teutonic races ; and others,
the Slavs of Europe. Others traveled more east
ward and southward, and making their way through
mountain passes, settled in India. Here they
found rich pastures for their flocks and herds, and
fertile land which they began to cultivate. But
they also found that their right to these lands and
pastures was disputed ; for others had possession
of them, and had occupied them for centuries before
the Aryans entered the Punjab. Those who had
[7]

8 INDIA.
possession were the aborigines of the country, who
were by no means ready to relinquish their claim.
For the Aryans to gain possession, therefore, meant
war and conquest ; but little by little, territory was
acquired, and step by step the conquerors came
farther southward and eastward.
It was while they were watching their flocks and
cultivating their land in the Punjab, that they began
the composition of the Rig- Veda. This contains
the most ancient records of the Aryan family, and
is the source of most of our information of this
remote period, extending as it does from B. c. 2000
to b. c. 1400. This is called by historians the
Vedic Period. This book is really hymns addressed
to nature, which the Aryans worshiped ; but in the
hymns there are so many allusions to domestic and
social life, wars, etc. , that they form a history of
the times in which they were composed. We must
bear in mind that the hymns were only composed
and sung at this remote period, but not written.
They were sung, and handed down from father to
son, probably as Homer was by the Greek rhapso-
dists. It was not until the following age, or what
some historians style the Epic Age, that these were
arranged and compiled.
In the Vedic Age the Hindus had very few of
the customs and characteristics which they have
at the present time. This was a patriarchal age.
In their simple devotions the head of the family
was also the priest of the family, and his home

HISTORICAL. 9
was his temple. The head of the family was also
a warrior as well as a cultivator and herdsman.
Caste had not yet made its appearance ; girls had
some choice in the selection of their husbands ; the
cruel custom of burning the widows on the funeral
pyre of the dead husband, was unknown ; and wife
and husband worked together in social equality.
The flesh of animals, together with barley and
wheat, milk and butter, seems to have constituted
their simple diet. There can be no time fixed,
upon which we can put our finger, and say, "At
this date things began to change." The change
was gradual but sure, for after six hundred years
we find that the people had settled in the valleys
of the Ganges and Jamna rivers, and were per
forming pompous and solemn religious rites, which
sometimes, in the case of royal sacrifices, iasted
for years. This period is called by historians the
Epic Age. Now we find professional priests have
come on the stage, who give discourses on the texts
of the Vedas, and who attempt to explain their
hidden meaning. The writings of the Hindus
called the Br&hmanas are speculations and expla
nations concerning the Vedas, by generations of
priests. As these kingdoms increased in territory and
population, they also made advancement in educa
tion and in the administration of their government.
Men duly appointed, collected taxes, administered
justice, and led armies to battle either against the

10 INDIA.
aborigines or against neighboring kingdoms of the
Aryan family. Members of kings' households
learned the art of shooting with bow and arrow,
and riding in war chariots, while priests multi
plied religious rites and observances. It was
during this period that the great Hindu epic,
Mahabharata, was begun. It was not written as
we have it now ; for portions of it have been lost,
and later writers have attempted to supply the
deficiency, or alter or distort the text, or add mere
myth, until, as a historical record of the war it
pretends to describe, it is considered of but little
value. This is a record of a great war between
two powerful races, or tribes, called the Kurus and
the Panchalas. There are evidences that other
neighboring tribes were also drawn into the great
conflict. Though advancement had been made
in arts and sciences, they were none less war
like than their forefathers. Though much of the
Mahabharata is allegorical, it throws a great deal of
light on the customs of the people of that age. It
teaches us that caste was beginning to assert itself,
but had not formed those insurmountable barriers
which later ages witnessed. It shows that the
seclusion of women was not practised, but that the
highest in rank of these went to witness the public
feats in archery and other sports, and that maidens
selected their own husbands. It also teaches us
that vice was not unknown ; for Yudhesthera, the
oldest of the Pandavas, who is the most righteous

HISTORICAL. 1 1
character in the epic, and was well versed in re
ligious knowledge, after he came into possession of
the kingdom, not only gambled it away, but also
staked and lost himself, his brothers, and his beau
tiful wife, Draupadi.
From 1 200 to 1000 b. c, we find the Videhas,
Kosalas, and Kasis branches of the Aryan family
inhabiting what is now known as North Behar,
Oude, and the country about the present city of
Benares. These bold races had pushed through
the jungles, crossed rivers, subdued aboriginal
tribes, and founded strong and powerful kingdoms.
The writing preserved which throws some light on
Indian history of this period, is the Ramayana.
Like the Mahabharata, scholars claim that it is
utterly valueless as a history of any war ; but the
side lights it throws out are valuable in showing
the progress made in conquest, as also the ele
vation to power of the priestly class.
The Ramayana teaches plainly that no longer do
the Kshatriya, or warrior caste, assert their opin
ions and their rights to any great extent ; but even
Rama, the hero of the epic, ' ' though he encounters
and defeats a Brahmin warrior, Parasa-rama, does
so with many apologies and due submission." Stta,
the heroine of the poem and wife of Rama, though
purely a mythological character, begins to tell the
early tale of woman's complete and uncomplaining
subjugation. Though caste lines have been made,
there are examples where women have passed from

12 INDIA.
one caste into another, and even married into a
different caste. Moreover, during this time, and
up to the close of the epic period, only three castes
were recognized ; namely, the Brahmin, Kshatriya,
and Vaysya ; and these associated together, and
ate together, and felt that they were a united
people. Though they had extended their territory far
down the Ganges Valley during the many preced
ing centuries, they were not essentially a warlike
people. They seem to have inherited the devo
tional instincts of the family as the European por
tion did the warlike propensities. They had made
considerable advance in education, but their schools
and colleges were more for religious instruction
than anything else. They had discovered the lunar
zodiac in astronomy, but their knowledge in this
was used more for regulating the sacrifices than
for any scientific purpose. Considerable progress
was made also in developing a code of laws for the
government of the people.
From the year iooo b. c. to 242 b. c, historians
call the Rationalistic Period. During these years
the Aryans conquered many aboriginal tribes, and
extended their kingdom into Central India and to
the Arabian Sea on the west and to the Bay of
Bengal on the east. This period seems to have
been a practical period, and all their writings and
teachings in religion and science were reduced to
the most concise expressions. The literature of

HISTORICAL. 1 3
this period is called Sutra literature, and the object
was to replace the voluminous writings of the pre
vious age by aphorisms. This style of literature
rapidly spread, and schools sprang up in many
places to teach it. These Sutras reduced the
lengthy ceremonials of religious rites of the Vedas
to mere manuals. In law we have the code of
Manu, defining the duties of citizens, and in social
life, the Grihya Sutra, defining the domestic duties.
Grammars also were written, and rules for pro
nunciation. In this they were in advance of the
Greeks or the Romans. The grammar of Panini
in the Sanskrit, compiled b. c 350, is still the foun
dation of the study of the language. The science
of geometry was discovered and somewhat devel
oped, and the philosophy of Kapila is comparable
to that of Aristotle in his reasonings.
No one can read the literature of this period, or
any portion of it, without seeing that caste preju
dices had taken a terrible hold of the people, and
that the Brahmins exercised their privileges to the
great humiliation and detriment of the common
people. The oppressions prepared the way for
Buddhism. The people were anxious to be freed
from the galling yoke of the Brahmins, so that
when Prince Gotama, the founder of Buddhism,
announced his principles with regard to the brother
hood of man, they were hailed with joy. Though
the Brahmins had prepared the way for the spread
of Buddhism, and though the people seemed to flock

14 INDIA.
so around the standard of Buddha, it was three
centuries after his death, which occurred b. c. 447,
before Asoka, the greatest of India's emperors, de
clared it to be the religion of the state. Such was
the hold that Hinduism had upon the people. If
it took Buddhism, which had much in common with
Hinduism, three centuries to convert the people,
where is the ground for discouragement in Christian
missions ?
Hitherto all the light that has been thrown on
Indian history is gathered from the writings of the
Hindus, which are mostly of a religious nature ; but
toward the close of this period, India began to
come in contact with portions of the family which
had, many centuries before, drifted westward.
Herodotus, the Greek historian who lived between
400 and 500 b. c. , speaks of the Hindus as the
greatest nation of the ages.
The same writer tells us that Darius the Persian
subjugated a portion of India, and that his ships
sailed down the Indus to the sea. Later, Magas-
thenes, a Greek, in the fourth century b. c. , came
to India, and lived with one of the kings, and wrote
of its civilization and conquests. These writings
show that all of India, except some of the deserts
and some of the mountain fastnesses, had been
conquered, and the aboriginal tribes either subju
gated and Hinduized or else driven back into these
barren places and mountain retreats.
Toward the close of this period other important

HISTORICAL. 1 5
events were transpiring, among which was the in
vasion of the country by Alexander the Great. He
entered India 327 b. c, and had it not been for
the intense heat of the summer and the southwest
monsoon, he might have marched his conquering
armies through the whole length of India. It was
not because there were no native armies to oppose
him, but because the native kings were jealous of
each other, and often would rather espouse the
cause of Alexander, if a local enemy could thereby
be humbled, than unitedly to oppose him and save
their country. But the heat was a more powerful
enemy than the Indian armies, and Alexander re
solved to withdraw from the country. He con
structed a fleet upon which part of the army sailed
down the Indus, and thence up the Persian Gulf ;
and part went overland, through Beluchistan and
Persia. He founded some cities during his brief
stay, of which the present city of Haidarabad is
one. Later, other marauding Greek bands came
into the country, and as far south as Oude, but
established no kingdoms.
Internal dissensions were rife in this period,
and there were frequent changes of dynasties.
This condition made the inhabitants an easy prey
to any strong, warlike, and united people. From
the west such a host was coming in upon them.
In the year 126 b. c the Cythian, or Tartar, tribe
came down through the mountain passes of the
northwest, and established a foothold in the Punjab.

1 6 INDIA.
They came to stay and to extend their territory,
and it is recorded of one of their kings, Kanishka,
that he extended his kingdom as far south as Agra.
VaUiant kings arose in India to repel and expel
these northern hordes; and the struggles were long,
and the results various. In the year 515 A. D. , the
great Hindu king, Vikramaditya, arose and regained
possession of the greater part of India, and estab
lished peace, which lasted for two centuries. This
was also the period in which the Pauranas, one of
the sacred books of the Hindus, was written, and it
also witnessed the rapid decline of Buddhism. In
the eighth century A. D. the Rajput, who had
hitherto scarcely been reckoned to be within the
pale of the Aryan Hindus, rose to power.
The founder of this dynasty was a brave general
in Gujarat, Senapati Bhalarka by name, who de
clared his independence, and, carrying the banner
of Puranick Hinduism, established Brahmin su
premacy everywhere in India. In the twelfth
century A. d., India was ruled by three Rajput
kings, — Prothu Rai Chohan at Delhi and Ajmir ;
Jaya Chandra Rathore was king of Kanauj, Alla
habad, Oude, and Benares ; and Bhima Deva was
ruler of Gujarat and Central India.
But the days of the brave Rajputs, who had
ruled India for nearly four centuries, were numbered.
Shahabuddin Ghori, a Mohammedan conqueror,
entered India A. D. 1191, and led his victorious
armies through the country. The Rajputs, after

HISTORICAL. 1 7
making a brave but unsuccessful attempt to save
their kingdom, returned to Rajputana, leaving the
Mohammedans the undisputed possessors of the
country. Shahabuddin Ghori was a practical ruler,
and at once set about the task of thoroughly or
ganizing his kingdom. The name of Ghori's Indian
viceroy was Kutub-ud-din, who, upon the death of
his sovereign, established a new dynasty called the
Slave dynasty from the fact that Kutub-ud-din
was once a Turkish slave. The great minaret
twelve miles from Delhi, which is one of the won
ders of the world, was erected in memory of Kutub-
ud-din. Other Mohammedan dynasties followed as they
could by intrigue or power gain the ascendency.
In 1398 the great Tartar general, Tamerlane,
swept over the country, devastating cities and
murdering the people ; but when satiated with
blood, he retired toward Central Asia.
In 1526 A. D. , Baber entered the country, and
established the Mogul dynasty. The country was
divided into many petty kingdoms, ruled both by
Hindu princes and Mohammedan kings. Baber
was a lineal descendant of Tamerlane, and, like
him, was fierce and warlike, and took delight in
the task before him. As Shahabuddin had done
centuries before, so he now went from one victory
to another, until at his death, which occurred 1 5 30
A. D. , he held possession of India as far as Behar
in the eastern valley of the Ganges. His son, who

1 8 INDIA.
succeeded him, was not able fully to hold together
the kingdom, on account of family dissensions ;
but his grandson, Akbar the Great, who began to
reign 1556 a. d., thoroughly established the Mogul
empire. Of the work of Akbar and his successors, we have
no time to speak. Suffice it to say that the finest
architecture of India belongs to this period. The
palace of Delhi, with the peacock throne, was built
by one of these kings, and also the Taj Mahal at
Agra. This latter is the architectural gem of the
world, and was built by Shah Jehan in honor of
his wife, Mumtazi Mahal, whose tomb it is. Au-
rangzeb was the last of the Mogul kings who ruled
with any force or independence of character, and
the empire began gradually to crumble after his
death. The rising of the Sikhs and Mahrattas among
the Hindus, and the appalling depredations of the
Afghans, as they made six successive invasions,
were the direct causes which contributed to the
fall of the Mogul empire. It may be said to have
disappeared, so far as exerting any influence on the
country, in 1765 ; though for nearly another cen
tury they kept up an appearance of sovereignty.
Mahamed Bahadur Shah, the seventeenth Mogul
emperor, and last of the race of Timur, for his
complicity in the mutiny of 1857, was banished to
Rangoon, where he died in 1862.
In the meantime Great Britian appeared on the

HISTORICAL. 19
field, and taking advantage of, or pity on, the utter
chaotic condition of the country, began to establish
a foothold with a view of becoming a nation in
India. The English had long been in India as
traders, under the name of the East India Com
pany. This company was organized in 1600 A. d. ,
with a capital of £70, 000, and had purchased some
possessions in the vicinity of Bombay, Madras, and
Calcutta, and had opened up many trading-points
here and there. The whole of Calcutta, with the
surrounding country, was purchased from the vice
roy of Bengal. He sold his valuable territory in
order to get money to carry out his scheme for
the succession of the Mogul empire. The present^
Fort William, one of the largest forts in the
world, was begun in 1707. Fort Saint David, on
the Coromandel Coast, had also been erected.
With money, a few strong forts, and a few brave
soldiers, the English were, in a position to take
advantage of the conditions as above described.
It is not the object of this brief narrative to
give a detailed account of the history of the rise of
the English in India. There are many well-written
histories on this subject, and they may be found
in almost any bookstore. A few leading facts will,
however, be in place. The French had, in some
places, and the Portuguese in others, established
themselves. The Mahrattas and the Sikhs were at
war with the Moguls, and othe/ internal wars also
prevailed.

20 INDIA.
During part of this time, France and England
were fighting, which necessarily involved their India
possessions. It soon became known that English
soldiers were good fighters, so the East India Com
pany was often appealed to for help by one or the
other of the many contending parties. At the close
of nearly all these contentions and battles, favor
able treaties for the English were entered into, and
new territory was acquired. After the Company
had secured a strong foothold, the settled policy was
to acquire new territory as fast as possible. The
history of the conquest of Bengal, and the achieve
ments of Lord Clive ; of Warren Hastings and his
operations ; the first Mahratta war, and the war
with Mysore ; Lord Cornwallis, and the second
Mysore war; the Marquis of Wellesley, and his
settled policy of making the English the one para
mount power in India, and his third Mysore war
and second Mahratta war; and the great acquisi
tions of territory under these administrations, — these
make very interesting reading, and may be found
fully treated in Hugh Murray's history of India, or
in that of James Grant, or in any other standard
work. The further conquests of Lord Minto, and
his consolidation of the conquests of Wellesley ;
Lord Moira, and his war with Nepaul, by which the
hill stations of Naini Tal, Mussourie, and Simla
were acquired from the brave and warlike Gurkhas;
the war in Central, India with the Pendaris ; and
the last Mahratta war, — form interesting chapters.

HISTUK1UAL. 2 1
Following these eventful times was the first Bur
mese war, 1824-26, by which Assam and other
portions of the northeast, came into the possession
of the English. During the time of Lord Bentinck,
sati, or the burning of the live widow on the fu
neral pyre with the dead body of her husband, was
prohibited and done away with. In connection
with this we may see the elasticity of the con
science of the Hindu. When the order was passed
.prohibiting this most inhuman practise, a deputa
tion of Brahmins waited on the viceroy, and told
him that their consciences told them that sati was
the right thing for them to practise. Lord Ben
tinck replied, "Very well, follow the dictates of
your conscience ; but the Englishman's conscience
tells him that whoever aids or abets in murder,
shall be hanged. You burn your widows according
to your conscience, and we will hang you accord
ing to ours. " Suffice it to say, no Brahmins were
hanged for conscience' sake.
Soon after the acquisition of Assam, came the
Afghan war, which resulted in the utter defeat of
the English, and in which four thousand fighting
men and twelve thousand camp-followers perished
either in the snowy defiles of Kurd Kabul, or from
the knives and guns of the treacherous Afghans.
The first Sikh war gave Lahore to the British, and
under the admininistration of Lord Dalhousie,
Oude, Nagpore, and parts of the Punjab and
Burma, and other possessions were annexed. Lord

22 INDIA.
Dalhousie turned the sod for the first railroad, and
established in certain parts of the country tele
graphic communication.
The next important event in the history of India
is the terrible mutiny of 1857. The causes of this
wide-spread disaffection have been discussed time
and again. Whatever may have been the cause or
causes, the direct occasion was the introduction of
the Enfield rifles and the greased cartridges to be
used with them. It was rumored among the sepoys
(native soldiers), who were both Hindus and Mo
hammedans, that the grease used in these cartridges
was made from the tallow of the cow and the fat of
the hog. The hog is unclean to the Mohammedan,
and the cow is sacred to the. Hindu, so that report
was a sharp two-edged sword which cut both ways.
It is probable the real cause of the disaffection lay
in the fact that the people saw that Western ideas
and ways were creeping into the country, and that
in time, unless something was done to check it,
their ancient customs and religion would be over
thrown. The first overt mutinous act occurred February
25, at Berhampore, one hundred and sixteen miles
north of Calcutta. This act was the 19th Bengal
Native Infantry's refusing to accept the cartridges.
Soon the blood of an English officer was shed,
which was the signal for the lighting, so to speak,
of the fires of war on every hilltop. By May this
spirit of rebellion had become so extensive and so

rampant that every Englishman in India felt pre
pared for any news. It came from Merut and told
of the burning of the English quarters, and the
massacreing of men, women, and children by the
sepoys. From Merut they went to Delhi, only
twelve miles away.
But why attempt to tell of the terrible carnage
of that year ? Delhi, Lucknow, and Cawnpore are
almost synonyms for all that is brave, and true,
and suffering on the part of the English, men,
Women, and children ; and all that is cowardly,
treacherous, and savage on the part of the sepoys.
Taking into account the character of the combat
ants and those connected with them, and the ter
rible odds against the English, there has probably
been no event in the history of any nation, of
more thrilling interest than the sepoy mutiny of
1857. Though Delhi fell, it was retaken; though
sixty thousand sepoys surrounded the Residency at
Lucknow, it was relieved by five thousand British
soldiers ; though Cawnpore had witnessed the most
terrible butchery of innocent women and children
ever recorded, and had come fully into the hands
of the rebels, it was not long held. Town after
town was reoccupied, which had been taken by the
mutineers, and fort after fort was stormed, until in
January, 1859, the echo of the last gun died away,
and the last fugitivp was chased across the frontier.
On the first of November, 1858, at a grand dur
bar held in Allahabad, Lord Canning, the viceroy

24 INDIA.
of India, sent forth the royal proclamation, that
the queen of England had assumed the government
of India. Thus was brought to a close the history
and existence of the East India Company, the
greatest commercial and military company that
ever existed ; and thus began the reign of Queen
Victoria as empress of India. Religious neutrality
and justice have been the guiding principles of the
queen ; and in no time since the age of the Rig-
Veda, have the people of India been so secure in
the possession of their property and their civil
rights and religious privileges as to-day.
In these pages I have tried to give a bird's-eye
view of the events of the centuries, the knowledge
of which will, I trust, give us a better idea of the
people, the country, and the problems before us as
Christian workers.

Top Row. — Z. F. Griffin, Miss Butts, M. C. Miner, A. Sanborn, Miss Oonibs, Mrs. Smith, Mrs. Eliza Bacheler.
Second Row. — Miss Hooper, Mrs. Griffin, Mrs. Boyer, Dr. Mary Bacheler, A. B. Boyer, Willie Bacheler, Dr. N. M. Phillips, Mrs. Miner.
Third Row.— Geo. Henderson, Mrs. Ager, Geo. Ager, Mrs. Henderson, Mrs. S. Bacheler, Dr. 0. R. Bacheler, T. H. Stacy, F. W. Brown, J. Rae.
Children. — Nellie Griffin, Bryant Griffin, Frankie Griffin, Lula Bacheler, Otis Bacheler, Hawley Miner, Alma Miner.

Group of Free Baptist Missionaries in Southern Bengal, 1891.

CHAPTER II.
POLITICAL DIVISIONS AND HOW THE COUNTRY
IS GOVERNED.
India may be said to be divided politically into
five divisions : i . The Portuguese have two or
three possessions. 2. The French have a portion,
and a little more than the Portuguese. 3. There
are two independent states in the northern part,
Nepaul and Bhutan. 4. There are one hundred
and sixty native protected states, which embrace
one third of all the territory of India. These are
ruled by native kings who have with them, usually
at their capital, a British resident. The work of
the latter is to look after British interests, and to
advise with the king on all important subjects. 5.
There are five provinces, which embrace the most
fertile parts of India, directly under British rule.
They contain about one million square miles of
territory, and about one hundred and twenty-five
million people. These five provinces are the Pun
jab farthest to the northwest, next the Northwest
ern Provinces and Oude, then Bengal, Madras, and
Bombay. The Punjab has a lieutenant-governor as the
highest resident official. This is also true of the
Northwestern Provinces and Oude. Bengal has
[251

26 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
a lieutenant-governor and a legislative council.
Madras has a governor and two councils, which is
also true of the Bombay Presidency. Aside from
these five principal divisions, certain provinces are
governed by Chief Commissioners, as are also the
Central Provinces, — Assam, Berar, Ajmir, and
Coorg. Below governors, lieutenant-governors,
and chief commissioners, are commissioners. Prov
inces are divided into districts, and these commis
sioners have supervision over a certain number of
districts; e. g., Bengal contains one hundred and
sixty thousand square miles, and has seventy
million people. There are forty-five districts in
this province, and nine commissioners, giving to
each an average of five districts, though all do not
have the same extent of territory. The commis
sioner exercises supervision over the magistrate and
collector, and periodically inspects their offices.
At the head of each district is a magistrate and
collector, who is virtually king under certain re
strictions. A district of the average' size in Bengal
is thirty-six hundred square miles, or nearly as
large as the State of Connecticut, and contains
more than twice as many people as there are in
Connecticut. Districts vary in size. Midnapore
has a population of two and one-half million ;
Balasore has a population of one million.
The duties of the magistrate and collector are
various. He is supposed to exercise a paternal care
over the people. He must travel throughout his

POLITICAL DIVISIONS. 27
district ninety days each year, to find out just what
is needed. He must look over the roads, visit the
hospitals and. schools, examine the crops, see if
sanitation is observed, provide supplies of rice and
drinking-water if there be a failure, look after the
settlement or remeasurement of lands, which takes
place once in twenty years, sometimes settle dis
putes between large landholders, receive distin
guished visitors, inspect liquor, and opium, and
gunja shops, etc. , etc. He is also chairman of the
District Board, and must sign nearly every docu
ment. He has many cases to decide in court, and
sometimes acts as an arbitrator.
Districts are subdivided. In Bengal, for exam
ple, there are eighty-one subdivisions. At the
head of each of these is a deputy magistrate and
collector, called also a subdivisional officer. He is
subject to the magistrate-collector and refers mat
ters to him when necessary. These are again
subdivided into what are called thannahs. The
thannah is the unit in the governmental and
political arrangement. The whole arrangement is
a -wheel within a wheel, and yet the clock runs
well, and keeps good time.
In each district there is a kutchery (court-house)
town. In this town the officers of the district
usually reside, and here is where the treasury
is found. Here are many lawyers, and here is
where the people come to settle their grievances.
In an ordinary kutchery town, one will usually find

28 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
these officers: I. Magistrate and collector. 2.
Civil surgeon. This officer gets a fixed salary to
attend to the bodily ailments of the civil servants
of the government. He is at liberty to have also
an outside practise. 3. Superintendent of public
works. This officer has general supervision of
canals, roads, and public buildings. 4. Superin
tendent of police. His duties are to inspect the
different police stations, and keep the police de
partment in running order as nearly as possible.
If the district be a large one, there is also likely to
be some officers in the judicial line, as a judge
and a joint magistrate. There may be also a
superintendent of jails. As a rule these officials
are friendly to missionaries, and invite them occa
sionally to dine with them.
The officials mentioned are what are called ' ' soci
ety people,'' and missionaries are regarded as being
on a social equality with them. The wives of these
officials may also be in. the town, but it is more
than probable that some, if not all of them, are in
England. All of these offices may be filled by na
tives, and usually some natives are found filling
them. Aside from these society people, there are
some lower caste people filling minor positions, as
in the post-office and telegraph office. Quite often
these are filled by Eurasians,1 and sometimes by
natives. There is also belonging to this class a
district engineer, a police inspector, a deputy in-
1 Part European and part native.

POLITICAL DIVISIONS. 29
spector of schools, and one or more salt inspectors.
Every officer gets a mileage for traveling, so many
of this latter class, who spend much of their time
in going from place to place through their district,
add largely to their income. Indeed, it is their
duty to do this kind of work, so they are seldom
found in the stations.
Almost every night of the year the Europeans
in government service meet together, either at the
club house, or in some private house. The time
before dark is spent in tennis and conversation,
and after dark with music and often dancing. Most
Englishmen think ' ' pegging " a necessity, and
many indulge to excess. One of the saddest sights
to be seen in India, is so many fine-looking young
Englishmen going down to premature graves
through drink. This last remark has no relation
to the government of India, and yet is true with
respect to many government officials.
Another officer who is always to be found in a
kutchery town is a munsiff. He is in the judicial
line, and tries cases of a civil nature. The Hindus
are very fond of lawing, and therefore this officer
is a hard-worked man. His court-room is open
every day in the year, except on legal holidays, and
he seldom or never gets his cases all off the docket.
There are also officers who look after the revenue.
The collector is at the head of this department,
and he has with him quite a staff as inspectors and
clerks.

30 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
Perhaps there will be no better place than this
to make a few remarks upon this question. The
revenue of India is about $375,000,000 annually,
and is derived from the following sources : Opium
shipped to China, $32,500,000;- opium consumed
in India, $17,500,000; tax on salt, $37,000,000;
stamps, $16,000,000; liquor, $21,300,000; land
tax, $110,000,000. The balance is made up from
the earnings of the railroads, post-offices, forest,
income tax, and duties on a few imports, such as
fire-arms, etc. Some may be curious to know how
salt is taxed. It is simply in this way : For every
pound of salt which is imported from England,
mined in the country, or evaporated from sea
water, the government requires a certain revenue.
There are many places in Orissa where salt water
oozes up from the ground, and is evaporated by
the sun, leaving deposits of salt. It is the duty of
the salt inspectors to see that none of this salt is
gathered by the poor people, and to see that no
sea water is evaporated unlawfully. The revenue
from liquor and opium consumed by the people of
India, amounts to nearly $40,000,000 annually.
The policy of the government in fostering these
industries, if we may call them industries, is to
increase the sale rather than to diminish it. If the
government would put her machinery as vigorously
at work to repress these evils, as she does to pro
hibit the illicit making of salt, no doubt drinking
and opium-eating could well-nigh be abolished.

POLITICAL DIVISIONS. 3 I
We have been talking about the government and
the presidencies of the district, but this does not
cover all the ground. At the head of all this com
plicated machinery of government, is the viceroy.
This officer was called a governor-general under
the East India Company. He is appointed by the
queen of England as her representative ; and he,
with his council, is the highest legislative power in
India. His council has two departments, — execu
tive and legislative. The former has six members,
and the latter from twelve to eighteen. The mem
bers of the legislative council include the executive
council. He is a lord or a marquis, and is gen
erally a fair-minded and capable man. His winter
home is in Calcutta, and his summer home in Simla,
a beautiful hill station north, up in the Himalaya
mountains. It is an event in Calcutta when the
viceroy and his retinue return there, about Decem
ber 1 ; and it is also an event in Simla when they
arrive there, early in the spring. He is a well-
paid officer, .and has the satisfaction of living in,
the finest climate in the world the year through.
But his responsibilities are great ; for in a measure
the interests of two hundred and eighty-five million
people are committed to him. He must be a man
of great diplomatic ability ; for there are wars of
greater or less magnitude a good deal of the time,
and conquered states or countries must be recon
structed. In his winter tours he must meet many of the

32 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
kings of the protected states. In their great dur
bars, or public assemblies, he must listen to their
speeches and requests, and reply so as not to give
offense nor in any way commit himself if he does
not choose to. He is open to the attacks of the
native press, and these are often very virulent ; for
the freedom of the native press is run wild in India.
More or less, he must give public receptions, and
these must comport with his standing.
Through the courtesy of General Samuel Merrill,
who was United States consul-general in Calcutta
during part of the time we were there, Mrs. Griffin
and I had an invitation to one of these receptions,
it happening when we were in Calcutta on the eve
of our return to America. The occasion was the
visit of the grand duke of Austria. It was a very
imposing affair. Native kings were there, clothed
in garments literally covered with gold embroidery
and precious stones ; army officers, with bright
epaulets'; high church officials, with their flowing
robes and cardinal caps ; and hundreds of Cal
cutta's best society people. The splendor and
glitter were quite dazzling to our uninitiated eyes.
How very weary Lord and Lady Lansdown were,
and how we pitied them ! We went away feeling
that, after all, we would rather be simply mission
aries to the people, trying by teaching to lift them
up, than to be the viceroy of India, who may have
the same end in view, but must attain it through
such wearisome and conventional methods.

POLITICAL DIVISIONS. 33
The crown also appoints a secretary of state for
India, who has associated with him a council of
fifteen members. These may annul the acts of the
viceroy, or inaugurate new measures for the benefit
of the Indian people. As a rule, harmony prevails
between the viceroy and the secretary of state.
The latter with his council, remains in London.
So much for the mere outline of the machinery of
government as far as we have gone. The question
of schools and government relation to them will be
spoken of later on.
This question is frequently asked me: "Are
the people well governed ? and are they contented
under English rule ? " I confess I went to India
prejudiced against English rule there. I said, "The
English are there because they have the might,
rather than the right ; and they oppress the people
so that they may fatten on the spoils. " But I have
changed my mind. The people are far better gov
erned than they could govern themselves. If their
government were in the hands of native rulers,
there would be little security for justice, life, or
property. For two thousand years, under native
rule, that was about the condition of things ; and
native character is no better now than it has been
in the past, — at least it is not enough better to in
sure anything like good government. All innocent
natives to this day much prefer being tried by an
English official ; for they expect justice so far as
an English judge can find out what justice is in the
3

34 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
midst of so much conflicting evidence. It is true
that many of the natives are poor, very poor, but
they are as prosperous and contented as it is pos
sible for them to be with their ignorance, supersti
tion, habits of life, religion, and the land rent
which must be paid to the landholders and to the
government.1 There has been a start made toward self-govern
ment in the organization of district boards. These
are analogous to our State legislatures, with, of
course, many more limitations. These boards levy
the rate of assessment, appropriate money for roads
and schools, care for the pounds and ferries, and
many other things of a similar nature. But as a
body for lawmaking, or as one having authority of
the internal affairs of the district, it is little more

1 The one criticism upon British administration in India, is the
enormous salaries of officials and the method of raising part of this
revenue, especially that part raised by the sale of liquor, opium, and
gunja. The viceroy of India gets $ioo,ooo'a year; the governors of
Madras and Bombay, each, $50,000; the three lieutenant-governors,
$45,000 each; members of the executive council of the viceroy, $35,-
000 each; judges of the high court, from $25,000 to $30,000; mem
bers of the civil service, as high as $20,000; military officers, from
$2000 to $10,000; medical officers, from $3000 to $12,000. When we
remember that there are various other departments, as forest, schools,
salt, river and harbor, railroad, telegraph, public works, marine,
ecclesiastical, etc., and that proportionably well-paid officers are in
all of them, we see the criticism is a just one. Though English offi
cials do receive enormous salaries in India, the oppression of the
land tenants is not so great where British rule prevails as where
native rule prevails.

POLITICAL DIVISIONS. 35
than a farce, as I can bear witness after having been
a member of one for seven years. It is a very good
thing, perhaps, in the way of an educator, and at
times as the source of information to the magistrate,
who is also chairman of the board ; but it has no
independent voice if the chairman does not agree.
His wish is the law.

CHAPTER III.
ROADS, HIGHWAYS, AND WATERWAYS.
India is a country of extremes, and the state
ments made by different people are so very dif
ferent, that we often think somebody is stretching
the truth. It is safe to say that India has the worst
and the best roads in the world. As an illustration
let me give a bit of personal experience : At one
time I wanted to visit a bungalow, or rest-house,
which was in quite a remote part of the district.
Near this bungalow, as is very often the case, was a
police outpost and thannah. The name of the place
was Bhograi. I had never been there, so I knew
nothing of the road, but was told by several natives
about there that it was only six miles from where I
was camping, and that the road leading to the
place was good.
Traveling in the heat of the day is not safe at
any season of the year, on account of the heat, so
I waited until about 3 : P. M. , before starting. I
took with me a bhangy wallah, which means a man
with a bamboo pole across his shoulder, to the ends
of which are suspended, by means of ropes, two
burdens of equal weight. This man went to carry
provisions, water, and some blankets for bedding.
I had also a cook with a few, very few, cooking
[36]

ROADS, HIGHWAYS, AND WATERWAYS. 37
utensils, and a man to look after the pony. Two
of my native preachers were with me. I mounted
the pony, and away we started in fine style.
We had not gone more than a mile before we
came to a large tidal river, and as there was no
way to get the horse across except to swim him,
which was unsafe on account of the deep mud on
either side, I sent him back with the man who
cared for him, and the rest of us got in a dugout,
and crossed the river. Before I could land, I had
to take off my shoes and stockings, and roll my
pantaloons up as far as possible. This was made
necessary on account of the deep mud through
which we must wade before getting on dry ground.
We helped each other, and wallowed through as
best we could. I found a place to wash my feet
and limbs, and putting on my shoes, we started
out briskly for our bungalow, which was now but
five miles away.
We had not gone very far over the rice-fields
before we came to a tidal khal. These are natural
canals making back from the rivers and the sea.
When the tide is in, they are full, and when out,
they are empty. There is always plenty of mud in
the bottom. As the tide was now in, we had only
to prepare to wade. This time the mud and the
water were a foot deeper than we had calculated
on, with a corresponding result to our pantaloons.
As we found these khals numerous, we gave up
putting on and taking off shoes and stockings ; and,

38 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
barefoot and with shoes and stockings in hand, we
went on, winding now through the narrow street of
a village, again through a khal, and then through
a rice-field, and did not reach our bungalow until
nine o'clock. We found it stripped of every piece
of furniture, so, getting a few sheaves of rice-straw
from the village, we made our bed upon the hard
stone floor, and rested, contemplating the luxury
of traveling over " good roads."
To reach most of the Hindu villages of South
ern Bengal during the rainy season, one would
pass through a similar experience. The produce
is taken in and out on the backs of bullocks, the
shoulders of men, and the heads of the women ;
and one may look in almost any direction, and he
will see these coming and going over the little
winding dams which separate the small rice-fields
from each other. These are the lowest grade
of roads, and constitute three fourths of all the
roads. The next higher class of roads are the kancha
roads of the country. Let us understand the words
kancha and pucca before we go any further ; for
they are such significant words that they have be
come Anglicized. Kancha means incomplete, and
pucca, the opposite. Kancha may be applied to a
poor road, to unripe fruit, to a man who lacks a
little in intelligence, to a poorly constructed house,
or to a poor job of work of any kind. So you see
what kancha means when applied to a road. The

ROADS, HIGHWAYS, AND WATERWAYS. 39
greater portion of the country roads of America
would be called kancha in India. These roads may
be found every five or six miles apart, leading out
from some larger village to a main trunk road,
which runs, I think, through every district in the
country. One is liable to many different kinds of experi
ences in traveling over these roads. In Bengal
they are usually narrow turnpikes, and the bridges
are quite often made of wood. The floods may
wash the turnpike away, or the natives may steal
the planks from the bridge. If one starts with an
ox-cart or a horse-cart, over one of these roads, he
is not quite sure how far he can go. Especially
is this true in the rains, or immediately after the
rains. But when we come to the pucca roads, we come
to the best that can be made. Take the pilgrim
road for an example. It starts, we might say, as
far up as Delhi, and runs down through the country
to Puri. It is a thousand miles long. The road
way is from one hundred to a hundred and fifty feet
wide, and the turnpike is forty feet wide and from
two to ten feet high. It has metal put upon it,
either gingta, a hard nugget of limestone, or later-
ite, a mixture of iron and stone. These are spread
upon the road, then thoroughly saturated, and
beaten down by men with iron beaters, and allowed
to bake in the hot sun. This is a pucca road, and
is almost as hard and smooth as dressed stone.

40 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
Pepul-, banian-, and mango-trees are planted
along the roadside so as to furnish grateful shelter
to the traveler. Many of these were planted years
ago by the government, and are now so large that
they form, in places, beautiful avenues. All of the
public roads are built and maintained by the gov
ernment. People do not pay their road tax by
doing a day's work at home, and then putting in
a day on the road, all inside of fifteen hours. One
path-master does not throw up an embankmept, and
another tear it down, but competent engineers have
charge, the work is let by contract, and when com
pleted, it is inspected. No one who is acquainted
with Indian character and ways of doing things,
will say that the money appropriated is all honestly
expended, but it is, comparatively speaking, fairly
well expended, and the good roads are kept in good
order, and other roads are being constantly im
proved. The bridges on these turnpike roads are
either iron or brick, and very substantial.
No description of a road would be complete,
especially for Bengal, without reference to the
ferries. We must bear in mind that this part of
the country is level, and the banks of the rivers are
usually low, so the difficulty of making bridges is
great. Then again, the very heavy rains fill these
more than full, so that sometimes they are many
times their usual width. Therefore, ferries are in
most places substituted. Do not think of a Brook
lyn ferry, or even of a Western river ferry of this

ROADS, HIGHWAYS, AND WATERWAYS. 4I
country, with an anchorage up stream, but of a
ferry propelled by men with long bamboo poles,
whose principal business is not to see how quickly
they can get you across the stream, but rather to
see how much time they can consume, and how
much baksheesh they can get out of you. This
of course does not include the toll for the use of
the ferry. As one side at least of almost every
river has a low, sandy bottom, the ferry is propelled
until the bottom strikes the sand ; then planks are
put down, and the cart and carriage are run out
into the water, and the traveler sits on the hands
of the boatmen, who unite their strength to carry
him out to dry ground. We do not so much object
to putting our arms around the neck of each of
these men, but sometimes the ladies would rather
be excused. But it must be done, all the same.
Then the sand is deep and wide, and the oxen or
horses cannot draw the load, and must therefore be
assisted. These ' boatmen are always ready, for a
consideration, to help turn wheels. Europeans can
get across rather quickly, say in from one to two
hours ; but sometimes the poor native cartmen
have to sit in the sand from six to eight hours,
waiting their turn.
Aside from roads, the government has made
canals as highways in many places. Some of these
answer the double purpose of a watercourse for
boats, and irrigation for the rice-fields ; and some
are for irrigation alone. Both classes of canals

42 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
irrigate thirty million acres. Any man has the
privilege of putting a boat on the canal, but must
pay a lock fee according to the capacity of his boat
and the distance he goes.
Among the provisions made by the government
for its officers, are rest-houses along these roads
and canals. These are tailed bungalows, and are
classified as inspection bungalows and dak-bunga
lows. At the latter, a cook is kept, and one can
always order a meal. At the former, one must
furnish his own cook and food. There are very
few dak-bungalows in Bengal. These buildings
are situated on as desirable a site as can be found,
and are about ten miles distant from each other.
They are generally divided into two apartments,
each consisting of one room and a bath-room. The
furniture for each apartment consists of one bed
stead, one table, two or three chairs, and sometimes
a stand and a commode, and a large earthen jar
for bath-room purposes. In traveling, therefore,
a person must take with him, his bedding, food,
light, water, and anything else he may need in a
journey. At any time of the day or night, he may
go to one of these bungalows, call up the watch
man, and take possession, providing the building is
unoccupied. The right of occupancy depends upon
the grade of the officers occupying it. Any Euro
pean has a right to the building, if unoccupied, by
paying one rupee a day. In our field of Bengal
and Orissa, free use of the bungalows was granted

ROADS, HIGHWAYS, AND WATERWAYS. 43
the missionaries on account of services rendered
during the great Orissa famine. When five or six
people wish to stay at one bungalow overnight,
where there are only two beds, some amusing and
interesting experiences are sometimes had.
The only time I ever was in jail overnight, was
on an occasion of this kind. We were going to
our annual meeting at Midnapore. There were
six of us in company, and we had planned to
stop at a certain bungalow. We thought our large
wagon would furnish bed-room for two, and the
two beds of the bungalow would do for the rest
of us. As we came near the bungalow, tired and
hungry, the shades of night were gathering. We
congratulated ourselves that food, shelter, and rest
were not far away ; but a little closer view dis
closed the fact that the building was full to over
flowing of English officials and their wives. We
moved on to the bazaar, took our supper under a
tree, and found a shelter for ourselves ; i. e. , we
men, in the jail near by, while the ladies slept in
the wagon. RAILWAYS.
The first railroad in India was completed in
1853. It ran from Bombay to Tanna, a distance
of three miles. During the mutiny of 1857-58
the government saw how badly it was crippled for
want of means to transport the soldiers, and firmly
resolved that if the country should ever see another

44 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
mutiny, it would not be thus unprepared. As soon,
therefore, as the mutiny closed, the scheme of
Lord Dalhousie, which had previously been before
the country, was at once acted upon. This plan
was to have a few trunk lines traverse the country,
connecting the large cities and the military stations,
and then construct shorter roads, as feeders, to
connect with these. From that small beginning
of 1853, the work has gradually, but for India,
rapidly, extended. In 1878 there were eight thou
sand miles of railroad, and in 1 890, sixteen thou
sand miles.
In later years some roads have been built entirely
by the government ; but the first roads were built
by private companies, and then people could be
induced to embark in such an uncertain- enterprise,
only by the government's guaranteeing them five
per cent, on the money invested. But if the gov
ernment gave such a guaranty, it demanded that
upon certain conditions it might take over the
road. The roads have been found to be such a
paying investment, that the government has taken
over a number of them.
The cars, or carriages as they are called there,
are divided into compartments by partitions run
ning across the cars. The seats also run cross
wise and are as long as the cars are wide. You
enter by a door on the side. The station-houses
are so constructed that a platform as long as the

ROADS, HIGHWAYS, AND WATERWAYS. 45
train, is on a level with the floor of the cars. When
the train comes to a halt, the guards open the doors,
and the passengers get in and out. Those getting
in are looking for their ' ' class ; " for the train has
usually four classes of carriages. First-class is very
fine ; more commodious than, and fully as elegant
as our drawing-room cars. The second-class is only
half the price of the first, and is good enough for
any person. The intermediate costs half the price
of the second, and is very good. Most missionaries
• ride in these latter compartments. Eight people
can sit in one, but so few Europeans travel inter
mediate, that usually each one can have a whole
seat to himself when sleeping time comes, for there
are two shelves above, which can be let down for
this purpose. If the compartment happens to be
full, one does not sleep in very much comfort ; but
even then, there is more room than in a single seat
in an American car.
The next class below is third-class, and the price
is but half the intermediate. The great bulk of
native travel, is in this class. The seats are sim
ply boards, and the people are usually so crowded
that lying down is impossible. There are neces
sarily compartments for zenana women. Now not
far from sixty million passengers ride each year on
the railroad. All third-class passengers, whether
coolies or Brahmins, are hustled into their places
as soon as the cars stop. At first the Brahmin

46 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
looked norror-stricken at being put in the same
compartment with a low-caste man, but he must go
all the same. High and low have found that no
harm comes to either by sitting together, so the
railroads have not only afforded cheap facilities
for travel, but have been a great educator.

Temple of Juggernaut

Mission House at Balasore.

CHAPTER IV.
ARCHITECTURE.
" What kind of houses do they have in India ? "
I could not answer that question in a single sen
tence. In general, the houses may be divided into
pucca and kancha. These words are used in the
same sense as when applied to roads. Then there
are peculiar styles of buildings, according to the
use which is to be made of them. The mosques
and tombs of the Mohammedans are not at all like
the temples of the Hindus. Minarets, domes, and
arches characterize the former, while sharper pin
nacles and the entire absence of domes characterize
the latter. In large cities there are blocks not very
different in appearance from buildings in England
and America. There are some very beautiful
buildings in all of these three styles.
The greater number of the Hindu temples are
built of brick, and plastered with lime and sand
mortar outside and in, on the walls. Generally, in
addition to the plaster, there are figures in stucco-
work both inside and outside, representing different
things in their mythology and sacred books. Accord
ing to our tastes and education, these figures often
represent lewd subjects.
The better class of native gentlemen's houses are
built of the same material as the temples. Very
.47]

48 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
little wood is used in the construction of any of
these buildings, and in temples often none at all is
used. Where doors are required, scantling four
inches square are taken to make the frames for the
same. These are tarred, to keep the white ants
from eating them up, and so put together that the
ends at the top and bottom, set into the solid brick
wall a foot or more. All partitions are made of
brick from the foundation, the same as the outer
walls, and built up with them. The floor is made
by first putting in dirt enough to raise it up a foot
or more above the level of the ground. After this
is beaten down as hard as possible, a layer of brick
is put down, and upon the brick is laid a thick coat
ing of material made of equal parts of broken brick,
gravel, lime, and coarse sand. This is wet and
beaten day after day until it becomes very hard.
Lime is then wet, ground between two stones until
it becomes like putty, and then plastered On the
floor, and troweled, and wet, and beaten until it is
almost as hard and smooth as marble. This is the
way the floors of nearly all the houses of the mis
sionaries, native gentlemen, and English residents,
are made. Some very fine residences and buildings
have floors of porcelain, English tile, or marble.
If the house has two stories, the upper floor is
made by putting heavy timbers or iron beams from
wall to wall about three or four feet apart. From
beam to beam light timbers or irons are put a foot
apart, and on these a square native tile is laid

ARCHITECTURE. 49
double thickness, and so laid as to break joints.
Then the same broken brick, lime, and sand are
used, and put down in the same manner. The
roof is put on in the same way. This explains why
we can go upon the housetop to sit, and even to
sleep at times. It often happens that white ants
make their way up through these brick walls and
devour the wooden beams which support the cham
ber on the roof. After a time the beams are eaten
to a shell (for one can never see the white ants at
work), and then comes the interesting work of
"changing a beam." The natives are slow and
awkward, so lime, brick, dust, and litter are about
for many days. Also much ordering and loud talk
ing are heard, for every man wants to boss the job.
It often happens that the walls of a house are
made of brick, while the roof is made of thatch.
The most beautiful and costly buildings belong
to the Mohammedan style of architecture. These
abound in Northern India, and are either mosques,
palaces, or tombs. The palaces of Delhi and Agra,
are exquisite works of art ; the tomb of Akbar, at
Secundra, near Agra, is magnificent ; the tomb of
Edmud-ud-dowlah is a perfect gem ; but the Taj
Mahal eclipses them all. It was built by the em
peror Shah Jehan, in honor of his favorite wife
Mumtazi Mahal, in 1620. The gateway is a mag
nificent structure of red sandstone, but serves only
as a fit entrance to the tomb itself. From the gate
way to the Taj, is a marble walk, with a hundred
4

50 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
fountains on one side, and tall cypress and many
other kinds of beautiful trees on the other. The
tomb stands upon a double platform. The first is
twenty feet high and a thousand feet long, and is
made of red sandstone. At each end of this lower
platform is a mosque made of the same material.
The second platform is built in the center of the first,
is three hundred and thirteen feet square and eight
een feet high, and is built of pure white marble. On
the four corners of this platform are marble mina
rets one hundred and thirty-three feet high, with
winding stairways in the center from bottom to
top. On the top is a balcony, and the outlook
from this is perfectly enchanting. In the center of
this platform rises the Taj, one hundred and eighty-
six feet square, with the corners, to the extent of
thirty-three feet, cut off, forming an irregular octa
gon. In the center is the great dome fifty feet in
diameter and eighty feet high. Exactly under the
center of this dome are the marble sarcophagi of
the emperor and his wife. The light is admitted
through trellis-work, wrought exquisitely in slabs
of white marble, producing the most soft and cha
stened effect. In many places precious stones are
inlaid in many kinds of designs.
The echo is not the least wonderful thing about
this structure. If one stands by the marble coffins
and sings, he will be surprised at the melody which
comes back to him from his own voice. As it
begins to ascend, it sounds like the very lowest

Taj Mahal at Agra.

Building a Mud House.

ARCHITECTURE 5 1
notes of a great pipe-organ, but as it ascends, it
becomes more distinct and musical. The higher
it rises, reverberating from side to side, the more soft
and sweet it becomes, till at last as it dies away in
the top of the dome, one might fancy the angels
were whispering his song back to him. I have
thought how very like to this are the sorrows of
life, — harsh and discordant at first, but as they
ascend heavenward they are robbed of their harsh
ness, and at last they come back to us glorified.
We went into the crypt of the Pantheon at Paris
to see the resting-place of Victor Hugo, Voltaire,
and Rousseau ; and the guide, for a consideration,
wanted us to hear the echo of this place, but it
bears no comparison to the echo of the Taj.
Some one has said that the Taj is "a poem in
marble." But let us pass from poetry to prose, from this
fairy place to the common houses of the people.
There is only one Taj, and one Imimbarrah, and a
few palaces, but there are millions of houses of the
common people, and nineteen out of every twenty
of the people live in these common houses.
Let us proceed to build one. We first count
our money to see what kind of house it is to be.
If we have $5, we plan accordingly; and if we have
$25, we can do much better. Suppose it be the
latter sum. We call men whose business it is to
build mud walls, and tell them how large a house
we want, and how many "hands" there will be in

52 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
the walls. After a good deal of bickering, they
agree to take the customary price of eight cents a
hand for laying up the walls. That is, the walls
are to be seven and one-half feet high, and for each
foot and a half in length of this wall, they are to
have eight cents. We furnish them with two or
three large, heavy hoes, a half dozen water-pots,
and a long string of twisted grass or jute, and they
are ready to build the house. First a string is put
around where the outside of the walls are to be.
This is secured at the four corners by pins driven
into the ground. Inside of this string is another,
the distance from the outside string which the
thickness of the wall is to be. The ground be
tween these two strings is dug up, wet, and worked
by the feet and big hoes, until it becomes a mortar.
It then bakes in the sun until it is hard. A little
way outside the walls a hole is dug, from which
mud is taken to build the walls. First a layer a
foot high is put on, and allowed to stand a week or
so, that it may be hard and dry. Then another
one is put on, and so on, layer after layer until the
wall is the desired height. Bamboo poles are put on
for rafters, and these extend about three feet over
the walls. Across these rafters split bamboos are
tied about two inches apart. Upon this the rice-
straw is laid smoothly, and fastened to its place by
another strip of split bamboo. The fastening is
done by putting a long bamboo needle, which has
a string attached to it, down through the straw,

ARCHITECTURE. 53
around a rafter, and up over the split bamboo,
tying the string securely. If the outside walls were
20 x 40 feet, it does not argue that the roof will,
cover all that space. Two cross walls are made,
leaving an open court in the center. There is but
one outside door, with a few small holes for win
dows. Around the outside of the house is a mud
veranda, covered by the projecting roof. This
veranda is the reception-room for men who may
call, and especially for strangers. There are a few
wooden bars put in the windows, and a small door
to keep out the cold air in winter, and to keep in
the smoke. The cooking is frequently done in one
corner of the room, allowing the smoke to get out
the best way it can.
In Northern India, as also in Southern India, we
see very little straw thatching. There tile is used.
In fact, most of the native shops in Calcutta are
covered with tile. Many of the aborigines live in
huts covered with grass or the leaves of a scrubby
palm. The roof and walls are one and the same, and
the people enter these houses by crawling into them.
We see, therefore, that there are all kinds of build
ings in India, from the hut just described to the Taj
Mahal, which took twenty thousand men twenty
years to build.

CHAPTER V.
PRODUCTIONS, NATURAL AND OTHERWISE.
Bengal is, strictly speaking, a rice country, and
Northern India, a wheat country. These two
grains are the foundation of the dishes of the peo
ple. A number of varieties of the pulse family
grow on higher and more sandy land. Some of
the grains of these are as large as our common
pea ; others are much smaller. These several va
rieties have different names, but in general are
called dal. A good deal of millet and inferior
grains of that kind are raised north. Flax is raised
and oats and corn on the lower ranges of the
Himalayas. There is quite a variety of roots. The sweet
potato does well on the plains, and the Irish potato
in the mountains and on the west coast. There is
a large kind of raddish, which may be eaten either
raw or cooked, and which is produced in large
quantities. Artichokes, yams, and the roots of
the Caladium are also articles of food.
Many kinds of vegetables grow well. There is
a large variety belonging to the gourd family, as
squash, pumpkins, cucumbers, watermelons and
muskmelons, citron, and other varieties not pro
duced in America. Almost all kinds of European
[54]

PRODUCTIONS. 5 5
vegetables may be raised in Bengal and farther
north in the winter season. The egg-plant is ex
tensively cultivated in many parts of Bengal in the
winter. There are many other kinds of native
vegetables that we in America are wholly unac
quainted with. All European vegetables are very
tasteless in India compared with the same thing in
America. A great variety of fruit is raised, but as a rule
a great variety is not grown in any one place.
Bananas are the most common. Pineapples, cus
tard-apples, mangoes, jack-fruit, bael, papayas, and
guavas are, aside from bananas, the principal fruits
of Bengal. Assam produces oranges and lemons ;
and a large, sweet orange is grown, as are also
sweet limes, farther north. The Afghans bring
down fresh grapes, apples, raisins, and nuts. Coco
nuts grow more or less in many parts of the
country. Sugar-cane plantations abound. The natives
manufacture a coarse brown sugar from which they
make' their native sweets, and from which also
great quantities of refined sugar are produced in
Calcutta and elsewhere.
Jute and opium are among the exports, also oils
of different kinds, as coconut-, mustard-, and
castor-oil. Sheep, goats, cows, and buffaloes are
among the most useful and common of animals. '
From the milk of the cow and the buffalo the
natives make a butter which, when melted and

56 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
clarified, is called ghee. This is most important,
as it enters into almost every well-cooked meal,
either of the European or the native.
In Calcutta and other large cities which have
railroad communication with other parts, almost
every kind of these fruits and vegetables may be
found, but in the more secluded and remote places,
the question of getting a variety to eat, at times
becomes a troublesome one. At Balasore we could
get mangoes in May and June, custard-apples in
July and August, jack-fruit at the same time, and
also pineapples, while bananas grew the year round ;
but the supply was liable to be short, and if so, we
must go without.
"What do the people eat?" This is a most
common question. We could answer it in a gen
eral way by saying they ate about what the country
produced. There are some things a good Hindu
will not eat. He never takes life of any kind, and
therefore will not eat flesh of any kind, except, in
some places, fish. Then a third of the people do
not get enough of the plainest kind of food to sat
isfy their hunger. These must eat the cheapest
things they can get. In the mango season this
fruit is eagerly eaten from the time it is as large as
a plum, up to the time it ripens. When ripe, it is
as large as a large apple. It is not because the
country does not produce enough for the people to
eat, that many do not have enough, but because
they are too poor to buy it. There are millions of

PRODUCTIONS. 57
bushels of rice and wheat shipped from India every
year. Leaving out the very poor, who do not have
regular daily meals of cooked food, let us see what
those eat who do. In Bengal boiled rice and
boiled split peas, called dal, is the principal thing.
The rice is boiled, and the water turned off into
a separate dish. The rice is then put back again
on the fire for a few minutes, when it comes off dry
and fluffy. In the dal, some mustard-oil or ghee,
and salt, pepper, and other spices are put. The
natives take their rice, and put it either upon a brass
plate or a banana leaf, make a hole in the center
into which they turn the dal, and then proceed to
mix the whole together with their fingers. Their
table is a grass mat spread upon the floor, over
which may or may not be spread a cloth, and their
chairs are their legs crossed under them. The
male portion of the family eat first, while the other
portion waits upon them. The women have their
meals afterward, if there is enough for all. In place
of the dal they frequently make a curry with either
vegetables or fish for a foundation, having other
wise about the same seasoning as the dal. Onions
and huldee ( a pungent root ) enter into almost all
of their well-cooked dishes. They make a pudding
from rice, milk, and sugar, seasoning it with cam
phor. This is eaten only on rare occasions.
The wealthy are very fond of sweets, and eat a
great many. They have a very great variety of

58 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
these. If a person calls on a native gentleman,
and he wishes to be very cordial, he sends out a
servant to the bazaar to bring in a tray of mixed
native sweets. Many Europeans do not care for
these, but I was very fond of them. The water
turned from the rice of the last night's dinner, con
stitutes the breakfast of most of the laboring peo
ple in the rice districts. In Upper India wheat is
ground whole, and baked into cakes ; this takes
the place of rice in Bengal.
' ' What do you missionaries eat ? " — Rice, dal,
and curry, are much more largely eaten in India
than in America ; but aside from these, if one lives
in a city like Calcutta, he can get many of the same
things he can get at home ; i. e. , if he has the
money, for what is not produced in the country is
imported from England, Australia, and the United
States. But back in remote stations it is a very
different thing. As I said, you are for fruits
largely dependant upon local supply, which may
fail. No beef can be had, and but little mutton
and fish. Chicken, poor and tough, is the only
thing one can be sure of in the meat line, and even
then he must look sharp or the supply may run
out. Generally one can get what eggs he needs,
and milk, if he keeps his own cows. We have
taught native Christians how to milk to suit us,
and could buy milk of them. We never think of
eating the milk from an ordinary Hindu village.
They have a way of cleaning dishes and flavoring

PRODUCTIONS. 59
milk, which we have not been educated into liking.
One can get about what bread he needs, but it is
not very good ; also in the winter, vegetables from
the garden ; and in the rains, native vegetables.
As a rule the eating habits of the natives are sim
ple, and so are those of the missionaries. I would
hardly recommend any person, however, to go to
India for the sake of what he might get to eat, and
especially to the country districts.

CHAPTER VI.
CLIMATE.
You may have in India almost any kind of cli
mate your means and taste may suggest. In the
north you may go up the Himalaya Mountains until
you come to the fields of perpetual ice and snow.
These are not the ordinary snow-capped moun
tains, but those grand ranges whose cold summits
seem to pierce the very sky. It is not necessary
to go to the top of these ranges to find eternal
winter. The top, in fact, was never reached by
man or beast. Even the birds in their loftiest
flights never scaled the heights of such mountains
as Everest, 29,000 feet high, or Kinchinjinga, 28,-
000 feet high. Ten thousand feet below the top
of these you could build your snow house, and live
as the Eskimo does, if some great glazier did not
carry your house away. If you did not like this,
you could go to the south of India, where you
would have summer the year around. So warm
is it here that the chilly wind is scarcely felt, and
the blighting frost is never known.
On the plains between the mountains of the
north and the perpetual summer of the south,
there is almost every degree of climate. In the
Punjab, summer is hot, but shorter, and the winter
[60]

CLIMATE. 6 1
quite cold. In the Northwestern Provinces, the
heat of summer is more intense than it is even far
ther south, on account of the hot winds blowing off
the sands of Central India and Rajputana. It is
not an uncommon thing for the thermometer to
register 1200 on the veranda. The rains here
close earlier, and refreshing, cool nights are expe
rienced by October 1 . Ice, one fourth of an inch
thick, is formed in some of the coldest nights, and
this cooler season lasts longer than in Bengal. On
the plains of Bengal and Orissa we never have
frosts or snow. The hot season here begins with
the change of the wind from the northwest to the
southeast. When the latter wind is really estab
lished, the hot season is upon us. This is usually
about March 1. The longer the wind blows, the
hotter the season becomes, so that April, May, and
the most of June give us our hottest months. The
thermometer will range from 900 to ioo° in the
house most of the time during these months. We
are liable to have a few thunder-storms in May,
which are most refreshing after the hot, dry winds
of March and April.
About June 1 5 or 20, we look for a break in the
season. Dark clouds in the northwest, loud claps
of thunder, and some hard winds tell us the rains
are approaching. These are more or less constant
until November. At the beginning they are re
freshing. The air is cooler and the grass springs
up green and fresh. In July the rains are more

62 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
constant, and the sun comes out between showers,
often very hot and sultry, and one begins to feel
the depressing influence of the humid, hot atmos
phere. In August the fields are full of water, and
rivers have overflowed their banks; tanks and
ditches are full, and the ground is so full that it
sometimes seems as if the very earth were turning
into a bed of mortar ; the atmosphere is full of
moisture, and still it rains. As September comes,
there is no cessation, but rather an increase. The
rank vines growing up the trees and beside garden
walls, and sometimes running up the sides of your
houses and over the gate-posts, droop their leaves
to shake themselves from their shower-bath ; the
trees are in mourning ; and the very grass has lost
heart, and no longer tries to stand erect. Shoes,
harness, trunks, books, and everything that can
gather moisture, is covered with mold. And still
it rains. White ants with wings, fly at night into
your house, and gnats of all kinds so fill the air
in the vicinity of the lamp that at times you can
hardly keep them out of your mouth or eyes as
you try to read aloud. These large white ants
with wings sometimes want to share the gravy and
the roast for dinner ; and when you find a few of
them in the dish, you lean back and wish audibly
that the rains were over.
October comes, and showers are less frequent.
You someway feel a difference in the atmosphere.
It is about as hot, and there is nearly as much

CLIMATE. 63
mud, but still you feel that autumn is coming.
Some morning you wake up early and find a north
west wind blowing in your room, and you exclaim
with joy, "The winter is coming!" In an hour
it is back again in the south, but you know the
cold season is approaching. There is sometimes a
war in the elements, and this is also the season for
cyclones. At last, however, the wind is in the
northwest to stay, and as it blows down off the
snow- and ice-fields of the Himalayas, you begin
to feel new life coming back to you. The sky is
so blue, and the atmosphere so clear, and the rice-
fields so golden, and the cattle so sleek and fat,
that all feel like rejoicing over the changed condi
tion, and the prospect before us. But alas ! this
is also the season of fevers, and so severe and
persistent are these, that of all the deaths in India,
though we hear much of cholera and smallpox,
ninety per cent, are from this cause. The mission
ary now begins to plan for his country tours, and
the farmer to gather in his harvest. Of these I
will speak in another chapter.

CHAPTER VII.
SCENERY AND SIGHTS.
The great diversity in climate suggests a diversity
in scenery, and so there is. Suppose we begin at
the mouth of the Hugh River, which is one of the
principal mouths of the Ganges, and go up this
river as far as Calcutta, just as we did when we
went to India, then take a trip into the country by
road, and we get an idea of Bengal. We are on
shipboard, and are seeing India for the first time.
Our good ship drops her anchor near the pilot brig,
at the mouth of the river, and the pilot steps on
board to take charge of her up the dangerous and
treacherous channel. We are so full of expectancy
that we do not sleep much, and early in the morn
ing are on deck. Soon all is commotion. The
tide will soon be rising, and we must run up with
the full tide. The order is given to raise the an
chor, and the little steam winches begin such a
rattling that little else can be heard.
But the bay ! Are our spirits so joyful because
our long voyage of fourteen thousand miles is so
nearly over, or is the water the most beautiful we
have ever looked at ? The bay is as placid as a-
sea of glass, and the great red sun comes up and
turns this sea of glass into a sea of melted gold.
[64]

A Bengal Hindu Village.

A Group

SCENERY AND SIGHTS. 65
To the right and left at a great distance, the dark
blue coast-line can be seen. We start with the
rising tide. The shores on either side begin to
converge, and soon we are in the channel of the
river, and flying up at the rate of eighteen miles
an hour. Objects on both banks can be distinctly
seen. I said to my wife, who had been in India
before, "Wife, what a lot of hay the people in
this country must use. " She said, "What makes
you think so ? " I replied, "Why, look at the hay
stacks." "Those are not haystacks; those are
houses ! " Here and there all along either side of
the river might be seen clusters of these houses,
some of them simply farmers' houses, and some of
them villages in which were shops and stores. The
thatch which made the roofs of these houses, was
the " haystacks " which I saw. On the banks also
could be seen palm-trees, sometimes a single lonely
tree, and sometimes clusters of palms, — palms of
various kinds, as date, palmyra, and coconut.
Here was a grove of mango-trees, and there an
orchard of bananas, and yonder clusters of beau
tiful, feathery bamboos.
And such a scene on the river ! Great ocean
steamers from almost every country in the world,
large ships being towed up and down by giant tug
boats, and native crafts of all kinds. Sometimes
we would pass two native boats fastened together,
loaded with straw, and so loaded that nothing of the
boat was visible except the scaffolding at the hinder
5

66 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
end, upon which the man stood who held the long
oar used for a rudder ; and sometimes boats loaded
almost to the water's edge with native pottery,
brick, fruits, etc. Sometimes they were propelled
by all but naked oarsmen walking back and forth
upon the prow, as they pulled the huge oars,
and sometimes by sails, — square, oblong, or three-
cornered ; black, white, or yellow ; whole, patched,
or in tatters. As we approached Calcutta, the
river was fairly alive with steamboats of smaller
burden. Some of these were bound up the river
for Assam, and others up the various rivers form
ing the delta of the Ganges, while still others were
coasting steamers.
At length our steamer fastens to the buoy, and
we are immediately surrounded by a score or more
of small native boats — dingeys and green boats.
The boatmen swarm upon the deck, notwithstand
ing kicks and cuffs from the officers of the steamer,
and in an unknown tongue begin to talk to us.
They want to take us ashore, and in due time we
are landed on the bank. Literally hundreds of
coolies are waiting here, and each wants a hand in
taking our things. We become almost distracted
in the Babel of noise. Here, too, stands the tikka
garrie (carriage for hire), and each driver clamors
for our luggage, and unless we look sharp, will get
a portion of it.
And now we are in Calcutta, the capital of
British India, and in many respects one of the

SCENERY AND SIGHTS. 67
most wonderful of cities. It, with Howrah on the
opposite side of the river, contains a population of
nearly a million people. This city is not easily
described, but must be seen to be appreciated.
There are street-cars and ox-carts, beautiful car
riages containing ladies and' gentlemen of the
highest social position, and all but naked coolies,
side by side. Here is a palace, in which are all the
luxuries and beauties which wealth and a refined
taste suggest ; and within fifty feet the watchmen
at the gate, cooking, eating, and sleeping in a room
eight feet square. Here are most magnificent
European stores, and but a few feet away, a native
sitting in a little room dealing out his wares.
Here are the Eden gardens with electric lights,
fountains, and exquisite music furnished by the
viceroy's band ; and not far distant the vender of
native sweets in his shanty, sitting over his pot of
boiling oil, making his candies. Here is a French
theater, and almost across the street, is Chandnee
bazaar, with its hundreds of tile-roofed one-story
shops, and labyrinth of streets not more than four
feet wide. From narrow Bentick street, with its
numerous Chinese shops and the rattle and din of
native life, you come out on the great beautiful
Maidan. This latter is an open park consisting of
many hundreds of acres of land, lying between
Chowringee street and the river. It was once cov
ered with native villages, but these were bought by
the government and torn down,

68 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
The Maidan is worth going a long way to see. It
is a dead level piece of ground, with here and there
a cluster of trees, and many beautiful roads, but
is mainly a grass-plot. On almost any evening of
the year, except when it is raining, you may see
every kind of a turnout imaginable. Some cart-
men are returning from their work with their little
bullocks and carts. Then perhaps a Chinese comes
arrayed in red and green silk, his long queue hang
ing down behind, sitting in his beautiful barouche,
while two elegant horses, with gold- or silver-
mounted harness, are driven by his coachman.
Here comes an Englishman in his high-wheeled
dog-cart, driving at a breakneck pace ; and there
another, on a bicycle. Here come four Bengali
gentlemen with spotless white clothes on, heads
bare, chains of heavy gold, studded with precious
stones, holding their watches in a conspicuous
place, — carriage, horses, and harness to rival the
viceroy's, footmen behind and a coachman in front.
There goes a poor Eurasian family, six of them in
a tikka garrie. Look at the horses ; they are small
and poor, and the harness is tied together with
strings. The driver from his lofty seat is leaning
forward, making frantic motions with his whip, as
if the whip would compensate the horses for the
lack of grain. But the scamp does not intend to
drive fast ; he only wants you to think he is driving
the horses at their utmost speed. Look over there,
and you see two Parsees, erect and proud, having

SCENERY AND SIGHTS. 69
on their peculiar stovepipe hats, and just behind
them are two Burmese, with red silk handkerchiefs
tied tight across their foreheads. Here are some
zenana missionaries in their phaeton, and yonder
two padries (preachers), while just beyond are two
coolies, with large baskets on their heads, hoping
a stray job may turn up. Scattered all through
this crowd of people are the watermen, with their
leather bags of water on their hips, sprinkling the
streets and trying to keep the dust down.
We will leave Calcutta and take a trip of two
hundred miles out into the interior. We go on the
broad turnpike road before described. We look off
to the right and left, and see a level plain, with
here and there what appears to be a grove. If we
look at this plain a little more closely, we find it to
be cut up into an infinite number of rice-fields,
separated from each other by little dams a foot
high and a foot wide. The fields are in size from
two to twenty rods square. If we pass along this
road in the month of May, after a few showers
have softened the surface, we shall see the plow
men at work with their primitive plows, following
each other around the little field. Sometimes these
plowmen are very happy, and their songs, as one
after another takes up the refrain, and their voices
rise higher and higher, are very pleasing. If you
go along this road a little later, you find the farmers
sowing their rice ; and, later still, when the rains
are well on and the rice well up, you will see them

70 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
either transplanting by hand or plowing up by the
roots that which is growing. The latter drops to
the bottom of the water, takes new root, and the
stock of rice is more vigorous than it would other
wise be. Still later you see the field dotted with
men pulling up the tares. These men have on a
covering for their backs and heads made of the leaf
of the palm, which forms a protection from the
rains. Stooping as they must to weed up the
grass, nothing but their legs and this covering are
visible. This makes them look like huge pelicans
scattered over the field. Pass along this road in
December, and you see men and women with
sickles cutting the ripened grain, and bullocks
bearing it away on their backs to the house. If
you go to what appeared from the road to be a
grove, you will find it to be a village — simply a
cluster of farmhouses. Let us now enter the vil
lage along with the farmer who at evening is bring
ing in his sheaves. We find that he has around his
house and yard a hedge made of the most thorny
material he can find. Through the opening which
is used as a gateway, his bullocks go, and their
loads are dumped promiscuously around the door-
yard. In this yard the rice is stacked, and here it
is also trodden out by the bullocks after the har
vest is all in. On the verandas of the houses a
machine is constructed called a dhinkie, by tread
ing on which the women hull the rice. It works
on the principle of a mortar: and a pestle. When

Women Hulling Rice.

Bullock-

SCENERY AND SIGHTS. 7 1
they press down with their feet, the pestle is
raised, and when they slip off their feet, it drops
into the mortar. Long before daylight, through
the winter season, the sound of these dhinkies
may be heard in every village.
Now that we are in the village, let us look around.
We find there is one street, perhaps ten feet wide,
running through it. For centuries, people and bul
locks have trodden this same narrow street, and
the rains have washed it, and the hot winds of
summer have sent its fine dust in clouds into the
air. No wonder, therefore, that sometimes it is
three or four feet lower than the houses and yards
on either -side. In the rains this street is often
knee-deep with water and mud, with no chance to
get away except by evaporation. In the yard of
this farmer, there may be a mango-tree, and in the
adjoining yard a tentuli, and in the third a cluster
of bamboos. It is these trees which deceived you
at a distance, and made you think you were seeing
a grove. If you come to the village in the morn
ing, you may see a woman coming out of the house,
bearing in her hands two earthen water-jars. She
has a dirty white cotton cloth around her body and
over her head. At the sight of you she turns her
head and pulls her cloth over her face, so as almost
to hide it, and hesitates, and wonders whether she
would better go back into the house or proceed on
her errand. You walk on with no intention of mo
lesting her, and she proceeds to the village tank.

72 ' DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
Do not suppose that this tank is some nice piece of
stone-work, and that a cool stream of living water
is constantly pouring into it. It is simply a great
hole dug in the ground by some rich gentleman,
perhaps five hundred years ago. It is replenished
from year to year by the heavy rains of summer.
Every village must have its tank, for there are few
wells in this part of India ; and water, and much
of it, is a necessity.
Let us follow the woman, but at such a distance
as not to attract her attention. She has with her,
two, and possibly three, earthen water-jars. They
are shaped at the bottom like the larger end of an
egg, and at the top have a mouth three inches in
diameter. She goes to the water's edge, puts down
her jars, and sits down herself on her heels. She
then takes a green stick which she has brought with
her, six inches long and half an inch thick, with
one end of which she begins to scrub her teeth.
The Hindus are said to be very clean, and cleaning
the mouth is among the necessary things before
eating. But she has reason to clean her teeth, for
she has been chewing a dirty substance called pan,
a mixture of tobacco, betel-nut, spices, and lime,
and her teeth are black, and her lips red. She
therefore scours her teeth thoroughly, and then
proceeds to rinse her mouth. When her teeth are
cleaned, she goes out a little way into the tank,
and takes her bath ; for this is also a prerequisite
to eating. This finished, she gets her water-jars,

SCENERY AND SIGHTS. 73
wades out a little farther into the tank, brushes
away the dirt with her hand or the bottom of her
jars, fills them with water, and takes them to the
house to cook her breakfast. The men come in
later from the field, their mouths as filthy, and
their bodies more dusty, and go through the same
process of purification. They are then prepared to
eat the breakfast which the tidy housewife has
prepared for them. In some villages there are
separate tanks in which to bathe, but I should say
this was the exception rather than the rule.
All the plains are not rice-fields. Some of them
are barren and sandy, and produce little more than
thorny bushes, stunted grass, and huge hills of
white ants, with here and there a solitary tree.
Other places are quite heavily wooded, sometimes
with a thick undergrowth of vines and brambles,
and sometimes not. Along the coast are other
kinds of jungles. In these grow tall grass and
reeds, and a kind of stunted palm, and the whole
is covered at times with water from the river or
tides from the sea. Here is a hiding place for
tigers, leopards, and hyenas.
Large rivers are abundant, and we cross them
either in a ferry- or a row-boat, in going down the
great turnpike road over which we are traveling.
Within three hundred and sixty-five miles of Cal
cutta, is Darjiling. Between the plains of Bengal
and the mountains of Darjiling, the contrast is as
great as can be imagined, as to both climate and

74 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
scenery. These two places may illustrate the dif
ference between the plains and the mountains in
other parts of India. Silaguri is three hundred and
fifteen miles north of Calcutta, and is the railroad
station at the foot of the Himalaya Mountains.
Here we take a very narrow-gage road, and climb
the hills for a distance of forty-eight miles, the first
forty-four of which have a grade of two hundred
feet to the mile. For a few miles out of Silaguri
the ascent is gradual, and the rank vegetation re
minds you that you are in a hot, damp atmosphere,
and on very rich soil. The trees have leaves al
most as large as your hat, and rank vines climb up
around them to their very top, and then reach out
their long arms from every branch as if seeking some
thing else to cling to. Sometimes they find it, and
the trees are woven together by these huge vines.
As we ascend we see broad valleys filled with wild
bananas, bamboos, and palm-trees of a most luxu
riant growth. Farther up, we find mountain oaks
and fern-trees ; and still higher, oats, corn, and po
tatoes are cultivated. On the broad slopes of many
of these mountains there are tea plantations. We
are greeted with the face of the old familiar yellow
dock, and for once it seems like a friend. Also
patches of white clover smile upon us here and
there. This also is the very paradise for roses.
Our flannels, which we put on at the foot of the
hills, no longer feel too thick ; but on the other

SCENERY AND SIGHTS. 75
hand, we begin to put on additional wraps, and
even then can hardly keep warm.
The railroad is a masterpiece of engineering. In
some places it goes zigzag up the mountainside by
running forward and then switching back on a
higher grade ; in other places it forms a loop at
the point of some hill, and comes back over its
own track twenty feet above, and then goes on
up the same hillside it came but a few moments
before. And so it works its way up these rugged
mountains. Sometimes, as it goes round a point,
you grasp the seat of the little open car, for it
seems as if you were going to be pitched to the
bottom of the deep, deep gorge at your side. At
Ghoompahar you pass the highest range on the
railroad, and for the next four miles the descent is
gradual to Darjiling. This is the city where the
government of Bengal stays in summer, and where
the people sometimes come when worn out by the
heat of the plains. It is 7500 feet above the level
of the sea. The scenery here is grand beyond de
scription. There are broad valleys whose hillsides
are dotted here and there with a village, or with
primeval forests, tea plantations, or fields of po
tatoes and corn. There are gorges through which
rushes a mountain stream, and high precipices over
which leaps a waterfall. Every ravine, and gorge,
and hillside produces very beautiful ferns, moss, and
lichens. Even trees are often covered with these,

76 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
and with orchids. Then the mountains are around
you on every side, and range is piled upon range,
until the climax is reached in Kinchinjinga, which
sends its peaks up 28,000 feet above the sea-level.
On a clear day this stands out before you, glittering
in the sun like a mountain of burnished silver, and
10,000 feet of it can be seen lying under its thick
mantle of eternal snow, — a fit winding-sheet for a
dead mountain.

CHAPTER VIII.
SOME OF THE PESTS OF INDIA.
Some things which we regard as pests and annoy
ances are really blessings. So it is with some of
those things in India which plague us. For the
time being, however, we will take the superficial
view, and see what things annoy us and how they
do so.
The white ant would no doubt be put down at
the head of the list. If this were the place, I might
write a chapter on these little animals, but I will
now speak of them only in the briefest way. The
eggs which produce these little creatures are laid
two or three feet underground by a great nasty
looking white grub, the size of a man's little finger.
When the insects are first hatched, they are about
an eighth of an inch long, of a creamy white ap
pearance, and resemble a louse in shape. These
grow to be one fourth of an inch long, and then
make their way through the streets, avenues, and
halls of their colony, up to the surface of the ground ;
and keep on building up until sometimes they have
a house eight feet in diameter and ten feet high.
They go here and there on foraging expeditions,
either under the surface or in sealed arches which
they construct on the surface of the ground. They
[77]

7-8 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
always devour everything within their reach which
can be eaten. Since they always work in the dark,
and on the inside, we seldom see their mischief until
it is too late to remedy it. If they want to eat a
straw, or a bit of leaf which is too small for them
to eat from the inside, they cover it with their
earthy secretion, and then devour it. They can
make their way up through brick walls, and eat
the door-jambs and wooden beams of the house.
I have told you how the floors of the pucca houses
are made, and yet these little creatures will often
find a way up through the floor, and get into our
bookcase, and chests, and trunks, unless we keep
a strict watch for them. They will sometimes
destroy a pair of shoes in a single night if they
happen to come across them in their search for
food. Though they annoy us, they are not an unmiti
gated evil ; in fact, they are a great blessing. For
thousands of years they have brought up from the
subsoil their secretion and spread it as a dressing
for the soil, on straw, and leaf, and dead grass.
When, in the beginning of the rains, they change
their form, and come from their nests by millions,
it is a happy time for birds and fishes. They are
enlarged to four or five times their former size
when they swarm, put on wings, and seem happy
for a brief hour. Their wings come off, and they
drop in field, or road, or ditch, or tank, and birds
and fishes feast for once at least,

THE PESTS OF INDIA. 79
The crows would come next. They are as nearly
omnipresent as anything with earthly limitations
can be. The cawing of the crow very early awak
ens the villager from his sleep, and reminds the
missionary or civilian, who may, perchance, be
dreaming of home, that he is still in India. It is
not an uncommon thing to see one or two crows on
the back of cows or bullocks as they graze in the
field. There seems to be something in the skin,
or lurking in the hair, which furnishes the crow
a dainty morsel. When these same animals lie
down, we may see the crow picking at their noses
and inside of their ears. When the animal pro
tests, the crow hops back, takes a look out of the
corner of his eye, and watches his chance to renew
the attack.
When we feed our hens or cattle, we must
look sharp, or the crow will get more than his
share. When the man is setting the table, a crow
may perch himself on the top of the open door, and
watch the process. He will turn his head to one
side and then to the other to see how many things
there are that he would be willing to eat. When
he sees something which he would like, and which
he thinks he could carry, he looks all around to see
if the coast is clear ; and when he satisfies himself
that such is the case, he swoops down, and with
his beak or claw carries his meal up into a tree or
some other safe place.
One morning I bought from one' of our Christian

80 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
women some eggs which she put on my study table.
I was writing, and would now and again get up to
go into another room or out-of-doors. I finally
noticed that the number of eggs seemed less, but
there were no broken shells nor any evidence that
anybody had been in the study. Finally, a crow
making off with one just as I came into the room,
convinced me who was the thief. The crows are
fond of ripe fruit of all kinds, so that fruit must be
picked before it is fully ripe, or be watched very
closely. Woe betide you if for any reason you
shoot one of these birds. In a very few moments
the air will be black with crows, flying here and
there in a frantic manner, and cawing so loudly
that you expect to see your neighbor come in to see
what has happened. But even these are a bless
ing, for they are one of the scavengers of the
country. Monkeys are a pest with no redeeming quality
that I could ever observe. There are many varie
ties in the country, and each particular place seems
to have some different variety ; but they are a nui
sance be the kind what it may. The Hindus adore
them, so their life is quite safe, as no person cares
to kill them, and incur the displeasure of his Hindu
neighbor. In our part of India, the large, black-
faced, gray, long-tailed monkey, abounded. There
is nothing in the fruit or vegetable line that these
monkeys will not eat, so we must wage a constant
war with them' if we would have a garden or an

THE PESTS OF INDIA. 8 1
orchard. They are exceedingly cunning. In the
heat of the day when they think everybody is tak
ing a nap, they are after their dinner. They en
ter the garden stealthily, looking one side and
the other as they come. When they come to a
row of peas or anything of that kind, they stand on
their hind feet, and with both front ones quickly
fill their mouths. A few monkeys in half a day
would utterly ruin a garden, or strip an orchard of
its fruit. They are very saucy at times, and even
dangerous. One day, at the noon hour, while we were rest
ing, one of our little girls came into our room
screaming and frightened almost to death. A large
monkey had come into the bedroom where she
was sleeping, though it was up-stairs, and taken
hold of the foot of the bed, and shaken it violently
enough to wake her up. When she awoke, there
stood that great black-faced fellow, showing all his
teeth. Hindu prejudice would not have kept me
from shooting him if he had not left the room too
quickly for me. They will sometimes dispute our
right to pass along a path. In that case discretion
is the better part of valor. Once some of our or
phan boys at Midnapore were stoning some mon
keys which were up in a banian-tree. One old
fellow came down, walked up to the foremost boy,
seized him by the shoulder with one hand, and
with tl~e other boxed his ears. The boy was fright
ened badly, but the monkey was perfectly serene.

82 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
Snakes are reptiles which people are not fond
of as a rule. In this country we have an exag
gerated idea of the snakes of India. There may
be places where they are numerous, but I have not
seen them. The cobra is a dangerous snake, so
that Europeans generally carry a lantern when
they go out after dark ; but after all, you will
seldom see one. We are cautious because their
bite is fatal. I have been around a good deal in
Orissa and Bengal, and have not, in ten years,
seen more than ten or fifteen cobras running at
large. There are some centipedes and a few scorpions,
but with care one need experience no harm from
them. Only once in the ten years I have been in
India, was I bitten by any of these poisonous rep
tiles, and that was by a centipede which was in my
hat. He had secreted himself within the walls of
my sunhat, and I did not know he was there until
he informed me.
We never really know why dogs are spoken of
in Scripture as being among the vile things which
shall never enter the gates of the beautiful city,
until we visit the Orient. There is not a redeeming
quality about a dog here. You could not by any
possibility induce one to drive out a cow or a
monkey from the garden. He never did such a
thing in his life, and would be astonished at you if
you should try to have him do such a thing. The
more you tried to have him, the more he would go

THE PESTS OF INDIA. 83
in the opposite direction. The dogs here are nearly
all of one kind, yellow or black in color, with hair
short and straight, nose pointed, forehead very
receding, head and tail drooping, lean, surly, and
often scabby. They never have a pleasant face or
a wag of the tail for anybody. They leisurely walk
about the streets and bazaars, and even into our
houses, ready to pick up any stray morsel of food.
The natives have a way of raising their hands as
if they would strike them, but as they seldom do,
the dogs care very little for these false motions.
When we try to frighten them away in the same
manner, they simply stand and stare at us. When,
however, we can convince them by a whack with
our cane that we are not making false motions,
they can yelp and howl as loudly as any dog.
Their bark at night is anything but soothing, and
especially if a person is inclined, through fever or
nervousness, to be wakeful. One barks, and then
another, and another, until you think they are bark
ing for a prize ; and the one that can bark the loud
est and longest gets it. The bark is not really a
bark such as we hear in this country, but more of
a howl. They do something of the work of the
scavengers, but the jackals could do that better,
and save the annoyances the dogs bring. Many of
them are owned by no one. The Hindus never kill
anything, so of course the dogs are allowed to mul
tiply as much as they like. The government re
cognizes them as a nuisance, and very wisely puts a

84 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
bounty on their heads. Once a year the low caste
people (maters) in some districts set apart a day for
killing dogs. They will take a large bamboo club
which they hold by both hands, allowing it to hang
down their backs. In this way they walk about the
streets and bazaars. The dog sees nothing of the
club, as they manage to keep their faces toward
him. They wait until his attention is taken up by
something to eat or smell, when they suddenly
bring the club down with great force on the neck
of the unsuspecting animal, and he soon dies.
The Brahmani bull may be classed among the
pests. Some one, perhaps on account of some
peculiar markings, has in his early days devoted
him to the calling of a sacred bull, and so he has
wandered about through the streets, belonging to
no one in particular, and to every one in general.
He usually is found around the temple, and goes
in and out at pleasure. He goes into the green
rice-fields, or to the shop where grain is kept, and
helps himself. He of course is always fat and
saucy. If he sees in the garden of some Euro
pean some choice heads of cabbage, he forms his
plans for a feast when the shades of night shall set
tle down. One of these animals persistently visited
our garden in the middle of the night, until finally,
upon the advice of the magistrate, we captured him
and made him over to the city. His lordship was
greatly humbled when he had to come down to
drawing cart loads of garbage,

THE PESTS OF INDIA. 85
There are some other things which greatly annoy
us, but which are not peculiar to India except per
haps that they flourish there to a greater extent.
Among these are the little red ant, the mosquito,
lice, bedbugs, and fleas. Some of these, more or
less, are liable to prey upon us the year round.
Every European, the year round, provides him
self with a mosquito curtain for his bed. This
protects him fully from the mosquito, unless some
unfortunate member of the body happens to be
against it, but unfortunately affords no protection
against the unmentionable insects referred to
above. In some places tigers and leopards are quite
abundant. These destroy cattle, and sometimes
human life, though as a rule they do not molest
people, unless sorely pressed by hunger, but run
from them as do all other wild animals. The
bear is very fond of sugar-cane, and comes from
the jungles to help himself during the season. In
a few places wild elephants commit depredations
now and again. After all, these things sound a
good deal worse than the actual experience with
them really is.

CHAPTER IX.
SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NATIVES.
Different parts of India, no doubt, produce
different types of men, but what I shall say will be
of the Bengali, as I have observed him.
He is exceedingly polite, and as a rule, does not
want to say anything which he thinks you will not
want to hear. This leads him many times into
telling what we call lies, though he does not define
a lie in that way. As an example : Suppose you
are going along a strange road, and inquire of a
man the distance to a certain place. He naturally
thinks you want that distance to be as little as
possible, so he tells you it is two miles, when he
knows it is six ; or, he may raise his chin in the
direction of the place, and say it is just in sight,
when it is four miles away. For this same reason
he seldom disagrees with you. If he cannot really
assent, he will keep quiet. In a public way some
of them are fond of discussion, but in their homes
they seldom oppose you. This disposition makes
you feel that you can seldom depend on what they
say. When we were trying to get land to erect a
mission house in Contai, I went to see the sub-
divisional officer, and told him what we wanted to
do. He said that he was delighted that we were
[86]

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NATIVES. 87
coming, that Contai was a wicked place and needed
something of the kind, and he would be pleased to
assist in any way that lay in his power. I thanked
him very heartily, but was sure all the time he
would not help, but hinder. And so the sequel
proved ; for we had to get help from the English
magistrate, or impediments would have been placed
in our way all along, and we would never have gone
to Contai. We call this kind of talk lying, but they
define a lie as meaning something like this : If I
tell you something, and you sustain financial loss
through my untrue statement, that is a lie ; but if
I tell you the distance is two miles when it is four,
that is no lie, for you would have to travel over the
distance whether it was two or four miles. Their
saying it was two miles did not cause me any addi
tional travel. This disposition to please is promi
nent when self-interest is not involved. Always put
this down as an exception to every rule. Accord
ing to our ideas, the native is a very untruthful
man. Dr. Pentecost made this statement, though
in little stronger terms, and was taken to task by
the native press for it. I think Dr. Pentecost was
not far wrong. If I had had no experience myself,
the attitude of the people toward each other would
convince me of this. They seldom trust each
other's word. In matters of business they have
so little confidence in each other that a bargain is
considered of no value until money has exchanged
hands. A man may agree to do a thing, but if you

88 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
have given him no money, he considers himself
under no obligation to do it. They say of us sopie-
times, ' ' You are very green, " because we trust their
word, and that we ought to know that all men are
liars. I do not say that they are all vicious liars,
but the tendency is so much to conceal, and there
is so much want of frankness, that it is unsafe to
depend upon their word. Out of this has grown
their way of answering a question. We seldom
hear them answer a question direct. Almost
always it is answered by asking another. You say
to a man, "Will you buy this cow?" "Where
would I get money to buy a cow ? " he would an
swer. Or you say, "You did not come to work
yesterday ? " He would reply, " How could a man
work who had a fever ? " This sounds impertinent,
and is very trying at first, but you find this is their
way of answering questions. The manner in which
they can ask and answer questions without fully
committing themselves, is simply marvelous to the
people of the blunt, plain, practical nature of the
Anglo-Saxon. In matters of deal they are without a conscience.
The limit they will ask for a thing is the amount they
think they can get for it, regardless of its market
value. This is nearly a universal rule. We think
a man a Jew here if he add twenty-five per cent, to
his real taking price; but it is not an uncommon
thing for them to ask three hundred per cent, more
than they expect to take. This is especially true

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NATIVES. 89
if they think you do not know the real price, or if
you are so situated that they know you must buy.
The general rule is that they ask you just double
what they in the end expect to take. They are
very shrewd in bargains, and resort to many tricks
to make a few cents. They can adulterate equal
to the Yankee in some things. Water goes in
milk, small gravel in rice, and sand in sugar. They
can fill their native fabrics with starch, and put
putty in defective furniture. They have studied
the art for centuries, and according to the number
of their products, will not be outdone by any other
nation. If they are very untruthful, they also have
a faculty of getting out, when caught in a lie, as
easily as can be. In fact, it is almost impossible
to prove a falsehood in any of them. You may
think you have a chain of evidence that will surely
convict the man of a wilful, deliberate lie, but you
find your chain a rope of sand, and you are left
in the dilemma rather than the man that has
lied, even though your own eyes form part of the
evidence. They have very little inventive genius, and hence
are no organizers. They are imitators, and can
make almost everything, if you give them a pattern.
We find them in machine-shops making engines,
and in various avocations where one would think
genius was required ; but they work from patterns.
They have had armies large enough to have anni
hilated the English, but could not plan a battle.

90 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
They can run steamboats and railroad trains, but
they can go only so far as they have learned. If
the unexpected arises, they are in a dilemma. If a
cartman break the axle of his cart when he does
not happen to have another with him, he will squat
down and put a sheet over his head, if it be winter,
and there he will sit for hours waiting for something
to turn up. He really does not know what to do,
and it takes several hours for the idea to get through
his head, that he must go to some village and hunt
up another axle.
Revenge is a disposition abnormally cultivated,
and it lurks in the bosom where you least suspect
it. A family feud is handed down fourteen genera
tions. For the sake of getting revenge for a tri
fling injury, they will jeopardize a person's life.
Sometimes they will set fire to one's house, and the
roof being of straw, it may happen that the inmates
cannot escape, but are consumed in the burning
building ; and if they escape, their all is gone in the
loss of their house. The most serious charges are
brought in court for the sake of being revenged
over some real or fancied injury.
The Hindus are proverbial for going to law.
Two things actuate them ; one is the desire for
revenge, and the other, the love of distinction.
Just opposite our house in Balasore were two court
houses, in which there were at least five places
where cases might be tried. These courts were
filled the year round. Not that all the courts were

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NATIVES. 9 1
in session all the time, but some of them were,
and often three or four of them. Aside from these,
the judge came occasionally to hold criminal courts
of a higher grade in the circuit house. From morn
ing until night, week in and week out, the cry of
the crier could be heard as he called out the name
of parties in the case, or the name of some witness
A man hardly thinks he belongs to a respectable
family unless he can boast of at least one long-
drawn-out lawsuit. I shall remember a long time
a conversation I had with one of our new con
verts. He had been a poor man and common
laborer, but had married a woman who also had
employment. The two received a good salary, so
that he could lay by a dollar a month. He had
been working for me, but did not come for some
days. Finally, when he came, I asked him, why
he had not come the past week. He straightened
up as if he were a man of a great deal of impor
tance, and said, " Sahib, I have a lawsuit on hand."
The inconvenience the people suffer on account of
these cases is very great. They will walk twenty
or thirty miles to be present on the appointed day
for their suit, and then wait perhaps two or three
days for their case to be called up. They have
little money to use, and many times have hard fare
during the days of waiting. Especially is this true
in the case of many witnesses. When the case is
called, for some trivial reason, it is postponed ten
days or a month, when all wend their way home to

92 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
return again on the appointed day. Then, again,
it may be postponed, and so on it goes month after
month, until sometimes a whole year is consumed
in this kind of work. The satisfaction that each
party gets out of it is, that the other party suffers
as much through these long journeys and tedious
waitings as they. Every time the case is post
poned, there is an additional cost.
The lawyers have a habit of receiving a fee from
each side. I think this is peculiar to India. If
they are in a lawsuit, they think if they can fee
their opponent's lawyer with a larger amount than
he can, the lawyer will be more interested in their
case than he will in the case of his client.
There are persons also lounging around court
houses whose only occupation is giving testimony
in court. For twenty-five cents you can hire them
to swear to anything you desire. In the census
returns of 1 890, a large number gave this as their
only occupation. Little justice is found in the
courts, for, in the first place, you cannot believe
the testimony. A magistrate in Balasore told me
he never pretended to believe the witnesses. He
simply listened to both sides, and then made up
his mind what he thought might be probable.
There is little doubt that many of the native mag
istrates will accept bribes in one way or another.
English officials do their best to prevent bribery
and corruption, but the tide is very strong in the
other direction.

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NATIVES. 93
The people are slaves to custom. All that need
be said by you as a reason for doing what you do,
is, "This is our custom." This puts a stop to any
argument. You will very seldom hear any other
reason given for doing anything. This of course
obstructs all progress. I was very well acquainted
with a native judge in Midnapore, and had frequent
conversations with him on different subjects. He
was a well-educated man, and spoke English flu
ently. I asked him one day what his opinion was
in regard to child marriage. He could not speak
too strongly against it. He was sure the race was
enfeebled by it, the mortality of the country in
creased, and a great deal of mental and physical
suffering inflicted on the young child wife. I knew
the judge had two or three young daughters, so I
said, ' ' Judge, you are not going to conform to the
custom, are you ? you know what is right ; I hope
you will follow your convictions and set your coun
trymen an example. " He said, "This is our cus
tom, and what can one man do to oppose it ? If
I would not marry off my daughters at the proper
time, I should be in disgrace, and as I could not
endure this, I must do as the rest do. " I said, a
little warmly, ' ' Judge, if a man like you, with both
a knowledge of what you ought to do and a social
position that would help you greatly if you at
tempted any reform, and also with independent
means, will not follow your convictions, who do you
expect will lead in reforms ? " He confessed he

94 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
ought to, but could not. The position of this gen
tleman is the position of many. Many of them
would be glad to break away from their customs,
in some things, but it binds them with a chain of
steel. They are very fond of display. This is shown
in the case of the rich, by the number of servants
they can keep, the gold jewelry and precious stones
they can wear, and the dash and glitter of their
turnout as they go for a drive. It is seen in the
poor by the amount of jewelry they put on, even
if it be made of shell, lac, glass, or brass. They
think the clanking of the heavy pieces of their jew
elry denotes about as much distinction as some of
our ladies do the rustling of their silks. On great
festival days the streets are brilliant with the red
and yellow garments of the women. They make
garlands of large red and yellow flowers to festoon
their houses and adorn their persons.
The average native is a hard-working man.
Many think because they live in a warm climate,
they are like the African or other tribes who will
only work when compelled to, but such is not the
case. Indeed, they often work under circum
stances that would try the pluck of many an Ameri
can. It is true they are "to the manor born,"
and can endure heat that the European cannot,
but still the heat affects them, and the cold even
more. In the hot months they will get up and
start on their journey at two o'clock in the morn-

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NATIVES. 95
ing. This is a regular custom among cartmen and
pilgrims. Very early in the morning, also, you will
find them in their fields. It is true there are lazy
people there as here, but they are the exception.
They are a frugal people ; they love to make a
display, it is true, but that is only on occasions.
They have big dinners for friends and kinsmen, but
these are not frequent. Ordinarily their meals are
of the plainest kind, and their dress of but little ex
pense. Though most of them are poor, they try
very hard to lay by something for a time of still
sorer need. This is not laid by in money but
jewelry, which can always be sold for the market
value of the gold or silver it contains. They will
pinch themselves, and almost starve before they
will draw on their little store laid by.
Many of them are very anxious for an education,
and especially an English education. In Madras
many of the common coolies can speak English
fairly well, and in Calcutta almost all native mer
chants have a fair knowledge of English. They
are also very fond of airing their English, and some
use it very amusingly, as the following letter, writ
ten by a Bengali babu to Dr. O. R. Bachelor, of
Midnapore, will show : —
"My Dear Godfather: My registered note addressed to your
name has been sent by post to Midnapore during you had gone to
America. An answer which gave by Mr. Z. F, Griffin gave me much
sorrow, for your answer reached me at that time. In the November
last an information has been given me by Mr. Coldren at Balasore of
your returning from there to Midnapore. Therefore I send this

96 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
registered note for your answer. It is proposed .by many learned
and gentlemen of your kindness to helpless men in their wants, de
pending on their saying, I am going most respectfully to inform you
my want. I have descended from a Hindu tribe ; forty-five years
of my age, my mother was put at the point of death. My father is
always unkind and surly fellow. . . . You will be remarkable to
the story of my much above mentioned that his principal duty is that
his sons will be dunce. . . . My godfather, you shall have tried to
get post under the police and postal department. I hope if you
kindly recommend the superintendent of these offices, they must ap
point me at any post of my worthy. It is very important to let you
know that you should not hate me though being a Hindu. I am
going to want your true refuge. I may be baptized after which if I
will be had any post under my office. If you please and kindly try
get me a post without preachership, I will be baptized unless I
cannot. . . . "I am your dear godson,

They do not care for knowledge so much for its
own sake, as for what it will bring to them finan
cially. The great ambition is to pass the entrance
examination in the university, or to try to pass.
They will boast as loudly of having tried and failed,
as of having tried and succeeded. After passing
and receiving an appointment, they seem to think
they have reached the goal. They seldom continue
any course of study, but pass their time after office
hours in conversation or games.
They have remarkable memories. Away back
thousands of years ago they learned their sacred
books, and handed down the contents by memory,
and that has to some extent been kept up all
through the centuries. The priests begin very
early in life to commit the shasters, and they can

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NATIVES. 97
sing for hours from memory, the verses of some of
their poetical writings. The whole nation has been
developed along that line, for those who could not
read or write have had to depend on their memory
for their knowledge of facts.
They are an eloquent, poetical people. Their
imagination is vivid, and their language being rich
in words, they find no trouble in giving expression
to their thoughts. Some people in America who
listened to the addresses of the representatives of
the Hindu religion, and the Brahmo-Somaj, at the
World's Parliament of Religions, can testify to this
fact. Some of the most eloquent men I have ever
heard are natives of India. They are very quick to
see a point, even though the thought be covered
by the words of a parable or a comparison. Even
the most ignorant have not only a poetical turn of
mind, but can also understand the point in an
argument. Being not overscrupulous as to the
exact facts, they can embellish a narrative and
make it very telling.
They are great lovers of home. If a person
were simply to pass through the country and ob
serve the number of people away from home, either
for the sake of work or on a religious pilgrimage, he
would at once think these people care nothing for
home. But they do. It is true they have no such
homes as we have, where husband, wife, and chil
dren come around the same table or hearthstone,
figuratively speaking, yet the wife loves her husband,
7

98" DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
and in many cases he is no doubt fond of her. The
mother also loves her children and the children the
mother. It is a great trial to the family when the
little wife ten or eleven years of age is taken from
the home of her father and mother. It is also, a
trial when they start off on their long religious
pilgrimage. They well know that the chances are
they may never return, so as they take the last
look at the old home, even though it be humble, it
is with many a heartache. It is often difficult to
get them to leave the place of their birth, even
though they may better their condition by so doing.
Often only when hunger stares them in the face,
can they be induced to do so.
Another very commendable custom is the way
they have of providing for their joint families.
This does not beget the greatest enterprise, but
provides a home and food for the indolent, the
unfortunate, or the unemployed in the family. If
a man has half a score of sons, each one brings his
wife to his father's house, and here they all live
from a common purse. If only one in the ten has
employment he will cheerfully hand over his wages
each month to his mother, who is queen in her
realm — the house. Sometimes as many as a hun
dred persons have a common home, and no one of
the hundred will want as long as any of the number
has anything to divide.
The Hindus are a very devotional people. They
expect every man to have a religion as much as a

CHARACTERISTICS OF THE NATIVES. 99
nationality. With them it matters little what their
morals may be, but they are still religious. A man
must attend to his religious duties, and these some
times involve a great deal. They make him observe
certain days, and send him on long pilgrimages, and
make him give of his substance though that be but
little. It matters not what the demand, he must
comply. Visit Muttra, Brindaban, Benares, Hurd
war, Puri, and a hundred other shrines, and you
will be convinced that the Hindu is a very religious
man.

CHAPTER X.
OCCUPATIONS.
I am often asked, "What do the people do?"
That question cannot be answered in a single sen
tence. If we would see them as they are, we must
glance at their separate occupations. The largest
class in Bengal are farmers. Only five out of every
hundred live in the cities. When we remember that
in England sixty-six, and in America twenty-two
out of each hundred, live in towns and cities, we see
more clearly the rural nature of the Indian people.
I have told you something of what these farmers
produce. They require but a few tools to do their
work. A plow with a single handle, a sickle, a
heavy, short-handled hoe, and a yoke of bullocks,
are about all that are necessary. If they need to
irrigate the land, a few more things are required.
If they irrigate from a tank or a river, a scoop is
made of woven bamboo splints. On each side of
this a rope is attached by means of which two men
raise the water, simply by a sort of swinging motion.
If it needs to be raised higher, sometimes a sweep is
constructed. In Northern India thousands of wells furnish the
water for irrigation. Bullocks raise the water from
these. These are exclusive of the many irrigation
[IOO]

OCCUPATIONS. IOI
canals. Bullocks plow the fields, carry in most of
the grain, tread it out, and carry both straw and
rice to market on their backs. With these diverse
duties the farmer hardly has the last of his straw
carried off, before he has to begin plowing again.
Landholders are men whose forefathers had large
estates, which the government has allowed them
to keep by paying a certain annual land rent.
These landlords do not work their own land, but
let it to tenants. The former live on the fat of
the land, and many of them have been very
oppressive. There are many who cultivate no land, but live
by working here and there as they can find a day's
work. These are called coolies, and their pay is
about five cents a day, and they board themselves.
The ambition of nearly every country coolie is to
get a piece of land which he can call his own,
though in reality no person can absolutely own
land in India. Many small farmers do coolie work
when they can get it to do.
There are in the bazaars, manufacturers of differ
ent kinds. No steam- or water-power is employed,
but all work is done by men, women, or bullocks.
Large quantities of brass are used in dishes. This
is melted and run into a mold of the required shape,
after which the articles are cut and polished. Some
very nice work is done in this way, and some beau
tiful carved brass work is turned out from Benares,
Moradabad, and other places.

102 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
The people are very fond of jewelry, and often
hoard their money in this way, so there are many
goldsmiths and silversmiths in the country. Very
little gold is in circulation in India, and the reason
assigned is that every gold coin is at once locked up
in jewelry. These smiths, with a hollow bamboo
branch for a blowpipe, a pot of charcoal, a file, and
a pair of pinchers, and two or three other rude
instruments, will melt the gold and silver, and
fashion it as you wish. Some of the finest work in
the world in these metals is done in India. One
peculiarity of these smiths is that they can blow a
constant blast of wind through their blowpipe. The
wind enters the nose, goes into the lungs, and out
of the mouth in a constant circuit. This may seem
incredible because we cannot do it. But they can,
and do.
The blacksmith sits on his heels and pounds out
his wares ; i. e. , what of them he does n't burn up.
He is not the man who shoes the horses and bul
locks. He makes the shoes, and another trades
man comes to the stable to put them on. He is
a little too high up in the social scale to blow his
own bellows, so another man sits on his heels to
blow the bellows. A blacksmith shop can be im
provised any time inside of half an hour under a
tree. The bellows consists of two goat-skins, with
two flat strips of wood sixteen inches long, so fas
tened to each skin that when the man takes hold
of one, by putting his thumb over one strip and

OCCUPATIONS. IO3
his fingers over the other, he can open it. When
he opens it, of course the air rushes in, and he
blows it out through an iron nozzle at the other
end, by closing his hand and pressing down on the
skin. He has two skins which he alternately opens
and closes, so making a constant blowing at the
fire where these nozzles come together. To make
the place for the fire, all that is needed is a little
stiff mud plastered around the nozzles of the bel
lows, and a heavy stone to hold them down. With
a basket of charcoal, a heavy piece of iron for an
anvil, a pair of tongs, and a hammer, he is equipped
for business. I was rude enough to laugh outright
the first time I saw a blacksmith at work.
When a brick mason begins a job, his first work
probably will be to make his brick. When taken
from the mold that holds but a single brick, they
are spread around upon the grass to dry. When
enough are dry, they prepare to burn them. This
is not done as we burn brick. They make as many
walls a foot high and eight inches thick, as they
want arches. These walls are as long as the kiln
is to be wide, and about fifteen inches apart. Into
this open place, between these several little walls,
they put dry fire wood. Now they begin to build
up the rest of the kiln, putting the bricks over the
wood in such a way that they will not fall when
the wood burns out. So it goes clear to the top,
mixing together brick and wood. Sometimes they
put in pieces of logs eighteen inches in diameter.

104 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
When it is all laid up, fire is set to the fine wood
below, and inside of twenty-four hours all of the
wood in the kiln is ablaze. When the wood is
consumed, the bricks are burned.
The brick mason next prepares his lime. First
in order is to have the stone. In our part of India,
this was simply nuggets of limestone called gingta,
and was usually gathered by women. They find it
lying around in waste places and in ditches. It is
not found in all places, and the supply, even where
it is found, may become exhausted, so at times it
must be brought long distances in carts or other
wise. After the gingta is gathered, it must be
burned. For this purpose a round kiln is made
from four to eight feet in diameter, four or five feet
high, and open at the top. In order to have a
draft, two or three openings are left in the wall
at the bottom. First a little straw and dry wood
are put in, then three baskets of charcoal and one
of gingta. In this proportion the charcoal and
lime are put, until the kiln is full, when it is set on
fire. When the charcoal is consumed, the lime is
burned. Wood may be used instead of charcoal,
but more is required. One strange thing about the
burning of brick and lime, is that these masons will
not set fire to their lime-kilns nor their brick-kilns.
They say the fire will destroy life in the lime and
the brick, and they must not take life. They are
consistent enough to cause some one of a lower
caste to start the fire.

OCCUPATIONS. 105
Walls are laid something as they are in America,
only very slowly, and with a great deal of water.
The masons have a little straw wisp beside therri,
and a jar of water. These are used every now and
again in sprinkling the walls. Often a course of
brick is laid on the outside and inside of the wall,
and the place between is filled with water, which
is allowed to remain until absorbed by the brick,
while they work upon some other part of the wall,
or retire for a smoke. May this not account for
the fact that their buildings will sometimes stand
for more than a thousand years ? They make
beautiful cornices, and all kinds of stucco-work
with this lime. It is hardly necessary to add that
they take their time to do a job. The wages of a
brickrmason in the country districts is from eight
to ten cents a day, and he boards himself.
The making of pottery is an important industry.
Water is brought in earthen jars, people cook in
them, and use them in various other ways. The
material is coarse, and the construction rude, still
they answer their purpose. These craftsmen, like
all others, sit on their heels to do their work. A
great deal of this pottery is wasted, and caste is ac
countable for part of it. Many of the pilgrims buy
a little half-cent or quarter-cent earthen dish to
cook their rice in, and after dinner either throw it
down and break it, or leave it by the tree or rest-
house where they were. We might think that the
next man who came along and wanted to boil his

106 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
rice, would pick up one of the dishes, and wash it,
and use it. But he does not. He does n't know
what low-caste man may have used it, so he pro
ceeds to buy one for himself. In this way millions
of earthen jars are destroyed. They have a custom
also of breaking, once a year, all vessels in their
houses made of this material. Almost any day you
may see men and women bringing great loads of
earthen jars to market.
Weaving is accomplished by means of the rudest
kind of tools, and is all done by hand. I am not
speaking of cotton and jute mills established by
English capital, but of natives as they work. The
thread is prepared after the most primitive meth
ods, and is then stretched under a tree, the length
which the piece of cloth is to be. Under this tree
it is often woven. The natives make all kinds of
cloth (chiefly of cotton), from the coarse and
strong, such as is worn by the Santals, to the fine
worn by the higher caste women. Tussur-silk
made from cocoons found in the jungles, is one of
the industries. How they can make such fine fab
rics as they do with their rude tools is a mystery.
In the vicinity of the Himalaya Mountains, a good
deal of coarse woolen goods is made, and Cash
mere is noted for the finest shawls in the world.
The hand- looms of India cannot compete with the
steam-looms of Manchester, so that weaving does
not furnish the occupation for the people which it

OCCUPATIONS. 107
once did. Many who now weave their own cloth,
buy Manchester yarn.
A very low-caste people are the shoemakers, who
are also the tanners. Animals which die are
skinned by the sweepers, and their skins are taken
to the shoemakers. These also get skins from the
Mohammedan butchers. They tan them by mak-
, ing them into a big bag, and filling these with a
liquid made from barks of different kinds steeped in
water. The skins in this way are suspended over
a large earthen vessel into which they drip. They
make some pretty good leather, but it has the
peculiar property of shrinking rather than stretch
ing with use. If our shoe fits us nicely when it
is new, we may be sure it will be too small after a
few months. If we wish to have one of these
country shoemakers make us a pair of shoes, we
call him to our house. When he gets ready, he
comes, and takes for a measure a strip of paper.
He cuts this off, making it the length of our foot.
Then he measures the instep with the same piece
of paper, tearing the edge to make the mark. We
ask him when he will have the shoes done, and he
tells us, ' ' Day after to-morrow. " He stands
around as if he were not quite ready to go, and we
ask him what more he wants. ' ' I want a little
money for expenses," he says. If we don't know
the custom of the country, we perhaps may tell
him that when he gets his work done, we will pay

108 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
him ; but if we do know the custom, we will know
that we must give him something in advance, or
we will never get our work done. We may re
fuse to give it to him, and he may promise to do
the work, but it is probable he will not do it. If
we do give him a little money in advance, he does
the work when he gets ready. Only after one has
lived in India a few years, can he understand the
expression, " Lie like a shoemaker." Have plenty
of patience and perseverance, and we will get our
shoes after a while.
There are merchants of all kinds. If, for in
stance, you should go down the streets of Balasore
or Midnapore, you would see a line of shops on
either side of the road. These are all small and
but one story high. Some of them are pucca and
some mud houses. The man who sells goods usu
ally sits on a grass mat on the floor, or on a large
low table. He may have beside him a large cush
ion on which to recline. If he can get the article
you wish without getting up, he will do so ; if not,
he will get up. You would find one man selling
cloth of various kinds ; another, different kinds of
oils, as kerosene-oil, from both Russia and America,
castor-oil, cocqnut-oil, mustard-oil, and various other
kinds of a coarser nature which the natives eat,
and which they also use to rub on their bodies in
the winter season before bathing. This man would
also have rosin, gums, and paint. The next man
perhaps would sell candies, which he makes on

OCCUPATIONS. IO9
the spot from sugar, flour, melted butter, and sour
milk. With one or more of these four articles and a
few spices in different combinations, and in different
ways, he will make a great variety of sweets. The
next man may have a shop for English goods. He
keeps a little of almost everything, even though
his shop be but eight feet by ten feet. We may
go and inquire for something which we don't ex
pect to find short of Calcutta, and as likely as not,
he will find the very thing we are after, in some
dusty corner. The next man has grains of all
kinds, as rice, wheat, and dal of different varieties.
The people are very fond of parched rice, so this
is found in many shops. They make it by putting
a certain kind of rice in an earthen jar, building a
brisk fire under it, and stirring it with a splint
broom while it is popping. Sometimes they put
molasses with it, and' roll it into balls. It is very
palatable when fresh.
The boatmen are quite a numerous class in Ben
gal. Thousands of them live in their boats. They
may have some other place they call home, but
most of their time is spent on their boats. At a
point above the Howrah bridge, a hundred and
twenty thousand boats pass in a single year. They
handle their boats very skilfully and sometimes
recklessly. I was going up on the steamship
' ' Bassein " once ; and as we neared Calcutta, we
saw a native rowboat coming toward us as if it
would pass in front of us. I feared, as I saw them

IIO DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
coming, that they had mistaken our speed, and so
it was, for instead of passing in front, they struck
our side wheel, and instantly their boat was in
splinters. They swim like ducks, and none were
lost. While we find no native sailors who are
Hindus on English ships, we find plenty of Hindus
on their own boats. Mohammedan sailors are
found in large numbers on European ships. They
are treacherous and cowardly in a dangerous storm,
and cannot be depended on in an emergency.
Though they are skilful in running their own boats,
they sometimes give us trouble when they run our
mission boats, by what we used to think was their
stupidity. Their pretended stupidity is often a
deliberate plan to secure some advantage to them
selves. In Orissa there are many tidal rivers, and the
coast canal crosses all these. At all these river
crossings there are locks, which must be entered
while there is plenty of water in the river. Some
times, in crossing, they would delay the boat
through various pretexts, until they were just too
late to enter the lock on the opposite side. This
would secure a rest to them until the next tide
came in. You might be greatly inconvenienced by
the delay, but it mattered little to them. Here,
again, you have a chance to exercise the grace of
patience. We must not overlook the mahajan. The word
literally means "great man," and so he is. He is

OCCUPATIONS. I I I
the money-lender. This may be his sole occupa
tion, or he may do this in connection with some
other business. Sometimes goldsmiths are money
lenders. The regular rate of interest among the
natives is two pice on a rupee per month. As there
are sixty-four pice in a rupee, two pice a month
would be one thirty-second of the principal per
month, or nearly forty per cent, per year. It is
little wonder that when a poor man gets into the
hands of a money-lender, he is often there for life,
and sometimes becomes not much less than a slave
to him. The note given is equal to a chattel mort
gage, and will take the last thing a man has if the
holder sees fit to crowd him. Custom is an iron
law in India, and the custom is to spend large sums
on the marriage of a daughter. On such occasions
the money-lender is often called upon. This is one
of the ways to account for the poverty of the people.
No one could live opposite a police headquar
ters, as we did for nine years, without realizing that
policemen are a factor not to be overlooked in speak
ing of occupations. The lowest grade of these is
the chaukedar or village watchman. These men
are armed with a tough bamboo pole six feet long,
on the end of which is a spear. They go around
the village at night and call out now and again at
the top of their voice. I have often told them that
they call out so as to give the thief a good chance
to get away. So far as being a protection against
thieves is concerned, in our part of the country they

112 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
are absolutely worthless. In Northern India Euro
peans employ one of the thief caste as a watchman,
and then they are safe though the watchman sleep
all night. This illustrates the truth of the saying
that " there is honor among thieves."
The next above the chaukedar is the Bengal
police. These men enlist as persons do in the
army, and have regular military drill. They
are distinguished by their blue drill pantaloons,
shirt, and head-cloth. I would not depreciate any
part of the government machinery of any worth,
but I have had pretty good chances for knowing,
and I have no hesitation in saying that they are
about as big a set of rascals as could well be found.
Possibly they help preserve the peace, but I doubt
it. On the other hand, they bring many innocent
people into the law courts. They are supposed to
have criminal cases to report frequently, but if
these cases do not come under their observation,
they don't have much trouble in getting up one.
But they are more noted for hushing up those
which ought to come to the surface, than for
trumping up cases. The palms of the policeman's
hands itch for coin, which will work wonders for
the guilty man, and withholding this, no one need
expect much help.
Let me give a personal experience to illustrate
this. I took with me to India a very nice, valu
able watch which came to me from my dear younger
brother, whom death had taken from us. I had a

OCCUPATIONS. 1 1 3
little pocket on the wall near the head of the bed,
where I hung my watch at night. It often hap
pened that I left it there through the day also.
One day I went to get it, and it was not there.
People said, "Tell the police," and so I did. They
at once came to the house. It was not the ordi
nary policeman in a blue drill suit, but a man a
grade or two higher, having on white drill with two
or three red stripes across his sleeve, a white head-
cloth fringed with red, and around him a leathern
belt with a brass buckle. Along with this head man
came a writer, and an ordinary policeman in blue.
This latter had to come to carry the ink-bottle and
a little roll of brown paper on which were to be
noted some of the important things necessary to be
known in the case : First, ' ' Which door would the
thief be likely to enter ? " As there were seven to
the room, it is probable he had some trouble in
deciding, but at last the writer was told what to
record in this connection. Then, ' ' How far did
the pocket hang from the bed ? " The distance was
roughly estimated and recorded. Then the color
of the pocket must be carefully noted. This was
very important. It was not only red like the fringe
of his head-cloth, but a much brighter red. Sev
eral other things of equal importance were observed
and carefully noted. With a profound bow he
departed carefully to consider the records he had
ordered made, with a promise fo call again the
next day. 8

114 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
The next day he came to reassure himself that
his observations of the previous day were correct.
Finding he had made no mistake, he again with
drew with a promise to call again soon. The next
day he came to announce his conclusions ; namely,
that some one acquainted with the premises, and
some one with a knowledge of the fact that I had
a watch, had probably stolen it. This was a long
step in the right direction. The next conclusion
was that no one would be more likely to have this
knowledge than some of the servants, and therefore
some of them had it. If they had it, we would
better search their houses for it, which he pro
ceeded to do, but found no watch. I gave him no
fee, and no more effort was made to find my watch
by the police. The native Christians, with myself,
decided who the guilty man was, and a month after
ward, two of our native preachers found him, and
recovered my watch.
These men walk about with their clubs hanging
by their side, and strike terror into the hearts of
many of the poor, ignorant people. They often
buy things of the farmers at their own price, and
vague rumors are sometimes heard that often they
never pay for what they get. This is without doubt
true. Perhaps on the whole it is better to keep them
as policemen, than to discharge them and let such
a bad class loose on society.
The garrie wallah, or cartman, must receive a
little attention. His cart is made of two large wheels

OCCUPATIONS. 1 1 5
five feet in diameter, a wooden axle, two large
poles in the shape of a letter V (only with a much
more acute angle), with the point eight feet in front
of the axle, and the two ends running back of the
axle eight feet. At the point the yoke is tied with
a strong rope, and over the axle is the cover. This
is made by bending green bamboo strips, tying
other strips across them, and spreading palm leaves
over the whole. This covering makes a good pro
tection from rain and sun. The yoke is simply a
straight pole with a loose pin in either end, and the
bullocks are generally small cattle, with a hump on
their necks just in front of the shoulder blade. In
Northern and Southern India the cattle have long
ears, and are much larger than in Bengal. The
hump catches the yoke as soon as they begin to
draw. If the cartman is very fond of his bullocks,
he will have them tattooed in many places on their
bodies with different figures. This is done by
burning them with a red-hot iron. If he be able,
he will have a string of cowries1 around the base of
their horns, and a sweet-sounding bell on the neck
of each.
A hollow bamboo a foot long is fastened to the
cover to hold oil for greasing his cart and his
bullocks' horns, while on the top of the cover
may be seen his box and earthen jar for cook
ing and feeding purposes. The driver loads his
cart so as to allow a heavy portion to rest on
lA small shell used as money.

Il6 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
the necks of his bullocks, and when all is ready to
start, he sits astride the V-shaped tongue, sticks
his toes into the belly of each bullock, gives them
a blow with his club of a whip, seizes each one by
the root of the tail with his thumb and finger, and
shouts to them. If this will not start them, noth
ing will. While on the road, the cartmen often
cook, feed their bullocks, and eat under the shade
of a tree, and sleep under or in their carts. All
teaming is done by the faithful bullocks. Horses
draw only people.
There is also quite an array of domestics con
nected with every well-to-do household. The na
tive gentlemen are very fond of making a display
of these. In the eyes of their fellow countrymen
their wealth is determined by the number of people
they can have around their houses. You call on a
native gentleman, and you will be surprised to see
the number of servants that will make their ap
pearance at one time or another. I never could
tell what they all did. English officials have a
good many, but missionaries reduce their staff to
the lowest number possible. But before I speak of
the duties of these domestics, let me say a word as
to their necessity. The question is asked, ' ' Why
do missionaries keep servants ? Why do they so
soon forget their simple habits of living after they
get to India ? "
I may as well say a few words now as at any
time on this subject. In the first place, mission-

OCCUPATIONS. 117
aries have been, as a rule, people who in the home
land had simple habits. In the next place, they
are, as a rule, intelligent and conscientious people.
These two facts ought to be a guaranty that they
would not unnecessarily indulge luxurious habits.
They keep servants because they are a necessity.
They pay for them from their own pocketbooks, so
of course would not keep more than were needed.
The country is very hot, so that we cannot put
forth more physical effort than is necessary to do
the work connected with our missionary work. If
we did our own work, it would be at the expense
of the work we were sent there to do. I contend
that it is no more right for our wives to neglect
their mission work for their housework, than it
would be for a school-teacher in this country to be
making her dresses and aprons during the hours of
teaching. The missionary's wife is paid to do
mission work, as the teacher is paid to teach the
school. It is true there are some duties she can
not relegate to servants, but she can have them
wash her clothes, and make them, and do many
other things which she does in America.
"If necessary to have some, why have so
many ? " — For the same reason we have one, we
must have a number. With their caste ideas one
will not do the work which belongs to another. A
cook will not sweep, and a gardener cannot cook,
and a tailor cannot wash clothes. Members of one
class cannot do the work of another, and would

1 1 8 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
not if they could. We must, therefore, have
separate people to do these various kinds of work.
We must bear in mind that they work very cheaply,
and board themselves. Besides all this, there are
so many people who are struggling for an existence,
and who can hardly keep their children from starv
ing, that from sheer pity, we would employ them
as much as we possibly could. Many of them are
good and true, and one becomes quite attached to
them. They are also at times a great trial.
Having said so much as an explanation for their
necessity, let us look at their work. Let us begin
with the bearer. This man is supposed to look
after the children and keep them from running into
the sun, dust the furniture, keep the mold off our
books and shoes during the rains, fill the lamps, buy
material for annual repairs, look after these repairs,
and do many kinds of work in that line, so that the
man of the house may not be tried every hour in
the day with these things. As natives go, he is a
pretty faithful man, but you have some trials with
him. When he cleans the books, he may put them
in wrong end up, and in his efforts to keep others
from cheating you, he is apt to do it himself. Then
you are never quite sure about the children. We
may find one of them out in the sun with no
hat on, which never should be allowed. If we
chide the bearer, he will tell us the child ran out
itself, and would go, and what could he do ? So

OCCUPATIONS. 119
while the bearer looks after things in general, we
must look after him in particular.
The butcher comes. He is a Mohammedan, of
course, and has with him a small boy who carries,
on a flat, dirty tray made of split bamboos, some
meat. He plants himself in the back door so as to
attract our attention, and when he gets our eye,
makes a low salaam (bow). We go to him to see
what he has, and he tells us it is a nice piece of
lamb, and he picks it up, and turns it over, and
points out the fat if he can find any, and assures us
that it is young and tender. We tell him we fear
it is not lamb, but goat. He emphatically declares
it is lamb, and asks if we ever saw wool growing
from a goat's leg, and then points triumphantly to
the wool near the foot, which he did not take off.
We are sure he is right, and buy his lamb. Don't be
at all surprised to find that the wool was carefully
sewed on a goat's leg, by which process a goat is
readily turned into a lamb.
Here is the gardener. We must have a little
house built in the garden for him. It need not be
large, — ten feet square will do, — but he must have
it, in order to keep people from stealing the fruit
and vegetables. He watches the fruit as it ripens,
and plucks it before the crows, or monkeys, or bad
boys do. He is supposed to board himself, but
intends to get all the fruit and vegetables he needs
out of the garden. Each morning he brings in

120 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
the fruit and vegetables, tastefully arranged on a
flat woven bamboo tray. He is a gardener by
caste, and rarely does anything else but work in
fruits, vegetables, or grains.
But of all servants the cook is the most impor
tant. The cook-house is some distance from the
house, and no European woman could walk back
and forth between this and the house very much
in the hot sun. The cook is, therefore, left a good
deal to himself. This suits him well, for he can
then do about as he likes. There is in the house a
sort of pantry, in which all the provisions are kept
under lock and key. The lady of the house makes
up her mind what she wants for the different meals
of the day, and gives her orders to the cook early
in the morning. He comes to the pantry with his
dishes, and she comes with her keys. He gets
rice, dal, onions, sugar, cracked wheat, potatoes, if
there are any, salt, and ghee. He sometimes says
he has not enough salt, or sugar, or ghee. She
may give him more, or may say, "That is surely
enough for one day. " He says nothing, of course,
but takes his things and goes. At dinner you find
that things which required salt are too fresh, or
things which required sugar are not sweet enough,
and the ghee is nearly minus in some things. You
may suggest to the cook that the dinner is taste
less. He tells you very meekly that he is very
sorry, but it is impossible for him to make things
sweet without sugar. The next time, you let him

OCCUPATIONS. 1 2 1
take about what salt, sugar, and ghee he asks for.
You see the man has a family at home, and they
like salt in their rice, and ghee in their dal. You
know that what of these your dinner lacks, has
gone into his, but you are helpless, and must make
the best of the situation. You may say, "Why
not dismiss him when you know he does such
things, and get another ? " The fact is, we would
not better our condition if we did. The man has
been with us a number of years, so that he and his
family are well fed. The chances are, the new man
and his family would be lean and poor. You can
see what would follow. The cook comes very
early to the house to prepare the morning meal.
This is very simple. It may be a piece of toast, a
boiled egg, and a cup of tea. He churns our butter
in a pickle bottle, by shaking it vigorously. The
butcher takes the leg of mutton we bought to the
cook, and it was he who showed you the piece of
lamb's skin which was sewed on the leg of the goat.
He may show it, or he may not. That will depend
entirely on whether it will pay him to do so. We
must remember that there is a good deal of power
in the hands of the cook. Let us walk out quietly
to the cook-house, and put our ear to a crack in the
door, and listen. We may hear something like
this : —
Cook : ' ' How much did the mem-sahib give for
this mutton ? "
. Butcher : " One rupee."

122 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
Cook : "This is not mutton, it is goat."
Butcher: "You don't know mutton from goat.
That is a sheep."
Cook: " Do your sheep fasten the wool on their
legs with a thread ? " The butcher sees he is
caught, and smiles, and the cook says, ' ' I want
more dusturi."1
Butcher: "I am giving you now two pice on
the rupee, and that is the regular custom."
Cook: "A man who makes his money as you
do, by selling goat's meat for mutton, can give
three pice on the rupee." The butcher refuses,
a quarrel ensues, and the cook, always greatly in
terested in our welfare, brings the leg to us, shows
the trick, and tells us to dismiss this man and get
an honest butcher.
Almost all the natives do their cutting of meats
and vegetables by means of a knife shaped some
thing like a sickle. One end of this is fastened
into a board fifteen inches long and four inches
wide, and so fixed that the edge is toward them.
When they want to cut anything for cooking, they
squat on the floor, put one foot on the board to
hold it solid, and proceed to cut. This kind of .
knife is found in every native house. The cook is

1 Dusturi is the money paid to servants by any person who sells
goods of any kind to Europeans or wealthy natives. It is one thirty-
second of the value of the article. The cook buys for the table, and
gets his dusturi, the hostler for the horses and gets his, etc. ' This
all comes out of the purchaser.

OCCUPATIONS. 123
not encumbered with many garments while at
his work. Three yards of factory cotton tied around
his loins will answer. When we see him come
into the dining-room with a paper in his hand, we
know he is after money, and wants to render his
account. We are surprised that all the money we
gave him a few days ago is gone. But there it is
in black and white : Rice, so much ; dal, so much ;
and so on to the end of the list. Many of the
smaller things cost but one quarter of a cent, but
the whole takes all the money, and leaves us a
little in his debt. We know he has cheated us, and
we think perhaps that we will do our own buy
ing. The next day we go to the bazaar for this
purpose, but the men in the bazaar cheat us so
much worse than our cook did, that we are quite
willing for him to continue. We had a Moham
medan cook whose name was Jesso. Chicken is
the principal meat, and Jesso bought the chickens.
One day my wife, who was fond of the leg, after eat
ing one, looked for the other. It was not to be
found. She called the cook and inquired into the
matter. Jesso said, "Chickens are very scarce
these days, and this one with one leg is all I could
find in the market."
There is a small piece of cloth which may be
said to be the badge of the cook. It is a yard
long, and half a yard wide, and he usually carries
it on his naked shoulder. It answers a great variety
of purposes, among which is straining milk. This

124 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
is not by order or consent of the lady of the house,
but the way he does when alone and unmolested.
They never want to see any milk wasted, so in
sist on squeezing out with their thumb and finger
the last drop. We may have told him a score of
times that we would much prefer a few drops less
milk, and a little less dirt, but th.e next time he
strains the milk, it is the same thing.
As showing another use to which this piece of
cloth may be put, let me tell a little incident which
was told us at the tea table the day it occurred.
The victim was Mrs. Boyer, our neighbor just
across the street. She was feeling a little languid,
so asked the cook to make her a cup of coffee,
which he proceeded to do. It was so very nice
that she asked for a second cup. The cook told
her he was sorry that he could not make her any
more, for the reason that he had no more milk.
She said, "I thought you had a quart of milk,"
and the cook replied, " So I had, mem-sahib, but
the boy spilt it on the cook-house floor, and all I
could sop up I put in your other cup of coffee."
We can't say that these cooks are really dirty
men, but they do things differently than we do in
America. But they are faithful in many respects,
and in spite of all their faults, we like them.
House cannot be kept without the dirze. This
is the man who sews. He comes in the morning
at nine o'clock and stays until five. He never
wears his shoes inside the house, and never takes

OCCUPATIONS. 12 5
off his cap. He has a bit of grass matting three
feet by six feet, which he takes from the corner of
the room and unrolls. Leisurely he proceeds to
sit down with his legs crossed under him. He has
a little box which he unlocks, and takes from it his
scissors, needles, pins, cloth, etc. He is now ready
for operation. He is a pretty good imitator, and
insists that he can make anything you want if you
will give him a pattern. Sometimes he does very
well, and sometimes he spoils the garment. He
never will acknowledge that a garment is spoiled,
and insists that a little alteration would make it all
right. He is very fond of his midday nap, and we
shall be sure to find him some hour of the day fast
asleep. The wife can't sit over him all the time.
If she could, she might as well do the work. He
generally is carrying on a little business by himself
at home, so a yard or two of print seldom comes
amiss. Even thread and needles and pins can be
used. These he can quietly slip in and under his
garments at convenient times. If we think needles
and thread go too fast, he tells us needles are poor,
and they don't put as much thread on a spool as
they used to. We learn what Paul meant when he
said, Take "joyfully the spoiling of your goods."
Every Monday morning the washerman comes.
The housewife has a book to keep her accounts
with him, which she brings out while he proceeds
to count the soiled clothes. ' ' One, two, three,
four — four sheets." This is marked down. Then

126 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
towels are counted. It may be at this time some
one asks for the mem-sahib, and her attention is
taken away for the moment. This is his opportu
nity to put in an extra garment. If he is caught,
he says he made a mistake in the count, but if not,
he is a garment ahead, for he brings back only the
number marked. After all are counted, he rolls
them up in a big sheet, puts them upon his head,
and carries them to the tank or river, where they
are pounded over stones, or poles, or slabs, and
boiled in a coarse soap with water until they are
clean. In this process buttons are torn off, and the
color is taken out of prints and calicoes. If there
are some good pearl buttons on the garments, he
may cut some of them off, then declare they were
lost in the washing. They are again counted and
checked off when he brings them back, and if they
tally, all right, but if not, he agrees to make them
right. Half of them are now made over to the
dirze, to mend tears and sew on buttons, and the
rest are put away.
You must have a man who is called a syce to
attend your horse. There are many reasons for
this. In the first place, the horses are generally so
vicious that, being used to the natives, a white man
could not harness nor saddle them. In the next
place, there are no hitching-posts, and if there
were, we would not dare hitch our horse, for what
ever was moveable might be taken before we got
back to our carriage. Again, we cannot afford the

OCCUPATIONS. 127
time to attend to our horse when we can hire it done
for five cents a day and the man of course boards
himself, as do all the rest of the servants. Each
day the man has to go and find grass where he
can ; and all through the dry season, with a sort of
spade he digs it up by the roots. This is washed
in the tank or river and brought home. The horse
also eats dannah, the grain from which dal is made.
The syce and his family eat dal, and could easily
eat the horse's share, so we must have the horse
brought to the house, and see him fed. This is
not always possible for us to do, and therefore the
man often gets some of the food the horse should
have. But when we think that the man is really
hungry enough to eat raw peas, we can hardly be
grudge him the little he may steal.
In giving an account of the occupations, we must
not overlook the punka wallah, for he is necessary
to the very existence of the European in India. A
punka is a contrivance for keeping the air in motion
in a room. This is made by taking a pole, say five
inches in diameter, and anywhere from ten to
twenty feet long, and suspending it from the ceiling
by means of hooks and ropes. It hangs down four
or five feet from the ceiling, and is swung back and
forth by means of a man pulling a rope which is
attached to it. This man is the punka wallah. I
fancy I hear some one say, "Do you have some
one to fan you ? " Truth compels me to an
swer yes to that question. This is one of the

128 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
' ' luxuries " of the missionaries' life that we some
times hear about. I have told you something of
the climate, and the work of the missionary is
spoken of further on. But we will have to em
phasize one or two things before you will see the
necessity of a punka wallah. When the wind gets
in the south, the temperature of the atmosphere
rapidly changes, so that by April we must close our
doors by nine o'clock, and sometimes earlier, to
keep out the outside wind, which feels at times like
the air from an oven. You may fancy yourself
shut up in a room where the thermometer will be
from 900 to ioo°, and not the slightest motion in
the air. It is true we are not all in our houses, by
this time in the morning. Those who have gone
out to the zenanas or the villages or schools, do not
get in before ten o'clock ; but some members of the
household are in the house, and the punka must go.
We dress thinly, and yet if we get out of a room
where the punka is, in a very few moments the
perspiration will begin to ooze from every pore in
the skin.
English officers, whose salaries are large, start
their punkas in a number of rooms, and keep them
going night and day for seven or eight months.
Missionaries, whose salaries will not admit of this,
economize their punka pulling as much as possible.
But punkas we must have to some extent if we are
to live and work at all. It often happens during
the rainy season that not a breath of air is stirring

OCCUPATIONS. 1 29
night or day. At such times as this we must have
punkas at night also. The punka wallah is not
an unalloyed blessing. We often have such a trial
with him that we think we will get along without
him, but a day of such an experience causes us to
decide to choose the least of two evils.
Let me try to take the reader through one night's
experience. We retire at ten o'clock, when our
night men are supposed to be on hand. They are
probably there, though they may be late. We lie
down with our thin night suit on, and the punka
starts. We are comparatively comfortable, though
10° cooler would suit us much better, and we go to
sleep. By and by we awake with a feeling of suf
focation, and we find our clothes wet with sweat,
and the punka standing still. Then we call out,
"Punka tannow," which is an order to pull the
punka. It may move, and it may not. If it does
not, we get up and take hold of the rope and give
it a pull. Our man who is pulling is off in another
part of the house, or out on the veranda, but even
in his sleep he holds on to the rope, so our pull at
his rope awakens him. He suddenly comes to the
conclusion that he has been sleeping, and begins to
pull most vigorously. It may be he pulls so hard
to convince us -that he has been wide-awake all
the time. At all events he now pulls so hard that
the breeze on our damp night clothes makes us
feel chilly, and we must call out to him to pull
more slowly. This he is quite willing to do, and
9

130 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
so it swings more slowly and keeps on growing
slower and slower, until finally it stops again.
Then we know our man has again gone to sleep.
We again go through the process of awakening him,
and again our punka is pulled spasmodically.
We keep on this way for half an Jiour, and then
go out where the man is, and convince him that he
has been sleeping, and that he must wake up thor
oughly and keep awake. It may be we tell him
if he can't do better, we must get some one else.
Now he is thoroughly aroused, and pulls steadily,
and we retire and go to sleep again, only to re
peat the experience an hour or two hence. We
get up in the morning feeling that we have not
slept more than half the night, and wish that we
could just for one night lie down on a bed and pull
a blanket over us, and sleep without the ' ' luxury "
of a punka wallah.
There is a maid-servant, the ayah, who makes
the beds and attends the smaller children, and an
other servant, the sweeper, who keeps the house
and yard clean. All in all, the servants are as
faithful and honest as so many persons would be
in America if they were often pinched with hunger.
There are many trials in connection with so many
people about the house, and one often wishes con
ditions were different. But since they are as they
are, we make the best we can out of them. We
like the servants, as a rule, and they become at
tached to us. They are very polite, and seldom

OCCUPATIONS. I 3 I
give us a saucy answer. They will bear a great
deal of hardship and fatigue without grumbling,
and our interest is always paramount with them,
next to their own. Their wages range from one
dollar to two dollars and a half a month, except in
the larger cities, where they are more. Most of
the servants we had were with us a number of
years, and when we left, some of them prostrated
themselves at our feet, and wept as if their hearts
were breaking.

CHAPTER XI.
A GLANCE AT HINDUISM.
There are many languages spoken in India,
many nationalities represented, and adherents to
many kinds of religions. Away back at the very
dawn of history, fifteen or twenty centuries before
Christ, when our Aryan brothers first entered India
as invaders, there were hordes of people scattered
over its fertile plains. These aborigines were wor
shipers of evil spirits. They thought it better to
appease the wrath of the evil spirits, their enemies,
than to invoke the blessing of the good spirits.
Though many of these tribes have been grafted
into Hinduism, they still retain some of these
practises. Hinduism is not what it was three or four thou
sand years ago. The Hindus were never mono
theistic, but were formerly much nearer so than
now. Then they said : ' ' Suerja, the sun, drives
away the cold and gives us light, and should re
ceive adoration ; Indra, rain, makes our rice and mil
let and grass grow, and should be worshiped ; Agni,
fire, is powerful, and should be an object of our de
votions." In Vedic times they reasoned thus, and
had but thirty-three gods ; eleven in heaven, eleven
on the earth, and eleven in mid-air. Gradually
L132]

A GLANCE AT HINDUISM. 1 33
they came to believe that everything was but a
manifestation of supreme power, or a part of the
supreme power, and should be worshiped ; and so
their thirty-three gods multiplied into thirty-three
millions. The Hindus are idolaters. The more educated
do not wish to be classed with those who worship
idols, and there are defenders of Hinduism in
America and England who do not call them idola
ters. I have more than once talked with educated
Hindus who claimed that they were not worshiping
the idol, but God, which the idol represents. They
say, ' ' As you Christians believe that God is in
everything and everywhere, so do we, and therefore
he is in this brass idol and in this tree which we
worship. " That sounds very well, but two things
must be borne in mind in this connection ; and the
first is, they do not think God is in everything, and
thus worship him, for the priest must put on the
mark before an image or a tree becomes an object
of worship. The other is that the great mass of
the common people think the idol itself has the
power to hear and to help.
Before the Aryans settled down to till the soil,
they were but wandering herdsmen, and their
wealth consisted of their cattle. Even after they
became cultivators, they were anxious to increase
their herds. The faithful bullock plowed their
fields, and bore upon his back their burdens, and
the cow gave them milk and butter. If any object

134 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
was worthy of adoration, it was these faithful
animals ; so the cow and the bull early became
sacred in the eyes of the devout Hindu. The image
representing a crouching bull is called Mahadab,
and means, literally, ' ' great god. "
A queen who lived near our mission in India,
realizing that her end was near, had brought to her
side her favorite cow, and taking its tail in her
hand, passed quietly and contentedly into the spirit
land. We find a great many such images. Some of
these are of gigantic size, as the one near the
Well of Knowledge in the city of Benares ; others
are small. Some are kept in public places, and
others in temples and private houses.
Motherhood is the one great thing to be desired
on the part of a wife in India ; and no disgrace,
scarcely, is greater than that of being childless.
Such women are taught that if they perform a
proper worship at the shrine of Mahadab, they may
become mothers. There are many things in con
nection with the worship of this image, of which I
cannot speak, for with our ideas of decency, they
would be considered obscene in the extreme.
The Hindus attach great sanctity to certain
places, and think a visit to these places will in
some way bring great good to them. Among the
most noted of these is Benares. What Mecca is
to the Mohammedans, or Jerusalem to the Jews,
that is Benares to the Hindus. I was once on the

A GLANCE AT HINDUISM. I 35
train in the same compartment with two well-edu
cated native gentlemen, going up from Mogul Sarai
to Benares. As soon as the minarets of its mosques
and the spires of its temples came in sight they ex
claimed, ' ' Behold our sacred city ! " Built upon
the high and sloping banks of the Ganges River,
from a distance it presents a beautiful appearance.
Closer acquaintance, however, removes the delusion.
But to the devout Hindu the very sight of it brings
raptures of joy ; for if he can but bathe in the
sacred Ganges, in this the holiest of cities, great
merit is put down to his credit by the god who
keeps a careful record of all our good and bad
deeds, and offsets the one by the other. What
wonder is it then that, for miles along its banks,
priests may be seen sitting every day in the year
under their large umbrellas to receive the offerings
of the pilgrims who have come from all parts of
India to bathe in Ma Ganga — Mother Ganges ?
Here, too, are the burning places to which the
dead are borne from as great a distance as possible,
for if their ashes can be sprinkled on the holy river,
the day of their complete redemption will be ha
stened. Sometimes aged people come here to die.
A ride in a boat, gently floating with the cur
rent, in the morning, for a distance of four miles,
down by these bathing places will make impres
sions never to be forgotten. There is devotion
enough to awe you into silence and meditation,
and disgusting sights enough to sicken you at heart

I36 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
and stomach. It may truly be said of many of the
Hindus that they are "weary and heavy laden."
They seem extremely restless, as if in possession of
the knowledge that they are a long way from God,
and are trying to find their way back to him Many
of them spend the last years of their lives in going
from one shrine to another. Some of them are
satisfied with visiting a single shrine.
There are places of established merit, and there
are others for which priests and pandas are trying
to work up a reputation. Brindaban has long been
one of the most sacred, its priests claiming for it
even greater sanctity than that of Benares itself.
It is a city full of temples, and Seth's Temple is the
most beautiful and costly of them all, in fact, the
most costly Hindu temple in the world. The king
of Jeypore is building one now at Brindaban which ,
will be a rival to the celebrated Taj Mahal. When
I was at the place, a few years ago, five hundred
men had been at work on it five years, and it was
still far from being completed. Here also come
pilgrims in great numbers.
Four miles from Brindaban is the city of Muttra,
on the River Jumna, between Agra and Delhi.
This is the reputed birthplace of Krishna, consid
ered as an incarnation of Vishnu. On the plains
near the city he fed his herds, and numerous relics
of antiquity attest the sanctity with which the place
is invested. Krishna was no doubt a hero, strong
and brave in battle, as well as too full of craft and

A GLANCE AT HINDUISM. I 37
cunning for his enemies to succeed against him.
He defended the city of Muttra against eighteen
attacks by the father-in-law of Kansa, and finally,
after complete victory, sat and rested here on the
banks of the Jumna. From being a hero he gradu
ally became transformed into a god, and is now as
extensively worshiped as any. The word beshram
means resting ; and therefore Beshram Ghat means
the resting-gate, or stairs. Being the spot where
Krishna rested, devotees visit it from all parts of
India. At this ghat several things of unique interest are
seen, though widely different in their nature. One
is the tall pillar near by called Suttee Bourge, or
the pillar of suttee. It is a memorial pillar erected
on the spot where a live queen was burned beside
her dead husband. Then there are the huge tur
tles which abound, and to feed which seems to be
part of the duty of the pilgrims. The turtles will
justle each other in trying to get the lion's share
of the parched rice thrown to them. Equally
curious are the ' ' weighing arches. " Kings and
princes making pilgrimages to this place have, on
some occasions, erected arches, fastened scales to
the top of them, and weighed themselves against
so many pounds of gold, avoirdupois, giving the
gold to the priests.
Far up toward the northwest of India the River
Ganges emerges, clear and cold, from the moun
tains into the plains ; and a city called Hurdwar is

138 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
built upon its banks at this point. Brahminical
teachings have attached great sanctity and impor
tance to this place, and here also every year come
thousands of pilgrims. Once in twelve years the
place has especial virtues, and, in this year, hun
dreds of thousands visit it. The railroads are taxed
for weeks to their utmost, carrying people in stock-
cars, crowded together as thickly as possible, as
well as on the regular trains. Thousands also go
on foot ; for more virtue lies in making a pilgrim
age on foot than by train.
The day that I visited the place was sadhus
day. The word sadhu means holy man, or devotee.
These men had congregated from different parts of
the country to the number of two thousand or
more. Many Europeans also were present, among
them the present czar of Russia, who was then
making a tour of India. Very early in the morn
ing I was awakened by the shrill notes of a wind
instrument corresponding to our clarinet. I made
ready my camera to take a photograph, but found
it impossible to get near on account of the multi
tude of people. They began their exercises by a
sword performance, and then were marshaled into
line for a procession. First came sadhus on richly
caparisoned elephants, these were followed by those
on camels, then some on ponies, and, lastly, others
on foot. I was told that they were to cross the
pontoon bridge, so stationed myself at the nearest
available point to get a photograph. The only

A GLANCE AT HINDUISM. 1 39
remarkable thing about this day's worship was that
all day long these men, to the number of at least
two thousand, paraded the streets of the city, as
naked as they were the day they were born, in
the presence of a multitude of men, women, and
children. Another thing essentially connected with their
religion is the belief in the transmigration of souls.
That doctrine is simply this : When a person dies,
only his body dies, and the spirit, which was in the
body, had previously been in some other body and
would again go to another body. All sin, they say,
must be punished, and the suffering we have in the
flesh is a punishment for past sins. They may not
be the sins committed in this body, but in some
previous body. We argue, if sorrow comes to us
here, it may all be rectified in the future life. They
argue that it comes from the past life. We are
inspired through suffering and trials to hope on ;
they have no incentive to hope. They say when
they have been born enough times, and suffered
enough to atone for all sins, then they will be ab
sorbed and become a part of God. More than four
million births, in different forms of life, are ordi
narily necessary fully to purify the soul. But su
preme acts of penance can have a great deal to do
in cutting short these cycles of births. Hence we
have the sadhu, or devotee.
A close view of a sadhu reveals a man with an
unshaven face and uncut hair. Often his hair

140 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
hangs down in a matted condition to his waist, or
lower. His body is covered with ashes, and he has
on but the scantiest bit of cotton cloth around his
loins. In winter a very coarse blanket is thrown
over the shoulders and hangs down the back. The
villagers light a fire for them, if it be winter, under
some tree, and here they sit, eat, and sleep. Some
times the sadhu crouches on a bed of sharp spikes,
several hours a day, while in his hands he holds his
sacred beads on which he calls over the names of
his gods. The badge of his calling is a pair of iron
tongs, which he uses to lift the coals of fire to put
on his pipeful of gunja ; for all of this class stupefy
themselves by smoking this terrible drug. Some
times their long hair is coiled on the top of their
heads. They may at times be seen with one hand held
up until it becomes fixed in that position, and some
times even both hands are thus extended. The
poor fellow in the illustration had had his hands in
this position for twelve years when I took the
photograph. I said to him, — -
' ' Don't your arms pain you ? "
" Not now," he replied. "When I first began,
they pained me so I could not endure it, and so I
had to tie them up ; but after they became fixed,
they did not hurt any more."
On entering the low door of a house, he must
bend his body, allowing his hands to enter first.
The common people do these singular creatures

Hindu Devotee.

A GLANCE AT HINDUISM. 141
homage, and even the better educated and wealthy
often bow down to the earth in front of them.
As I was coming up the street with this man, a
babu (native gentleman) came out and saluted
him, and asked him to stop a moment until his son
should come out. Soon the son came. He was
a young man, well dressed, and attending the gov
ernment college at Balasore. He at first put his
hands together in a suppliant attitude, and made a
low bow to the sadhu. But that would not do.
The sadhu told him to prostrate himself in the
dust, which the young man at once proceeded to
do. Then the sadhu put his foot upon him, to
emphasize his humiliation. The underlying idea
in pilgrimages is this doctrine of transmigration of
souls, and penance is more often performed in
this way than in any other.
Among the many images worshiped, few occupy
a more prominent place than Juggernaut. He is
simply a hideous, armless, legless, carved piece of
wood. There are several legends which attempt
to account for his form, and also for the sanctity
of the town of Puri, — called also Juggernaut, — in
the southern part of Orissa, where he originally
appeared. At Puri is his greatest temple ; but in
many, and, in fact, every town in Orissa and Ben
gal, his temples are seen. The word means, "lord
of the world," and the great virtue of a pilgrimage
is to see him, rather than to worship.
As our house was on the great pilgrim road, we

I42 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
had opportunity of seeing and conversing with
many of the pilgrims. Every day hundreds, and
many days, thousands, of these poor creatures
could be seen going to, or returning. from, Puri. If
we asked them what benefit they hoped to get from
a sight of Juggernaut, they would reply, "Mukti"
(freedom from sin).
At all times of the year pilgrims go more or less
to see Juggernaut, but in much larger numbers
when what is known as the rath jatra, or car fes
tival, is to take place. This is the occasion of the
annual ride of Juggernaut. There are, in fact,
three days, during which the idol is exposed to pub
lic view. The first is the bathing festival, when
he is taken from his temple, and, on a lofty plat
form, in the presence of a vast multitude of people,
is bathed by the priests. They bathe themselves
every day, but their god only once a year ; so not
being used to cold water, he is supposed to take a
severe cold. He is therefore taken back and put
into his temple for ten days, when he is again
brought out, and, by the assistance of the priests,
is made to walk up the inclined bridge from the
ground to the platform of his huge car. He is
placed under a canopy made of different colored
cloths, and his car is festooned with flowers. By
his side sit his brother Balarama and his sister
Subhadra, or they may have separate cars. Three
ponderous ropes, a thousand or fifteen hundred
feet long, are attached to the car, and these are

Juggernaut with His Sister and Brother on Their Car.

Pilgrims Going to Juggernaut.

A GLANCE AT HINDUISM. 1 43
laid along the street as far as they will extend.
When the priests and musicians have assembled
on the platform of the car, and the people have
taken hold of the ropes, to the number of some
times ten thousand, the officiating priest gives
the order for the car to move. The musicians,
with drums and horns and cymbals and other kinds
of instruments, more designed to produce noise
than harmony, begin to play, and the people begin
to shout, and the great car begins to move. It is
a monstrous, unwieldy affair, and with nothing to
guide it but the ropes, often does damage to build
ings along the streets. Juggernaut is taken to a
neighboring temple, where his maternal aunt is
supposed to reside, and after staying there a week,
is again placed on his car, — though with much less
enthusiasm on the part of the people than on the
first occasion, — and is taken back to his own tem
ple, where he sits until the next year.
In the city of Puri, pilgrims congregate to the
number of from one to two hundred thousand to
witness the rath. When the return festival is over,
they begin to disperse. To get a correct idea of
the sufferings of the pilgrims during their long jour
neys, and their stay at Puri, one must see them.
The rath occurs in the month of July, when the
rains are well upon us, and there are but scant
accommodations for the people, and many have
not the means to provide themselves with shelter,
even if shelter could be had ; so thousands sleep

144 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
under trees on the damp ground, thus bringing on
cholera and other destructive and contagious dis
eases. To see a sick or dying or dead pilgrim
lying alone, deserted by his friends, under the shade
of some banian- or pepul- or mango-tree, is a most
common sight.
This temple at Puri is supposed to be the richest
shrine in all India. It employs seven hundred/#«-
das, or Hindu missionaries, who go, two and two,
into the villages all through India, to tell the poor,
ignorant people of the great virtues of Juggernaut,
and so persuade many to go on a pilgrimage who
otherwise would not go.
The pandas make a careful inquiry into the
financial standing of every one who engages to
go on a pilgrimage ; this list is handed to the
priests at Puri, and each one is charged according
to his wealth to see Juggernaut in his temple ;
none, however, being admitted for less than twenty
rupees, or about six dollars. If they have not
this amount, the priests .lend to them, taking as
interest an equivalent to three cents on a dollar
per month. This is regarded as a sacred obliga
tion, and binding upon the individual and his chil
dren and successors for fourteen generations. The
priests often extort the last cent pilgrims have, and
they are allowed to start home, not knowing where
the next meal is to come from.
They sometimes go on a pilgrimage by prostra
tions. The person making this kind of pilgrimage

His Prayer.

His Prostration.
A Devotee Making a Pilgrimage to Juggernaut by I'rostrations.

A GLANCE AT HINDUISM. 1 45
will stand in the road, put his hands together in a
suppliant attitude, offer a short prayer, and then
prostrate himself in the road, reaching out his
hands as far as possible, and with a spike which he
carries in his right hand, makes a mark in the dust
or mud, as the case may be. He then gets up, puts
his toes to this mark, says his prayer, and again
prostrates himself. Three miles is the utmost
distance a man can go in a day in this way, and
more often they can go but a mile. They some
times are three years in making this kind of pil
grimage. One morning in the month of May, one of the
hottest of our months, I met one of these men who
was willing to talk. Often they take a vow of.
silence and speak to no one for the whole time
occupied in a pilgrimage ; but this man stood as
soon as I began to talk to him.
I said, ' ' Do you think God is pleased to see you
suffer as you do this morning ? "
Said he, "Yes, he is."
"But you are one of God's children, and he is
full of love for his children, even though they have
gone a long way from him in sin. "
' ' No, " said he, ' ' God is not full of love ; he is
very cruel. "
Words were useless ; for the man had set his
face toward Puri, and, after resting a moment,
resumed his long and weary journey.
While it is true that the people can worship in

146 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
their own dooryard before the toolsy plant, and
can worship under green trees, still they have thou
sands of temples. Some of these are but the rudest
of shanties, and some are magnificent structures,
and especially so if looked at from a distance.
Many of them are covered with stucco-work from
bottom to top. These figures represent scenes in
their mythology, and to us whose education is so
unlike theirs, often seem vulgar, or to have a sug
gestion of lewdness. I am told that the inside is
worse than the outside in this respect. No Chris
tian ever entered a Hindu temple, so I cannot
speak from experience. In fact, we must not sup
pose that a Hindu temple is for the Hindus to
worship in. They are for the idols and the priests.
In the morning the priests perform the worship in
the temple, and come out and sit on the porch,
and smoke their pipe, and chew their pan, and
gossip, and bathe in the tank near by ; but they
do not say comforting words to the poor and
weary and heavy laden. They do not try to lift
the loads off shoulders which are all but crushed,
but on the other hand, lay heavier burdens upon
them. No glance at Hinduism would be at all complete
without a reference to caste. Caste is social dis
tinction based, not upon wealth, position, educa
tion, or character, but upon birth. It is perfectly
natural for people of like tastes to associate to
gether, and so the bigoted Hindu tells us that

A GLANCE AT HINDUISM. I47
Christian nations have caste. I have, more tfian
once been told by them, that there is just as much
caste in England as in India. There can be no
doubt that there is too much of a caste feeling
growing up in some places, even in our own coun
try ; but it is very different from the caste of India.
There is nothing to prevent the people in the
highest circles in this country from going down
into the slums and helping raise up the fallen. In
fact, they are doing that very thing, and year by
year are doing more of that kind of work ; but not
so with the caste people of India. A high-caste
man does not want to touch a low-caste. He must
on no account eat with him. If he does, he be
comes an out caste. When some of these men in
our Parliament of Religions in Chicago, said that
they laid down a platform which they thought was
broad enough for all to stand upon ; namely, ' ' The
fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of man,"
they were loudly cheered. I have many friends
among the high-caste gentlemen of the city of
Balasore, in which we lived ; but truth compels me
to say that they know practically nothing of the
principle of the ' ' brotherhood of man. " Caste
and that principle are at variance. Caste is the
very essence of Hinduism, and when it is destroyed,
Hinduism will fall.

CHAPTER XII.
AN OUTLINE OF THE HISTORY OF PROTESTANT
MISSIONS.
A great many centuries ago Syrian Christians
existed along the Malabar Coast (northwestern
coast of India). When Vasco de Gama, a Portu
guese navigator, went to India early in the six
teenth century, he found these Christians with
their own chieftain and their own distinct govern
ment. They were in no way connected with
Hindu rulers. To this day they have their priest
and bishop and Sunday service and liturgy, such
as the Patriarch of Antioch used, and are called,
wherever known, "St. Thomas Christians." The
Syriac Version of the Scriptures was brought to
India about A. D. 325.
The Portuguese planted a few mission stations
a number of centuries ago, and in 1642 the Dutch
began work in Ceylon. But what I wish more
particularly to speak of, are the missionary efforts
either within the past century or of those efforts
which led to the activity of the past century in mis
sionary work by Protestants.
To the Danes first belongs this honor. In 1705
two young Germans, Bartholomew Ziegenbalg and
Henry Plutschau, were sent to Tranquebar, a city
[148]

IROTESTANT MISSIONS. 1 49
about two hundred miles south of Madras (on the
southeast), to commence mission work among the
Hindus. These men were scholars and devoted to
their work. In those early days there were many
more difficulties to contend with than there are
now. Often they were in sore need of money, and
at one time Ziegenbalg was imprisoned for four
months. When he came out, he found that the
work he had been crystallizing up to that time, was
all broken up. But though cast down, he was not
destroyed, and with characteristic energy he began
his work over again. Six years after his arrival in
the country, he had completed a translation of
the New Testament into the Tamil language. His
literary and evangelistic labors were abundant, but
not of very long duration, for in 1^19 he died,
mourned by three hundred and fifty-five Christians
whom he had rescued from heathenism. The same
year three other new missionaries came and joined
the mission, among whom Schultz received the
mantle of Ziegenbalg. The latter had translated
the Old Testament as far as the book of Ruth.
Schultz completed it. He was not confined to
Tamil, but studied other languages, and translated
portions of the Bible into Telugu and Portuguese,
and the entire Bible into Hindustani. He began
work in Madras, and extended it to other towns
with a zeal which was consuming. In Madras,
after fifteen years of work, he had seven hundred
Christian persons in his congregation, to say noth-

150 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
ing of his work in Tranquebar (on the coast of
Madras) and elsewhere.
July 30, 1750, Christian Friedrich Schwartz
arrived in India. He was a man of deep piety,
great zeal, broad education, excellent judgment,
humble spirit, with but few wants, and with an
affectionate and loving nature. It is no wonder
that the people were drawn to him. The natives
loved and revered him, the Hindu king of Tanjore
(in Southern India) appointed him as guardian to
his adopted son, while the British government
appointed him arbitrator between itself and the
haughty Hyder Ali, who had taken possession of
the kingdom of Mysore and was spreading terror
in every direction. ' ' Let them, " says Hyder,
' ' send me the Christian Schwartz, for he will not
deceive me." The Tanjore mission was founded
by him, and mission stations all along the line were
greatly strengthened. The native Christians of
Tranquebar, Madras, Cuddalore, Trichinopoli,
and Palumcotta numbered fifty thousand when
Schwartz, "the apostle of India," in the year 1798,
after forty-eight years of uninterrupted service in
the mission field, died.
William Carey came to India in 1793. His field
of labor was far removed from that of Schwartz, as
he came at once to Bengal. It cannot be said that
he was really the pioneer in mission work in Cal
cutta, for Kiernander, a Dane, had preceded him,
and had met with some success. But the coming

PROTESTANT MISSIONS. I 5 1
of Carey was an important event in the history of
Protestant missions in Bengal, and in fact in all
India. When he first proposed to his brethren in
England the plan of giving the gospel to the
heathen, he met with but little sympathy. Still, in
the face of opposition, he succeeded in organizing
the Baptist Mission Society in 1792, and he was
appointed its first missionary. Almost from the
beginning of his work in India, he met with oppo
sition from the East India Company. To get to
India at all, ¦ he was obliged to come in a Danish
ship, as the Company refused him passage in any
of theirs. Upon his arrival in the country, he at
once began the study of the language, but as the
receipts of the society which sent him out were
very small, want was staring him in the face. He
went to the Soonderbuns, and thought to farm
some and at the same time instruct the people.
But the air of the Soonderbuns was poisoned with
malaria, and he was obliged to go elsewhere. He
accepted a position in an indigo factory in Malda
(about midway between Calcutta and Darjiling).
He remained here for five years, and during that
time translated the New Testament into Bengali,
and preached a great many times. In 1799 four
English Baptist missionaries (Marshman, Ward,
Brunsdon, and Grant) arrived in Calcutta, but
when they let their object be known, the gov
ernor-general determined to send them back to
England. They put themselves under the protec-

152 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
tion of the Danish governor, Colonel Bie, at Seram
pore (near Calcutta), who gave them help and
sympathy and also refused to surrender them to the
East India Company. Carey determined to leave
his work at the indigo factory and join them. Thus
began the work at Serampore, so famous in the
history of missions. Here the missionaries entered
into a compact to have all things common, and,
after purchasing a large house and printing-press,
went heart and soul into that work which has made
their names famous in history. Their time was
occupied in preaching in the villages and streets,
printing the Bible and portions of it in Bengali,
answering inquiries, and explaining the Christian
religion to those who came to the house to hear.
Their first convert was baptized in 1800, in the
presence of a vast concourse of people, and in
the following year they completed the translation of
the Bible in Bengali. Carey, on account of his
linguistic abilities, was appointed professor of San
skrit, Bengali, and Marathi in Fort William College,
first at a salary of $3000 a year, which was after
ward increased to $7500 a year, all of which was
thrown into the common fund of the ' ' Brother
hood " at Serampore, and which was of invaluable
help to them in their work. When Carey be
gan his lectures in Bengali as professor, there was
not a single prose work existing in that language.
Now there are thousands of volumes flooding the
Country.

PROTESTANT MISSIONS. 153
These missionaries set the noble example of put
ting their heel on the head of the serpent, caste,
at the very beginning. At the first communion
service the cup was given to a low-caste man
before it was to a Brahmin convert.
This chapter is designed to be no more than a
synopsis of the history of Protestant missions in
India. Sherring's History will give the reader
details of mission work, its rise and development
in different sections of the country, and the differ
ent fields of the different societies.
From these beginnings the work has extended,
and the methods these early missionaries adopted,
are the methods, with variations, in use at the
present day. From time to time other societies
both from England and America have planted
mission stations east, west, north, and south, until
there is at . the present time a network of centers
from Ceylon in the south to the Punjab in the
north, and from Assam in the east to the river
Indus in the west. It is true, vast numbers have
no intelligent idea of Christianity, and millions
have no idea at all except to know there is such
a religion, but the centers are occupied and the
light is radiating.
We have no statistics of an earlier date than
185 1. Then there were 91,092 Protestant native
Christians in India. In 1 881, or in thirty years,
they had increased to 417,372, and ten years later,
according to government statistics of 1891, to 559,-

154

DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.

66 1. It would be very interesting, if this were the
place for it, to give a brief outline of the forty-nine
societies now operating in the country ; tell the
field they occupy, the native and ordained agents
of each, and the Christian communities of each.
We will, for the sake of reference, group the cog
nate bodies together, regardless of the countries
from which they came, and give a summary of sta
tistics. The statistics of this table are condensed
from the statistical report of the last Decennial
Missionary Conference of India, given in 1890.

Name of Denomination.

Baptist 
Congregational 
Episcopalian 
Presbyterian 
Lutheran 
Methodist 
Moravian 
Woman's Societies 
Supplement 
Converts not connected with any of the
above societies 

Total .

So

49

o «
^ rt
= ¦2 ¦
1.0a
,0 c «
g bflbo
S3

129 76
203 149125
no

808

55 SO
u "-a
s> V
•S o >>.E
E > « «

640
666 119
5§4
413 677 23

4122

K.2

133,122 77,466
193,363 34,395
62,838 32»38l 398

150

559>66i

These figures speak for themselves. With this
army of intelligent, consecrated workers, and on
the side of God, what can they not accomplish ?

Top Row.— Dr. Burkholder, Dr. N. M. Phillip?, Dr. J. L. Phillips, 7.. F. Griffin. Dr. Mary Bacheler, Miss Butts, M. C- Miner, J. Rae, M. J. Coldren.
Second Row.— Mrs. Rae, Mrs. Griffin, Mrs. Piiillips, Dr. O. R. Bacheler, Mrs. Bacheler, E. C. Hallam, Mrs. HalUm.
Third Row.— Mrs. Burkholder, Mrs. Coldren, Mrs. Miner, Miss Coombs. K. B. Stiles, Mrs. Ager, Geo. Ager.
Children. — Burkholder, Griffin, Burkholder, Miner, Griffin, Griffin, Coldien, Miner, Griffin. *

A Group op Free Baptist Missionaries of Southern Bengal, 1893.

CHAPTER XIII.
MISSION WORK AND HOW CARRIED ON.
During the time I have been in India, I have
had the privilege of visiting a number of mission
fields besides our own, and have also had an oppor
tunity of observing their methods of work. I find
that most mission societies "work along on about
the same lines, so when I speak of our work, and
perhaps of some personal experiences, they may be
taken as representative of mission work in general
so far as methods are concerned.
Places where mission work is established, are
called either "stations" or " out-stations." A sta
tion is the place where one or more missionaries
live, where there is a Christian church, and usually
more or less of other lines of work. An out-station .
is a place connected with the station ; i. e. , under
charge of one of the missionaries of the station.
There may or may not be a branch church or a
school. There are lines of work in proportion to
the size of the place, and its importance. In nearly
all of the larger stations there is a native pastor,
as assistant to the missionary pastor. He is ordi
narily a faithful and competent man, except that
as a rule he lacks executive ability. In the church
the services are conducted, upon the whole, about
['55]

156 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
the same as they are jn their respective denomina
tions at home. In some of our churches all the
people sit on the floor on grass mats, while in
others the women sit on the floor, and the men
and boys on chairs and benches, while in still
others, and especially in the large cities, all sit in
chairs or pews. In our own mission the great ma
jority of the people in our churches sit on the floor.
This is the way they sit in their houses, so they
prefer it to any other position.
The service is conducted in the vernacular lan
guage of the place. There are one hundred and
twenty languages and dialects in India, so there
are that many languages, or nearly as many, used
in the services of the churches. In our mission
there are four Indian languages besides the Eng
lish used. The two principal languages are those
derived directly from the Sanskrit, and these, there
fore, are very similar ; namely, Bengali and Oriya.
Hindustani is a language which is generally under
stood by the better educated natives all over India.
This is used at times, and especially in preaching
to up-country pilgrims. The fourth is the Santali,
and entirely unlike these last three. It belongs to
another family of languages entirely, as the Santals
were among the -aborigines of the country, hun
dreds of years before the Sanskrit came into India.
Our churches are built either of brick or mud,
like buildings described in a previous chapter.
The windows are of plain glass, if there be any

MISSION WORK. I 57
glass windows. More often there is nothing in the
windows but heavy, strong shutters. The seats
are not upholstered, and the floor is not carpeted
save at times with grass matting, or large coarse
cloth spreads. In country churches usually, a tem
porary mat is spread just for that particular service.
The worshipers, as a rule, come dressed in clean
white cotton clothes. There is some exception,
but only enough to make a pleasing variety. Some
of the women may have on yellow or purple silk,
and some of the children bright red. A few of the
more wealthy men may have on a black or tussur-
silk chapkan.1 Those wearing the latter garment
will have on pantaloons, while the greater number
wear the diluted The cloth of the women, whether
it be pure white with a border of some bright color,
or silk, is the sari. s The women have some jewelry
on their wrists and fingers, and if vain and of
means, may have a heavy silver chain around the
hips. Let us stand, if you please, at the gate in front
of the church as the last bell on a Lord's-day morn
ing is calling the people to worship. See them
come from their homes, and file along the narrow
streets of their villages. Watch them as they enter

1 A long coat worn by the native men.
2 A cloth five yards long which is wound around the loins and
covers the legs to some extent.
s A cloth five yards long wound around the body, and coming over
the head.

I 58 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
the church until it is nearly or quite full. Let us
go in ourselves and look around. Here are the
men and boys on one side, and the women and
girls on the other. Perhaps we are surprised to
see them so separated, but we must remember that
among the Hindus the men and the women do not
sit together, nor eat together, nor walk along the
street together. If a man and his wife are travel
ing together, he usually walks before her, carrying
an umbrella over his head, while she comes be
hind. If there be a baby to carry, she has it.
Our native Christians cannot in a single generation
cast all their prejudices behind them, and sit with
their women folks on the floor. They are learning
more and more the true relationship of the family.
A generation hence we shall probably see them
all sitting together, but now we do not.
We shall see behind the desk the dark-faced
preacher, and hear him read from the same Book
we hear read in this country. Its precepts and
promises find the same echo in hearts there as here,
for like temptations and burdens come to them.
He lifts his heart and voice to the same God for
a blessing upon his flock. He prays for himself,
that he may be able to speak the word in plain
ness and in love, and with the fulness of the Spirit.
He reads a hymn. It may be a translation from
an English hymn, or written by one of the native
hymn-writers. The congregation all join in sing
ing the hymn, We are not used to their music, so

MISSION WORK. 159
it may sound discordant to us, and at times there
is discord ; but after we get used to their singing,
we rather enjoy it. The minister announces his
text, and preaches a sermon, good, bad, or indiffer
ent, the same as we may hear in America. Usually,
however, they preach with eloquence and fervor.
It would not always happen that the native pastor
would be preaching. If the missionary pastor were
in the station, he might be preaching. If we would
realize the benefits Christianity has conferred on
these people, contrast their appearance and char
acter with Hindus of the same social grade.
There are those among English officials who de
nounce missionary effort and native Christians. I
have seen some such. The trouble is, they have
not been looking for the best types. The story is
told of one such going home to England. On the
ship was also a missionary returning. The official
was not slow, in denouncing the native Christians.
" In fact," said he, " I have never seen a genuine
native Christian. " He had been a great sportsman,
and talked often of his tiger hunts and the number
he had shot. The missionary said to him one day,
"I have been in India twenty years, and have
never seen a tiger. You say you have seen many.
You have been in India five years, and you say you
have never seen a native Christian. I have seen
many. You have been looking for tigers, and I for
Christians. We have both found what we have
been looking for." All our native Christians are

l6o DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
not faithful. Sometimes they do not come to the
prayer-meetings and other social meetings of the
church. There are some who quarrel, and it is
not impossible to find those who will cheat, and
even lie. I have heard of such things in churches
in America, where for all our lives through we have
been taught of Christ and his precepts, and where
good influences instead of evil have surrounded us.
But while there are the unfaithful, there are also
the faithful ones. There are those who will suffer
as much persecution, and endure as many hard
ships, and are as abundant in labor, as those of
any land or in any age.
In every station there are more or less schools to
be looked after. There is no such thing as co-edu
cation except with very small children ; therefore
the Christian boys' schools and girls' schools are
separate institutions. There is a secretary for each.
There may be a separate one for each, or one per
son can be secretary for both. The secretary is the
important official in a school there. He has the
financial responsibility, pays the teachers, collects
the fees and fines, makes returns monthly to the
government of attendance and receipts from all
sources, etc.
The government is liberal in its grants to mis
sion schools, and is deserving of the thanks of all
missionaries. In consideration of these grants, it re
serves the right to inspect schools and prescribe text
books. It is better for the schools that they should

MISSION WORK. l6l
be subject to government inspection, for the teach
ers do better work, and the pupils have a better
standing. There is quite a large range of text
books, so that suitable ones can be had. I can say,
after having been secretary of a number of schools
for many years, that I never suffered inconve
nience, nor had my plans thwarted by government
interference. In our Christian boys' schools there
are always Hindu and Mohammedan boys as well
as Christian boys. Every morning our school was
opened with the reading of the Bible, singing, and
prayer. We cannot compel Hindu nor Moham
medan boys to be present at these, but as a matter
of fact, they are generally there, and frequently
take part in these exercises. The last year we
were in Balasore, a Hindu boy took the first prize
for proficiency in Bible study.
We aim to put Christian teachers in these schools
as far as possible, but it often happens that we can
get a better teacher among the Hindus than we can
available men in our Christian community. There
is a vast difference between putting a Hindu teacher
in one of our Hindu schools, and putting a Hindu
teacher in a Christian school under missionary su
pervision. A Hindu teacher in these little Hindu
schpols may in five minutes after the missionary
has left the school (after inspection), counteract
anything he may have said by explaining it away,
or making it apply to their religion. In a Christian
school it is very different. The teacher's work
ii

1 62 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
there is not to teach religion, but secular branches
of study. He in no way interferes with the religion
of his pupils. If he be a Hindu and should speak
against the Christian religion, there would be any
number of boys to report him. He would not
jeopardize his position by doing so. Besides, the
Christian boys in the school have other Christian
influences thrown about them in the home, and
Sunday-school, and church. To teach the prin
ciples of Christianity is not the object of the school.
The object is to give the boys a good education,
and for this purpose a good teacher is necessary.
I would say that we should put the best teachers
we can get in our Christian schools, but put only
Christian teachers in our little Hindu schools. The
object desired must govern our action.
Almost every missionary must spend from one to
three or four hours a day at his writing-desk. He
has quite an army of Christian workers, and with
each of these he must keep an account. If he is a
secretary of a school, he has all reports to look
after, and make out for the government, and to keep
the school accounts. He must make out his esti
mates for his work for the home society, and his
report to it. He has many personal correspond
ents. From all over the home land, more or less,
there are coming requests for something to read at
the mission society or the yearly conference. The
editors of our papers and magazines say some
times, and in fact, often, * ' Write us more articles. "

MISSION WORK. 163
Then in addition to this, many missionaries do a
great deal of literary work. School-books are
written, and tracts of different kinds in the ver
nacular, and translations are made from English
books. When we remember that when Carey
began his work in India a century ago, there was
not a single prose work in Bengal in the vernacular,
and no literature of a pure character at all, and
that now the Bible has been translated into almost
every dialect, and thousands of books and tracts
can be had, we can see that somebody has done
something in the literary line. Then also the mis
sionary has contributed to the literature of the
world by giving us works on science, philosophy,
religion, etc. , of not only India but all other coun
tries into which he has gone.
In almost every large station there is some at
tempt to teach the Christian boys and girls some
useful trade. These industrial schools, or an indus
trial department to the day-schools, are becoming a
necessity. The government is also seeing this, and
offering very liberal grants to efficient schools of
this kind. These are especially needed in Christian
communities, for we want Christian artisans as well
as teachers and preachers. Every preacher and
teacher ought to know how to do something more
than simply to preach and to teach. If the people
can get hold of this idea, a long step will be made
toward India's redemption. The people have been
in the habit of thinking that if a man is a clerk or

164 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
a teacher, he must not soil his hands with manual
labor. As a result, there are thousands with a good
education who have no employment, and are of no
use to society. The aim in establishing these in
dustrial schools is not only to teach a useful trade,
but to teach that manual labor, even for a preacher
or a teacher, is far more honorable than idleness.
Nearly -all missions have schools of a higher
grade, and some have theological seminaries and
colleges. Missions need the best trained men they
can get. Hinduism has able scholars, and Chris
tianity must be able to put men of intellect in the
field. It is still the "foolishness of preaching,"
but the preaching of such men as Paul had a won
derful influence on the heathen mind. Through the
schools of various grades our native Christians are
.pushing their way to the front very fast. In pro
portion to their numbers, they are outstripping all
others in government examinations. Through the
law of the ' ' survival of the fittest, " Christianity
must make its way. But we are not to conquer by
that slow and natural process, but by the might
of God's Spirit. A prominent place is given to
Sunday-school work, young people's meetings, tem
perance societies, meetings for mothers, teachers'
meetings, etc. No effort is being spared to put ¦
our Christians on a higher plane intellectually and
spiritually. Aside from the work for our native Christians,

MISSION WORK. 165
a great many kinds of work are being carried on
for the conversion of the heathen. There are
schools for poor Hindu children here and there
throughout the cities and towns. These are called
"ragged schools," but really they should be called
naked schools, for as a matter of fact, many of the
children come naked, or nearly so. You may find
these schools in various places, sometimes under
the spreading limbs of a banian-tree, sometimes
on the veranda of a house, and sometimes in a
house built on purpose for them. The teacher
may be a Christian man or woman, or a Hindu.
The pupils sit on the ground and with a hard kind
of chalk write on sand, or on a smooth board, or
on a slate. They write as the teacher gives them
the pattern. He makes the first letter of the alpha
bet, tells its name in a loud voice, and bids each
of them do the same. Their efforts at making it
are various, but they can all pronounce it in a loud
voice. So they sit hour after hour making the let
ters, and each time shouting in concert their names.
From the letters they go on to something more
complicated. These schools are, as a rule, under
the supervision of some lady missionary, and she
visits them as often as possible to inspect the work
being done, and teach Bible verses and stories and
the catechism.
The great event in the year with the children of
these schools, is the annual distribution of presents.

1 66 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
Friends from England and America send out dolls,
patchwork, and various other things so that this
occasion is made possible. Some lady of the sta
tion presides to distribute the presents, and the
superintendent reads out the names. When Phul-
mani, Malati, Sundari, Haramani, and many other
similar names are .called off, the possessor goes
forward to receive her present. It is almost need
less to say that on such occasions they are dressed
in the best the house can afford. When they re
ceive their presents, each makes a low bow, which
is about the only demonstration observed.
The work of the zenana teacher is important.
A glance at the life of these women and their
homes, will, I think, convince us of this. The
zenana in Bengal is the home of the high-caste
women. These women are married even before
they are women. At the tender age of eleven or
twelve years, they go to live with their husbands,
whom they may never have seen before, and in the
selection of whom they have had no choice. This
is done by the parents. The time for the wedding
is when the village astrologer says the sun, moon,
and stars are auspicious. It is a great time in the
home of the bride, the day she is married, for all
the relatives and friends must be feasted, and the
air is filled with the music of the village band, and
garlands of flowers adorn the house and premises.
But it seems to us that the happy days must be
over, when the marriage ceremony is over, for the

MISSION WORK. I67
little girl wife is put in zpalky1 and carried to the
home of her husband's father, which to her, is a
strange house. Here she is placed under the care
of her mother-in-law who may treat her kindly, or
who may not. If we can believe half we hear, the
latter is more likely to be her lot. Her husband
stands by his mother, rather than by his wife, so is
it any wonder that many days and nights are spent
in loneliness and crying ? Not only is there but
little joy in the home, but she is shut out from all
the beauties of the outside world, for she is a pris
oner now for life. The house may have a number
of windows, but they are high, and barred, and
there is but one outside door, which she must never
approach. From the court in the center, she can
see some grass "and flowers which may be growing
in it, and always the sky overhead, but that is all.
If she ever returns to see her mother's home, it
must be in this same palky, with a colored cloth
tied closely over it so she cannot even look out.
Until recently none of these women could even
read or write, as the Hindus did not think it nec
essary to educate girls. Our lady missionaries
wanted to enter these homes, and a way was
opened through the desire of the native gentle
men to have their wives learn fancy work. Mrs.
Mullins, of Calcutta, was the first to gain access to
these prison homes, by agreeing to teach the babu's
1 A long box with poles at each end, by means of which people
are carried on the shoulders of men.

1 68 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
wife how to make embroidered slippers, with the
privilege of teaching her, at the same time, to read
the Bible. That was the key which unlocked the
door, and it has remained open ever since.
If you were in a mission station at Midnapore or
Balasore, you would see each morning either a
large covered wagon or a number of native carts
coming to the home of the superintendent, and
from here start to the bazaars. Either all the
native Christian women teachers would congre
gate here or at some point on the road, where
they could be taken up. In these conveyances
they are taken down in the vicinity of the zenanas,
where they separate, going two by two into the
houses. They teach the women to read, write,
sew, and embroider. They must learn to read
before you can put good books into their hands.
The object of this work is not only to brighten
their lives for to-day, but to open the door of their
hearts for the entering in of the Light which will
help to brighten their lives all through the years
to come.
Each morning also you might see the superin
tendent starting off on her rounds to visit these
same houses. She must see that faithful work is
being done by the teachers, and look to the prog
ress of the pupils in secular and religious knowl
edge. This is her opportunity really to accomplish
the work which is uppermost in her heart — the
bringing of her pupils to Christ.

MISSION WORK. 169
Another part of the work is the sending out of
Bible women. These women are lay preachers
really, and go from house to house just as the zen
ana teachers do, only they do not go so much to
the homes of the rich, and their work is not to
teach reading and writing, but to evangelize. They
sit upon the verandas, or in the rooms, and read
the Bible, sing hymns, talk, and pray with the
women who gather around them. They find many
sad lives, but are sometimes able to inspire hope
by telling the story of Christ's life, and what he
came to do for those who accept him.
Connected with almost every mission is at least
one orphanage for both boys and girls. These of
course are separate, and the girls' are generally the
fullest, as people will always part with their girls
first. These are filled from various sources. Some
times the mother dies, and the father cannot care
for all the family. Sometimes both die, and the
children either hear of these homes for the home
less, and wander to them themselves, or some one
brings them. Sometimes the police find a child by
the wayside. In this way they come, and are pro
vided with a home, and are cared for and educated.
Some of our best workers come from these homes.
Bazaar preaching is also carried on in all the
larger stations, The bazaar, we must remember,
is the business part of a town, so bazaar preaching
is simply street preaching. This work is always
done in the evening, and for two reasons. One is,

170 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
it is cooler, and we can work with no fear of the
sun, and the other is, we can meet the people. The
principal meal of the day is eaten just before the
people retire at night, and they come to the bazaar
to buy food for this meal, and for the following
day's dinner. This is why we can find people in
the evening. There are also, in larger stations,
rest-houses for pilgrims where, for a few cents, they
may cook and eat and rest for the night, or even
at times for a few days. We may, therefore*
always meet more or less of these at our preaching
stand. The question has often been asked me, ' ' How
do you conduct bazaar preaching ? " In the station
in which we lived, Balasore, there were two prin
cipal bazaars, and in each of these we had a preach
ing stand. These stands were simply platforms
of brick-work, and situated in the most public
places in the bazaars. At about six o'clock I would
meet one or two of the native preachers at one or
the other of these stands. We might have with us
a man to sell tracts, or we might ourselves have
some. We would begin by singing a hymn, or
playing upon some instrument. The music would
attract the people, and from the shops near by, or
the market square they would begin to gather
around the stand. It might be pilgrims would be
passing, and hearing the singing, would stop.
When the singing was over, we might offer a short
prayer, or read a few passages of Scripture, or pro-

MISSION WORK. 171
ceed at once to address the. people. We must
always bear in mind that we are preaching to peo
ple who know but little, and often nothing, of the
Christian religion ; therefore, our preaching must
be simple and explanatory as a rule. If it would
attract attention, it must abound with illustrations.
This might serve as one : ' ' Midnapore is north of
us, and Cuttack is south. If you were walking
south, and wanted to go to Midnapore, what would
you do ? " The answer would come back from the
crowd, ' ' Turn around and go in the other direction."
Then you apply your illustration : ' ' Heaven is a
pure place, and God is pure, but if you are walk
ing in sin, you are going away from this pure place.
What must you do to go to heaven ? " " Turn
around. " Then we may tell them of Christ, who
is the way to the Father. Simple Bible illustra
tions and parables are always profitable. The
story of the prodigal son always arrests their atten
tion. Personal experiences are good, and espe
cially if some self-righteous, conceited young
Brahmin wants to argue. Tell the people how your
life, your hopes, your ambitions, your desires, have
all been changed. Tell them how, by accepting
Christ, he has saved you from the love of sin, from
the guilt of sin, and from the power of the evil one.
Now you may say, " Here is a young man who
says Hinduism is as good as any religion. Let him
get up on the platform, and tell you how it has
saved him from a sinful life, and changed the cur-

I72 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
rent of his life entirely." Of course he has no
experience of that kind, and usually he has noth
ing more to say.
We do not always have an orderly crowd. There
may be lepers there, who have business in view.
They catch your eye, and reach out their distorted
hands for a little money. Some man wants to sell
a cow or a goat by auction, and thinks that crowd
would be a good one to bid. You must tell him
that for the time being this is a preaching stand,
but when you leave, he can use it to auction off
his cow.
Some young men from the college who are study
ing English may want to tell what they have learned
against Christianity from Ingersoll's or some other
infidel works. Brahmin priests may be there to
oppose. Their craft is in danger, and they must
not sit quietly by, and see it destroyed. Pilgrims
are there. These have gone long journeys, seek
ing rest and freedom, and are weary and heavy
laden both with a sense of their need and the fa
tigue of the way. To invite such unto the One
who said, ' ' Come unto me, all ye that labor and
are heavy laden, and I will give you rest," is a
blessed privilege. Sometimes they come. All the
seed sown is not sown on good ground, neither is
it all wasted. As in the parable of the sower, so
it is here. I have known of a number of conver
sions as the result of bazaar preaching.
In many respects country work is the most en-

MISSION WORK. 173
joyable and inspiring of any work the missionary
has to do. As a rule, it is carried on in the cold
season. We already know what this is like. The
telling of our message to those who have never
heard it, adds new interest to the work. "How
is it conducted ? Tell us all about it," are ques
tions I have to answer often. When the rains are
over, and the fields are dry, we overhaul our tents
and put them in order, look over our books and
tracts, and order more if necessary, see what food-
supplies we have, and notify our native workers
when we are going to start.
Our carts are secured for a month, and are
brought to the house to be loaded. Our tent-poles
are tied under the cart, and a stretcher or cot-bed
put on the cover. Inside we put bedding, tents,
books, food, and water, a change or two of clothes
for ourselves, and many other things. Two or
three lanterns, and as many bottles of kerosene oil
will be tied to the slats of the cover. Each of the
native brethren has a box, with a blanket and a
shawl tied on the top of it, which he wishes to put
in some place. With difficulty you find a place for
these. The man who drives the bullocks has a
bundle of wood to cook the bullocks' food (and his
own), an old oil tin in which to boil it, a box, and
a bundle of straw. We readjust and get these in
or on. ' ' Are we ready to start ? " — No ; here
comes the cook, with a box of cooking utensils,
six chickens tied together by the legs, and his own

174 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
box. We offer a silent prayer for more grace and
patience, and with strings and twisted straw get
these disposed of. ' ' Now hitch on your bullocks,
and let us be off quickly, for it is getting very late."
Then the cartman comes, and asks for a little oil
to grease his cart. ' ' Have you not greased your
cart yet ? Why did you not grease it before you
loaded it ?." The question may have just a little
of an impatient sound in it, if we are not careful,
but we proceed to get the oil, for he tells us, ' ' In
this country it is the custom to grease carts after
they are loaded." We get two or three men to
help, the cart is greased, the driver lifts up the
yoke, and tells the bullocks to walk under their
burden ; he gets astride the tongue, gives each one
a blow, and we are really off.
The objective point is at first some bungalow,
or a village where there is none. If the latter,
we find some shady knoll if we can, and here
we pitch our tent and make ourselves as comfort
able as possible. Our native brethren have a tent
close beside ours. Before retiring, we ask them
into our tent, read a portion of the Word, and
each joins in prayer, and asks God's blessing upon
us and the work we are to do in the village. We
get in our cot, and tuck our mosquito-netting as
carefully around us as possible, for we do not want
any stray centipede or scorpion as a bedfellow.
We do not fall asleep at once, for there are many
sounds outside the tent. The jackal, which has a

IVllDoiun ,.v-  *75
keen scent for good things to eat, has come a
mile to get a bit of the chicken we may have
left from dinner. Half a dozen others are with
him, or he is calling to them from a distance.
His shrill bark is not conducive to sleep. The
dogs in the village — lean, cross, scabby dogs —
seem to think something unusual has happened,
and they keep up a constant barking. Not far
away is a village temple, and the priests and their
sons are singing from the sacred books. The music
is in a high key, and sounds like the song of the
plowboys. Is it the singing of priests, or the sing
ing of children in the Sunday-school ? Are we in
India or America ? Sometimes it seems like one,
and sometimes like the other, and we awake with
the sun shining through the opening of our tent.
The cook prepares us a little breakfast, and we are
ready for the work we came to do. We hail a
passer-by, and inquire for the head man in the
village. He tells us his name, and shows us where
he lives. We go and call on him. If he be a
friendly man ; *. e. , friendly to us, he will come out
and put his hands together, raise them to his fore
head, and make a low bow. Then he brings out a
piece of grass matting, and asks us to sit down.
The veranda on the outside is the reception-room
for all men who are not members of the family.
His name may be Hori Prasad Das. We talk to
him of his crops, cows, and children, and a few
things of this nature, and then perhaps ask him if

176 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
he would like to hear some good news. He always
likes to hear good news, and we tell him the best
news ever told the world : — -
' ' As you have sacred books, so do we, and our
book tells us of God, and how he created man, and
how man by sin went far away from God. It tells
us of God's great interest in man, and how he tried
to bring man back to him by sending his Son into the
world, who took our nature, and was tried and
tempted as we are, but did not sin. He had com
passion for the sinful and suffering, and did all he
could to help them. He gave the world the best
teaching it has ever received, and the people who
live the nearest these teachings are the best and
happiest. If all would accept him, and live by his
, teachings, it would turn our sorrowful world into a
heaven. At last he was sacrificed as an offering
for sin, and he arose from the grave, and now lives
to help all who want to come to him and follow
after him. He is the great Teacher, and he wants
us all to become his disciples." We talk like this
to Hori Babu, and while we are talking, many of
his neighbors gather in his yard, and sit down upon
their heels to listen. We may ask him if he would
not like to accept this Teacher as his teacher. He
would tell us, probably, ' ' What you say is very
good, .and those are certainly good teachings which
Christ taught, but if I should accept them, and be
come a Christian, my landlord would dispossess
me, and my wife would disown me, and my chil-

MISSION WORK. 177
dren would not call me father, and my people
would cast me out. " It is a difficult thing for poor
Hori, and yet some accept. Not at first, but after
repeated efforts. Then a little school is started in
his village, and a Christian man is put in it, and
they work with Hori's family and neighbors until
a church grows out of that . small beginning. In
this way little lights are being kindled here and
there, and they are growing larger, and penetrating
farther into the darkness around. Just when the
rays .from thousands of centers shall cross each
other, and all India be enveloped in the ' ' Light of
the world, " none of us know ; but the time is surely
coming, and may be much nearer than even the most
sanguine of us think. May God hasten the day !

12

CHAPTER XIV.
THE PROSPECT FOR SUCCESS.
A returned missionary lady was asked to pre
pare a paper in one of the recent May anniversaries
in London on the subject of " Discouragements in
Mission Work in India." She went on the plat
form, announced her subject, and simply ^ said,
"There are none," and sat down. There are
some, yea, many obstacles ; and coming events
so cast their shadows before, that it sometimes
seems darker than it really is. But the prospects
are as good as the promises of God. Let us glance
at a few of the hopeful signs : —
The opposition of the Brahmins is encouraging.
There was a time when they ignored missionary
efforts, or smiled at their futile attempts. They
were like men in a fortress gray with age, and
strong, who were watching a few pigmies trying
to batter down the walls. They said, like the
Samaritans who saw the Jews trying to rebuild the
walls of Jerusalem, ' ' What do these feeble Jews ? "
They said, ' ' Hinduism is old, and strongly en
trenched in the lives and customs of our people,
and we are a conservative nation ; therefore, what
will the efforts of these few missionaries amount
to ? " But their indifference has turned into oppo-
[178]

THE PROSPECT fUK duCCESS. I 79
sition in some places, and that of the most bitter
kind. Only a few years ago the Madras Hindu Tract
Society was organized to counteract the influence
of Christian tracts. It was not the purpose of this
society so much to set forth the excellences of the
Hindu religion, as it was to oppose the Christian
religion. Not very long ago in the city of Benares
a great meeting of the Brahmins and pundists was
called for the purpose of devising ways and means
to stop the progress of Christianity. It was first a
meeting of fasting and prayer, and then they en
tered into a discussion of their plans. They said,
' ' ' These that have turned the world upside down
are come hither also.' Their women enter our
homes, and are turning away the hearts of our
wives, and the teachers in the schools are pervert
ing, the minds of our children, and our ears are
filled with their bazaar preaching, and their books
and tracts are going as silent messengers into our
homes. Unless we adopt their methods, we shall
be left behind in the race." So they issue and
distribute their tracts, and preach in the bazaars
against Christianity, and often try to disturb us in
our preaching. They forget that it is the living
Christ and not methods which is the source of suc
cess. They may try to attach Christian methods
to a lifeless religion, but they cannot restore it
to life.
The people are becoming unsettled religiously.

l8o DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
They have the Brahmo-Somaj, the aim of which
is to reform Hinduism, and the Arga-Somaj, which
promises to restore to the people primitive Hindu
ism. Theosophy and sundry isms find here a hot
bed in which to grow. They want something they
have n't got, and are grasping for it here and there.
There is a feeling on the part of many of the
people that Hinduism is to die, and that Chris
tianity is to be the religion of the country. Often
in the bazaar while preaching, we hear this confes
sion, ' ' Christianity is to be the religion after a
time. " ' ' Why, then, will you not accept it ? "
"We cannot," they say, "come alone, but when
all the rest of the villages get ready to come, then
we will come. "
The more thoughtful ones know that there is no
power in Hinduism to elevate the people or to
make them better. I was once in my cold-season
work visiting a large village at the head of which
was a very intelligent man. In the course of a
conversation with him, I said, ' ' Babu, I want to
ask you a few questions about the Hindu religion. "
" Very well," he said, " ask anything you wish."
' ' Are your people more truthful than they were
many hundreds of years ago ? "
He replied, ' ' No, I do not think they are as
truthful. In fact, you can hardly find a really
truthful man. We have a proverb that says, 'If
a man will not lie, neither shall he eat. ' "
"Are your people more honest and upright in

THE PROSPECT fUK SUCCESS. 181
their deal than they were a thousand years ago ? "
" I do not think they are as much so. "You can
hardly find a man who will not take advantage in a
deal," he replied.
' ' Are your people more chaste and virtuous ? "
"There are very few pure-minded people," was
his reply. *
' ' How long has Hinduism prevailed in this coun
try ? " I asked.
' ' Three thousand years or more, " he 'replied.
' ' If you have had Hinduism for so many years,
and your people are getting no better, but, as you
confess, worse, when are they to be made better
by Hinduism ? "
He said, ' ' We have no hope for our people in
this age. Our sacred books tell us of an Age of
Truth, and when that comes, we shall be made
better." It gave me great satisfaction to say to him,
' ' The Age of Truth is already here. When Christ
came and began his great work, he said, ' I am
the way, the truth, and the life ; no man cometh
unto the Father, but by me. ' The Age of Truth
that you have been looking for is found in Christ,
and all that you hope from that age is found in
him." Caste is the great strength of Hinduism, and
those rules are evidently weakening. Caste is a
chain which was forged by the higher classes to be
put upon the necks of the lower classes. They are

1 82 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
finding out that the chain forged for the necks
of others, is a most galling chain upon their own
necks, and many of the more thoughtful ones
would be only too glad to have it broken. I was
once detained for two days in company with a na
tive gentleman in a small canal-boat, waiting for
the Calcutta steamer. I had with me my cook
and a basket of food, and he had a cook with him
and some native foods. Our meals were prepared
separately, but when brought in, we each shared
freely the food of the other. During those tedious
two days, we became very communicative, and he
told me freely of his family affairs, which were,
briefly, something like this : He had five daughters
and one son, and belonged to the caste next below
the Brahmins. The marrying of his daughters to
suitable men in his caste had cost him all he had
earned or could ever hope to earn, though he was
getting a splendid salary from the government.
The caste rules of the Hindus compelled him to
get husbands for his daughters in the same caste,
and these husbands brought a big price. If he
could go outside his caste, he would have no
difficulty, but as it was, he was bound hand and
foot. He denounced the system as galling and
iniquitous. The fact that he freely ate with me
showed how little he regarded it. At length the
steamer came along, and we found on board a
native deputy magistrate from Balasore. This was
early in the morning, before we had eaten our

THE PROSPECT FOK SuCCESS. 1 83
morning meal. I told my man to prepare me some
tea and toast, and then turned and asked these
two native gentlemen if they would not allow me
to have some toast prepared for them. Of course
they refused. I did not expose the man who had
been freely eating my bread the day before. Then
he was with me, and now he was with his fellow
caste man. We kept in this boat until we got to the
end of the canal at Gewakallie. As the boat was
not going up until morning, the deputy magistrate
and I hired a rowboat to take us across to Dia
mond Harbor, where we could get the train for
Calcutta. This was a ride of several miles, and
on the way supper time came, and each of us
brought out our lunch baskets. Now the gentle
man who so graciously refused my offer of food in
the morning, was ready to share with me the con
tents of my basket, while I helped him eat his native
sweets. In the presence of each other neither of
these native gentlemen would touch my food, but
away from each other, both would. So it is. Thou
sands of the educated people despise caste, and yet
they are held to its rules for fear of each other.
I called once on a native civil surgeon, who was
acting for the time being for our European civil
surgeon of Balasore. I said, ' ' I suppose, doctor,
you completed your medical studies in Europe."
He replied, " No ; fool that I was, I did not go to
England. I had a great desire to, but our caste
rules prevented it, and I observed them to my great

184 DAILY LIFE IN BENGAL.
detriment. I have put before me an insurmount
able barrier to any further promotion. I have
wished a hundred times I had gone in spite of
them ; in fact, it is a daily cause of regret. " When
such a feeling becomes general, caste will go, just
as their houses go after they are all eaten up with
white ants. Only a shell remains, which is ready
to crumble to pieces.
Our army of native helpers is a most encouraging
feature in the work. There was a time in the his
tory of every mission when there were no native
workers, and how the hearts of the missionaries
leaped for joy when they got perhaps only one or
two, and these of an indifferent quality ; but those
days are past. Every mission has some, and many
missions many of these. Some of them are edu
cated, talented men, and many of them are men
of zeal and deep piety, and would be an honor to
any pulpit in any country. One of our own native
preachers, Suchie Dananda Rai, I would be proud
to put in any pulpit in America if he could use
English as well as he can Bengali. In another
chapter I have spoken more at length on the differ
ent branches of Christian work carried on through
the help of these native agencies. Our native
Christians are pushing themselves to the front, and
it is only a question of time when they will exert
a great influence in the country. The Hindu must
be converted, or make way for the superior class
which is by the power of the gospel being raised
up out of their midst. \iis

A Group of Native Preachers. Oriya and Bengali

Presentation Address of Native Christians to Rev. T. H. Stacy,
Mission Secretary.

YALE UNIVERSITY LIBRARY

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