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HINDOO UNDER A VOW.

curiosity of the people seemed roused, and they kept me employed the whole day in reading and speaking to them; many listened attentively to my detail of the main facts and doctrines of the Gospel.

In the course of the forenoon, an old man with a head and beard of shaggy grey hair, brought me a present of flowers and pomegranates; the latter were of the best I ever tasted. I followed him to his hut in a garden, whose produce, he said, was the whole subsistence of himself and family, except what he received as alms. I asked why he did not shave; he said, he had a vow upon him, made in sickness five years ago, to present the sum of five pagodas (about £1. 15s.) if he recovered, to the temple at Tripetti, which he had not been able to perform, and until he had performed it, it was not lawful for him to shave or dress his hair.* I endeavoured to persuade him, that all the good he had ever received must have proceeded from the one true God, the only proper object of worship, who could not be pleased by any observances which gave his honour to graven images.

I distributed several tracts in this place; with the Prayogithen, or astrologer of the village, I left a copy of the Gospels and Acts, in Teloogoo, and with another person, St. Matthew's Gospel, in Tamul.

In the evening we travelled on to Tricaloor, and found a good bungalow, in which to pass the night and to enjoy the following day, which being Sunday I had determined should be a day of rest from travelling both to my bearers and myself.

* Is not this illustrative of what is referred to in Acts xxi. 23?

CHAPTER XVIII.

DECEMBER 1823.

Tricaloor-Tamul service-Young native-Rohonautachariar-Disputation-Brahmin village—Pillirombatti— Palacheri-Attention and desire of Natives-Distress occasioned by drought-Salem-Tumuli—Sheravaraya

Hills-Ascent-Houses-Climate-State and character of natives-Difficulty of procuring provisions—Tulasiwillie-Temple of Sheravaraya-Villages-Post and Banghy-Conversations with natives-Native singing -Descent from the Hills-Salem.

In the morning of Sunday the 14th, I rose refreshed, and very thankful for all the mercies I had hitherto experienced on this journey. I walked out to look at the temple which is very large; on the whole, Tricaloor seemed a place of more importance than I had imagined. Several peons visited me; the head peon was very polite and complimentary; he said, they expected the Padre's (Missionary's) coming would give them some rain, of which the country was so much in need; there was indeed more appearance of rain than there had been for a considerable time.

At ten o'clock, I collected my bearers and others as a congregation in the bungalow, and though all heathens except one, they were very attentive, as were also some standers by, whilst I read and talked to them about an hour. I could hardly help smiling at the humble, simple look of the only native Christian in the company, when he found he made himself the object of attention and curiosity by

180

INQUIRING BRAHMIN.

repeating after me aloud, the confession and the Lord's prayer; the poor fellow could neither write nor read, and from fear, I believe, of making mistakes, made several. A young native of some literary acquirements, who at Wallajahbad had prevailed on me to allow him to accompany me as reader and amanuensis on this journey, after considerable reading and conversation, this day expressed his wish to become a Christian. I advised him to read and pray, that he might obtain the necessary information and decision of character, reminding him of the consequences of taking the profession of Christianity. I was not quite satisfied as to his motives and sincerity. He travelled with me several weeks, and after I returned to Madras, corresponded with me from Bangalore, where he had procured a situation. I saw him last in Madras, where he had some engagement in the college, but still remained an idolater; he is one of many instances in which I declined administering the initiatory rite of baptism to persons who wished to unite themselves with us, lest their instability or insincerity should bring a disgrace on the cause.

About noon, I was visited by Rohonautachariar, a young brahmin of some respectability: he came on horseback, and had a long poled parasol of red silk, two or three times as large as an umbrella, held over his head by an attendant, who walked by the side of his horse.

He

professed to be better acquainted with Sanscrit than with any other language, but received a tract in Teloogoo, and the Gospel of St. Matthew, in Cannada. There was a degree of honesty and candour in his countenance and bearing, that quite attached me to him. After we had conversed some time, he asked my opinion of idolatry, and listened very attentively without attempting to controvert what I advanced. He said, he had never before been acquainted with the nature of Christianity; and, as he went

DISPUTATION-BRAHMIN VILLAGE.

181

away, invited me to his house, saying, he would send me word when he was at home, as he was now going about some business which might detain him.

In about two hours he returned, with two of his brahmin friends, one of them past middle age, of an honest open countenance; the other was bold, quick and very disputatious. We had a long conversation on the nature of God, of the soul, of true happiness, of heaven, of sin, and of the torments of the damned. The young and the old brahmin seemed pleased with my arguments, and if they said any thing it was by way of inquiry; but the disputatious one kept up the argument as long as he could with propriety. I found it of great advantage, not to allow him to wander from the point in dispute, which the natives are very apt to do, and to remind him of what he had himself admitted. At last he acknowledged that I was perfectly right, and said that the same doctrines were to be found in some of their Shastras, but that they contained opposite doctrines too, which must also be received. I endeavoured to point out the folly of embracing contradictions; I spoke of the doctrine of atonement; and contrasted the powerless and inefficient observances and ceremonies of the Hindoos, with the provisions of the Gospel of Jesus Christ. They were very attentive, and appeared struck with my earnest and serious manner.

I then walked with them to their own village, about two miles distant, and endeavoured, by the way, to apply what they had heard and admitted to be reasonable and good, and to shew them the beauty and consistency of truth. Their houses were very respectable brick buildings, with flat roofs; they had spacious verandahs in front where they received me, and where a considerable crowd of men soon assembled; the women and girls, most of whom had probably never before seen an European, peeped out of the doors, or leaned and listened from the house tops. I pro

posed that we should read and converse about a Teloogoo tract on Regeneration; it was read and entirely approved. Having been with them about an hour, I prepared to leave them, but not before I had reproved the gross flattery and impiety of one of them, who, quite in consistence with their pantheistic notions, told me that I was the Supreme Being. They would not let me depart without receiving a brazen dish full of the betel leaf and areka nut, which are chewed by the natives, and which I handed to the bearers who had followed me—and a quantity of native sweetmeats, which were far from disagreeable. They gave me a general invitation to come and see them whenever I should again pass that way. Several of them accompanied me out of their village, and I did not leave them before I had exhorted them to forsake their lying vanities, and turn to that one true God whom they had now in words acknowledged.

What a blow would it be to heathenism, if the population of a brahmin village like this, should be converted to the faith of Christ: but how hardly can this be? Their pride of caste forbids it; those who embraced Christianity would be cast off by their friends, and families, and as their present income is derived from houses and lands given to them in consideration of their performing certain duties in connexion with idolatry, if they forsook the one they must lose the other, and most probably be reduced to poverty and want. However I could not but hope, that the information and books I had given them, would lead to inquiries and discussions that would not be without their use.

On Monday morning we travelled on to Pillirombatti, through a country for the most part uncultivated, and covered with wild and luxuriant jungle. The greater part of that which was cleared for cultivation, and which this month should have been covered with a crop ready for the