254 COOLIR TEMPLES. 



named after me; and I was glad to have my name connected, 

 even in so minnte an item, witli an institution wliich at all 

 events delivers children from the fancy tliat they can, without 

 being good or doing good, conciliate the upper powers by 

 hanging garlands on a trident inside a hut, or putting red 

 dust on a stump of wood outside it, while they stare in and 

 mumble prayers to they know not what of gilded wood. 



Tlie Coolie temples are curious places to those who 

 have never before been face to face with real heathendom. 

 Their mark is, generally, a long bamboo with a pennon 

 atop, outside a low dark hut, with a broad flat verandah, 

 or rather shed, outside the door. Under the latter, oppo- 

 site each door, if I recollect rightly, is a stone or small 

 stump, on which offerings are made of red dust and flowers. 

 Prom it the worshippers can see the images within. The 

 wdiite man, stooping, enters the temple. The attendant 

 priest, so far from forbidding him, seems highly honoured, 

 especially if the visitor give him a shilling ; and points out, 

 in the darkness^for there is no li^ht save through the low 



O CD 



doors^three or four squatting abominations, usually gilded. 

 Sometimes these have been carved in the island. Sometimes 

 the poor folk have taken the trouble to bring them all the 

 way from India on board ship. Hung beside them on the 

 walls are little pictures, often very well executed in the 

 miniature-like Hindoo style, by native artists in the island. 



