EXCURSION TO MAUHES AND ITS NEIGHBORHOOD. 309 



part, of the church is wholly unfurnished, except for the 

 rough wooden font standing just within the door. But 

 the farther end is partitioned off to make a neat chancel, 

 within which several steps lead up to the altar and niche 

 above, where is placed the rude image of the Mother and 

 the Child. Of course the architecture and the ornaments 

 are of the coarsest description ; the painting consists only 

 of stripes or lines of blue, red, and yellow, with here and 

 there an attempt at a star or a diamond, or a row of 

 scalloping ; but there is something touching in the idea 

 that these poor, uneducated people of the forest have 

 cared to build themselves a temple with their own hands, 

 lavishing upon it such ideas of beauty and taste as they 

 have, and bringing at least their best to their humble 

 altar. None of our city churches, on which millions have 

 been expended, have power to move one like this church, 

 the loving work of the worshippers themselves, with its 

 mud walls so coarsely painted, its wooden cross before the 

 door, and little thatched belfry at one side. It is sad 

 that these people, with so much religious sensibility, are 

 not provided with any regular service. At long intervals 

 a priest, on his round of visitations, makes his way to 

 them, but, except on such rare occasions, they have no 

 one to administer the rites of burial or baptism, or to 

 give religious instruction to them or to their children. 

 And yet their church was faultlessly clean, the mud floor 

 was strewn with fresh green leaves, and everything about 

 the building showed it to be the object of solicitude and 

 care. Their houses were very neat, and they themselves 

 were decently dressed in the invariable costume of the civ- 

 ilized Indian, the men in trousers and white cotton shirts, 

 the women in calico petticoats, with short, loose chemises. 



