5ee/y'« Wonders of Elora. 59I 



Would, for tlie sake of gossiping, of for religious purposes, l»y sprinkling 



whicJi tbey are immoderately fond, ruu holy water over it, were as ridiculous as 



after, visit, and listen to a missionary ; any thin? the Hindoos did; and as to 



tiut as to what tliey have heard, or what the sacrifice of the Hindoo, did not our 



they may have received, it has as much Koran contain a code of sacrifices, and 



eifecl upon their minds as the passing enjoin blood-offerings? He here stopped, 



hreeze. They are, as before observed, perceiving his Hindoo auditors were 



polite and decorous in their behaviour to getting fiilgety, and the blood quitting 



strangers ; they will make professions, their cheeks at the mention of a book 



f<tr they are adepts at dissimulation, and being recommended to them that eii- 



perfect at flattery. I have seen a joined thesacrifice of <»k//oc/w and heifers. 



Hindoo most devoutly listen to a dis- A silence of some minutes ensued, when 



course, beg a tract, and,*on his return to I asked them, Did not they think the 



Ilia village, leave it on the threshold of Psalms of David (Daood) were beautiful 



the door of the temple, and fall down compositions? They, one and all, re- 



with his forehead on the floor, and wnr- plied, "Very fine, indeed ; but look at 



ship the image of that ugly fellow Ga- the morality of the man, the seduction 



nesa! On my expostulating once on of Bathsheba, and the murder of her in- 



this impropriety with a convert, he re- nocent husband : and did not the son of 



plied, " My father did the same, and he David go to his own sister? And does 



was more prosperous than I am. The not the Koran (Bible), which the 



liopes and promises held out to me by Englisii so much exalt, abound with 



the Padree (clergyman) have not been incests, fratricides, scoflings at Rha- 



fulfillcd ; and one of your Bnrra Sahibs gavan, defilements and mur<iers, burn- 



(?:rcat men) h;is lately broken a com- ings and plunders? I suppose," he 



mandmeut (alluding to a cr«m. c«rt. just continued, "it is these circumstances 



taken place, happily an event of rare which cause so many sects and so much 



occurrence in India); so, why may not schism in jour church. One of your 



I? Besides which," he a(lde<l,"Ganesa own sects, and tolerated by you, and 



is olJendejl with me; and I uill bofh with whom you live on terms of friend- 



prav to Ganesa, and listen to the Padree!" sliip, go further than our Malmmedans 



There is liMle or no honour in the few do — for they deny the divinity of Christ, 



that have been converted. By far the With such an example among your- 



greater part are of the very dregs of the selves, and the scepticism known to be 



people, who, having by some misde- prevalent in Ihe minds of many of your 



mcauur lost their rank in society, or own wise and learned men, how is it 



f»een born in a degraded and abject possible we should receive tlie docrines 



."State, become Christians, by which they you wish, without opposition, and, at 



fancy they are entitled to many good 

 things; and they well know, thai, in 

 tpritting their original caste, they cannot 

 •jhange for the worse- — so tlicy " profess 



the same time, a thorougii conviciion of 

 the fallibility of what jour Padrecs pro- 

 pose ?" 



I simuld consider myself guilty of 



and call themselves:" but about the great dissin)ulation and dishonour, did 1 



obligations of Christianity, and the not repeat with fidelity the ideas of the 



duties imposed by it, they are as igno- superior orders of the natives ; for, till 



rant as th(! wild ass, 1 recollect once those persons are |)erfectly and radically 



a Siphauee being flogged and drummed converted, there is as little probability 



«>ul of the corps for theft: one of his or possibility of the inferior onlers fol- 



former (iompanions, young in the service, lowing, as there is of the disciples of St. 



and under a niislaken notion regarding 

 corporeal punishment, observed to him, 

 " \'ou have now lost jour easle." 

 "Have 1?" replied the other; "then I 

 can always turn Christian." 



Peter at Rome giving up the Roman 

 Catlwdic faith. Far easier would be 

 Ihe task of ctonverting the multitude in 

 I'iUgland to any particular faith than the 

 Hindoos. No per>ple in the world have 



But, to return to our conversation at such deep-roote<l and inveterate preju- 



Shah Safit's, no one point eoidd I ifain dices as them ; and never were a people, 



with either iVIussulnian or }Iindoo. whose conversion was attempted, ever 



One of the former said our throwing attacked with weaker weapons, or more 



wafer on the fae.c of an infant, wjtiiont unfit assnilants, than those empiojed at 



which cerernonj it could not be ;i Chris- the pre ent day, 

 liiin, and the conHceration of ginninl, 



Mo.NriiLV AI v(;. No. ,VM. 



4G 



