16 THE GOSPEL AND THE PLOW * 



almost negligible in India as compared with the im- 

 proved farm lands in America. The family of the In- 

 dian tenant farmer usually plans for one meal a day. 

 During part of the year this meal is often uncooked and 

 consists of millet soaked in cold water, or a pulse parched 

 in hot sand and eaten a grain at a time. When pulse is 

 cooked, it forms pigeon pea-soup, which is seasoned with 

 spices, red peppers or chilis. Into this soup are dipped 

 the cakes of unleavened bread which have been cooked 

 over a small fire of dried cowdung. This unleavened 

 bread usually is made from the cheaper grains, since 

 wheat is, as a rule, too expensive for these poor villagers. 

 The strict upper-caste Hindu is a vegetarian, but the 

 low-caste man with whom Hinduism is little more than 

 a thin veneer, will eat any meat, except that of the cow 

 or ox. Under the influence of caste the outcastes have 

 organized themselves into castes with all the limitations 

 thereof. One of these low-castes will eat the flesh of the 

 cow, provided they have not killed it. Once the animal 

 is dead they ask no questions as to the manner of its 

 death, whether from disease or old age, but cook it and 

 eat it. Sometimes they do not cook it. 



I remember a little girl of about fourteen who was 

 working on the Mission farm clearing out the cowstables, 

 earning four cents a day. We have no difficulty in get- 

 ting all the labor we need because we pay more than the 

 market rates, work is regular, full pay is there on pay 

 day without fines or deductions. 



This girl was married and rejoicing in her first baby 

 boy. I noticed that after the work oxen had gone out 

 to plow this little Indian mother would lay her dear 

 little brown baby son in the manger, just as once another 

 Little Baby was laid in a manger. She would fill her 



