THE MISSIONARY'S AVOCATION 111 



cines, servants, had to be provided. Even with the en- 

 larged sum of two dollars per month for each leper, I 

 had my troubles in keeping the lepers reasonably well 

 fed, and decently clothed with proper medicine and ser- 

 vice. So many of the lepers have lost all their fingers, 

 sometimes the whole hand clear back to the wrist, that 

 it is obviously impossible for such a man to do his own 

 cooking, so I get some other leper to do the cooking for 

 this one and pay the cook about seven cents a month 

 for his extra work. Each man gets four yards of cot- 

 ton cloth, forty inches wide, which costs about sixty 

 cents, a year for clothing. This is his morning suit, his 

 afternoon suit, if he has any evening engagements, it 

 is his glad rags, when he goes to bed at night it is his 

 bed sheet. Among the lepers of India it costs more to 

 correctly gown a lady than it does to clothe a gentle- 

 man, for, in northern India, in order to conform to social 

 custom a woman must have her head covered. So instead 

 of four yards of cotton cloth it takes six yards for her. 

 This she winds around, making a skirt of it, then brings 

 it up over one shoulder and under the opposite armpit, 

 making a shirtwaist out of it, and then it goes up over 

 the head making the ''Chaddar" or head covering. 

 With this one piece of cloth so arranged she is dressed, 

 ready to go anywhere. With so little clothing it is very 

 difficult for the men and women to keep clean and I am 

 therefore deeply grateful to the many friends in Scot- 

 land, the United States, Canada, Australia and New 

 Zealand who have at various times sent us bundles of 

 shirts for the men and middy blouses for the women, 

 and mufflers and socks for both. These we give out at 

 Christmas and always feel sorry that we don't have 

 enough to go round. Several times my wife and I have 



