112 THE GOSPEL AND THE PLOW 



been threatened to be mobbed by the disappointed ones 

 who failed to receive a garment at the Christmas treat. 

 A blanket which now costs about two dollars is issued 

 every second year. Medicines and bandages will aver- 

 age about thirty cents a month for each leper. The 

 wages of the doctor, the compounder and hospital as- 

 sistants, servants, washermen and the sweepers or scav- 

 engers use up most of the rest of the money. I used to 

 issue all food to the lepers. I soon learned that I knew 

 so little about Indian food and what the people liked that 

 I was in constant trouble. After talking it over with 

 the lepers, it was decided to give each leper about a 

 pound of grain a day. Some prefer wheat, some rice, 

 some millet and some a mixture of barley and peas. 

 Whatever they preferred, they had. At their request 

 I built in the asylum a little country store and one of 

 the lepers was put in charge as storekeeper. In this 

 store was kept the many different kinds of pulse, spices, 

 curries and condiments that make Indian food so won- 

 drously tasteful and so marvelously indigestible. After 

 having provided clothing, medicines, servants and the 

 grain ration, it worked out that there was about eight 

 cents a week left for each leper to spend at the store. 

 This was given to him on Saturday morning and he 

 could spend it in any way he liked — ^buying any luxur- 

 ies that his fancy dictated and that could be bought at 

 the rate of one cent per day. It was one of the social 

 events of the day for the leper to go and do his shop- 

 ping. One cent in North India does not buy any more 

 than one cent in North America but Indian merchants 

 are in the habit of selling smaller amounts of commodi- 

 ties. The anna, value two American cents, breaks up 

 into twelve **pies" so that with one American cent a 



