662 KANSAS CITY REVIEW OF SCIENCE. 
upon us, all things are caused, "nothing walks with aimless feet." The dear old 
myths have come back, and with them troops of things, not as sober fact, how- 
ever, but as the ruins of fact. What stone implements and old ruins are to the 
archaeologist, so are old wives' fables and folk customs to history. How delight- 
ful, in this age of love for 
" Old wine to drink, old books to read. 
Old wood to burn, old friends to heed," 
to find that in the earnest desire for old things the search for the origin and rela- 
tionship of old ideas and customs is not neglected. 
In no part of the world are there so many interesting relics of antique 
thoughts and customs as in Hindostan, and the British have not been backward 
in noticing the fact. From the days of Sir William Jones to the present moment, 
there has been an unabated interest in the light which the every day speech and 
fashion of India could throw upon much that is obscure in our own civilization. 
There are now published in Madras, Bombay, and Calcutta journals of great 
value, and another has just been started in Allabahad, in the Panjab, which will 
be devoted to the systematic collection of authentic notes and scraps of informa- 
tion regarding the country and people. 
Now, the proper spirit in which to approach such a study is not that which 
most people indulge in matters of this kind. No doubt, a Thibetan working his 
mani, or praying machine all day long, keeping it going with one hand while he 
does his work with the other, is an object of derision to all thoughtless people. 
To the student who knows that the web of human history is continuous, such 
things become of absorbing interest. 
The Ramayana is the ancient Sanscrit epic in which are recorded the lives of 
Rama and his wife Sita. Bal Mik Rishi, better known as Valmiki, who wrote 
the Ramayana, was a great hunter before he turned his thoughts to religious mat- 
ters. Holy men preached to him and then he felt himself to be a great sinner. 
The holy men studied hard to invent a penance in proportion to his former sins. 
Said they : The most appropriate penance would be to make him repeat the 
words Ram, Ram, but that would never do, so holy a name as that would not 
come out of the mouth of such a sinful man. We have it : he shall say Mra, 
Mra, which really comes to be Ram, Ram, if you say it fast enough. So the 
holy men told Valmiki to keep on saying Mra, Mra, until his sins were all gone. 
They went on their way, and did not think of Valmiki for several years. After 
this long period the holy men passed that way again, and being tired with the 
journey they sat down on a huge ant-hill to rest. When they were very quiet, 
they noticed a strange buzzing inside the ant-hill. They all laid their ears to the 
ground at once, and heard faintly issuing from the centre of the hill, Mra, Mra ; 
Mra, Mra. The holy men simultaneously straightened themselves up, and 
coming to their senses, exclaimed in a breath "it is the sinful hunter to whom, 
years ago, we gave these words as a penance." They lost no time in digging 
Valmiki out of the ant-hill, and taking him into their company, saw him become 
