MRZA ZU-L-QARNAIN, A CHRISTIAN GRANDEE. 153 



selves to this small flock as much as if the Christians were many. Hence it is that 

 they are well instructed in the Catechism/ and in the mysteries of our holy faith ; and 

 rare is the Christian who misses Mass on days of obligation. Many hear it even on 

 week-days; and, besides going to confession annually, they confess and communicate 

 many times, chiefly on the feasts of Christ, Our Lady, the Apostles, and other chief 

 Saints of the year. 



"For many years that we were in that Mission, up to the death of our Brother 

 Mirza Zulcarne, the Fathers were four in number, because one was always accompany- 

 ing him wherever he was going with the King, while the other three were fixed in our 

 College of Agra. Every Sunday and Feast-day, one of the three, who managed the 

 things of the Church, explained the Doctrine, 1 not only to the children, but to the 

 rest as well, instructing them in the mysteries of our holy faith. The three days of 

 Holy Week are very devoutly kept in the Church there. The Church is situated 

 within our enclosure, and the men enter by the common gate, while the women enter 

 by a private door {porta /alga) opening near the sanctuary (capella mor). s On those 

 days there are two sermons (estagoens) : one on Maundy-Thursday, the other on Good 

 Friday ; and it happened, when I was there, that a Father preaching in Portuguese 

 on the Descent from the Cross, all the Christians were so deeply moved in conse- 

 quence, and there was such a flood (lit. monsoon) of tears, that the Moors living near 

 our gate were attracted by their sobbing and came running to the gate to ask what 

 the weeping was for, to which the Porter answered that it was a certain custom of 

 ours, and of the Christians when they were within doors. On all Fridays of Lent, in 

 the evening, an instruction on the Doctrine, adapted to their intelligence, is given to 

 those Christians; this is followed by [considerations on] some mystery of the Passion, 

 and the proceedings conclude with a very devout procession in which a crucifix is 

 carried along within our garden and enclosure (cerca e crastas). And I assure you that, 

 when I saw this the first time, my eyes filled with tears, and inwardly I said to God : 

 c O Lord, how this small procession (moving along to the singing of the litanies of the 

 Saints) must please Thee more than the pompous Friday processions of Goa, which so 

 many people run to see. (What is most remarkable is that we do all this to the beard 

 and in the Court of the Mogol King.) The glory be to Thee, O Lord, who allowedst 

 this in the very midst of those who profess the law of Muhammad. ' The greater part of 

 the Christians of this Christianity are very poor. Possessing no lands to cultivate, — for 

 everything belongs to the King, — they get their living by serving some Christian 

 Armenian merchants, Englishmen, and Dutchmen, or by following some trade which 

 they know, as that of embroiderers, surgeons, etc. The costume of the Christians of 

 Mogol is that of the country: the cabaya, reaching down to the knees;* trousers up 

 to the heels, and a turban. As a mark and token of the Christian law which they 



1 A Persian-Hindustani catechism was composed by the Fathers in or about 1611. 



2 i.e , the Catechism. 



3 The Fathers must have lived in the actual compound of the Catholic Cathedral of Agra ; the Church iu Fr. 

 Botelho's time must have been the old Cathedral (now the Native Chapel) ; as for the house, I fancy it is embodied in 

 the present house of the Capuchin Fathers. 



* The surcoat or long tunic of muslin. Cf. Hobson-Jobson, 1886, p. 105. 



