Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-12-04


street. / presume II call out for Aroo-
moogan, at least two of thom would answer
10 the name. II means "six faces" and is
the name of an idol, but very common
name for boys here. Most of these poor
people give one-tenth of all they receive to
the idol The farmers set apart one-tenth
of their rice and other crops, and then give
besides the first fruits that ripen, or are
harvested.
The children are taught to carry the
banana or the cocoanut, as soon rs they are
big enough. And the first word many a
heather baby learns TO speak is not papa
or mamma" but the name of some ugly
old idol.
There is one temple near here where one
man has for many years offered one thou
sand cocoanuts at the annual festival When
the idol is taken out for his ride he has a
large stone laid beside the path, and near
by great heaps of cocoanuts. When the idol
car comes along it stops for while near the
stone, and the old blacksmith takes the
nuts and dashes them in pieces, one after
another, on the stone. Do you suppose the
idol comes down out of his carriage and gets
the nuts He has feet enough-four of
them and four hands, too. Then he has
big mouth. But no, he does not move at
all. The poor hungry people crowd around
the stone, and grab the pieces as fast as they
fly off, and so they get good dinner. But
| suppose that'great strong man who breaks
them all thinks that the reason why he does
not die of fever or cholera or small pox, is
because he smashes those cocoanuts there be-
fore the idol Most of the offerings at the
temples go to the Brahmin priests, who are
the keepers of the idols.
Another way in which they worship their
idols is by rolling over and over in the dirt
after the idol car as it goes around the
temple. How it would make you laugh at
first to see perhaps fifty men lying down
and rolling after the car. Perhaps there
are fifty more who are measuring their
length as they call it, after them. They
lie down and stretch out their hands, and
make mark as far as they can reach. Then
they get up and put their feet in that mark,
and mark again, and so on till they get
round Sometimes they torture themselves
to please the idol god, but not so often now
as they used to. They used to put sharp
spikes under their feet and walk around the
temple, or run the spikes through their
cheeks or their tongues and keep them there.
Or they used to have a sharp hook put
through their bodies, and then be swung
around the post by rope tied to the hook.
But the English government now Furnishes
any one who helps iIf such things so they
do it secretly, if at all.
These poor heather worship other things
besides idols. The snakes, especially the
cobra or hooded snake, are called sacred.
So are the monkeys. The COW is also very
sacred, as they think A Christian one day
was talking with Brahmin priest, when
large hawk flew near them, and the priest
lifted up his hand and prayed to the hawk,
calling it the king of birds, and the carrier
of Vishnool Z" Vishnoo is one of their idols.
Dut, chiluren, 90 not tnlnk III Is strange
that people who have not our Bible worship
idols. Do you know that our ancestors used
to be heather? Ask your teachers why we
call one day of the week Sunday and an
other Monday, and another Thursday; and
you will see what we should be doing now
if our kind Heavenly Father had not given
us the Bible to tell US how to worship him.
Ought we not all to love him, and ought we
not to do all we can to send the Bible to
these poor heather in Ceylon
One more letter will make the ten our good
friend, the editor of the WATcHMAN, said |
might write to you, aud in it | am going to
ask you to go and see what we are doing for
the people of Ceylon, by visiting a school.