Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1878-12-04
Letters TO the Children..-NO o.

Ny REV. ). A, BATES woLcorr
Now for another visit TO some of these
temples. Here is a little one by the road.
side. 'Tis only little hut with mud walls
and palm leaf roof Within it is all dark.
Perhaps there may be little idol in it, but
more likely il is empty and once or twice
year they borrow an idol from some larger
temple to put into it for a few days. This
temple is under curious tree, with
gnarled, crooked trunk. The heather think
that all such trees are devil trees, or rather
that evil spirits live in them. So they build
temples under them, and offer sacrifices TO
the spirit to appease it, or to keep il from
hurting them.
There is another little temple out yonder in
the field, with a bell hanging on frame
near it. used to see it very often, and
think the only way they ever worshipped
there was by pulling the bell rope. | never
saw any one there except the COW boys who
watched the cows in the field, and they
seemed to take turns in pulling the rope, so
the old bell used to keep up its ding-dong
nearly all day, aud all night too. Yes, Tom,
there is another over among those trees. And
there is another down among those rice
fields. | remember riding by that one once
when we had had great rain, and the whole
low country was covered with water. The
mud walls Of that temple had been under
mined and had fallen down. Up there on
that little dry hill is one of our school-houses.
We had good meeting in it that day, and
one of the missionaries took for his text the
two houses Jesus speaks about in the seventh
chapter of Matthew. Read what he says
children, and see if it was not good text
for comparison between heathenism and
the religion of Jesus Christ.
There are a great many temples here.
think there are thirty within a mile of our
house. Most of them are small We will
go out and visit one of the larger ones. 1t is
built of the coral stone covered over with
plaster, so that it looks like white marble.
The main building is solid pyramid with
only one small room inside of it for the idols.
The outside of the pyramid is covered over
with all sorts of images of men, and animals,
and birds, and reptiles and monsters. Some
of them make Nellie laugh, but others are so
horrible they brighten her. They call them
all gods. Some of them have lots of heads,
and arms, and legs. saw one once who
had met with an accident One of his
Laal, L,1 aT
| of the Brahmin priests, and asked him if
that god was not dead. "Oh, no." he said,
ait does not hurt him at all" | tried to
get him to give me the useless head, but
did not succeed. However, his answer was
| just what wanted, for little while before
| | kicked off and carried away the head of
another idol, whose temple had been burned
down, and did not know but some one
would think | stole it. OF course it wasn't
stealing, was it, if losing his head did not
hurt him any? The principal idol of this
great temple is called silva" He is repre-.
Sented as a naked man, with three eyes, rid
ing upon a bull. They would let us go and
look in at him, ! suppose, if we should give
some money to the priests. But they would
say we gave it to the idol, and we do not
want them to think we worship that ugly
thing, so we will not go. Once year they
have great festival, as they cell it here, To
which thousands of the people come. Then
they will take the old idol out and give him
a bath, perhaps in rose water, or perhaps in
the water which has been brought from the
river Ganges, which is called very sacred.
Then they will put him into his carriage
cover him all over with flowers, and give
him ride around his temple. Yes, that i,
his carriage down in that shed close by. Not
very stylish, is it But it was made for use
you see, not for show. The old idol is rather
trotting gig His carriage looks like small
house, set on wheels made of thick planks oil
timbers. 1t will take at least one hundred
men to draw him, and then they go but a
few rods at time
You thought all the idols were small did
you, Tom Oh, those you have seen in Yer
mont are only such little ones as they have
in their houses here not the great temple
idols. But the old fellow that rides in thi.
carriage is not large in comparison with
others around here. Some of them have
stone carriages even they are so heavy that
wood would not hold them. | remember one
stone idol saw not many miles away. i
was like man sitting down, and as | rod,
up by him, on horseback, | think his heaC
was as much above mine as mine was abov,
the ground. But there are Others mucl
larger than that even. There is one here il
Ceylon that is forty feet long. Let me see
that would be about as large as our old Yer
mont house, children. But right across tn
water yonder, in Siam, is one | have real
about, that is like man, too, but one hun
bred and thirty-six feet high. Why that i
higher than our Vermont meeting-hous
steeple. Yes, and they say it is forty fee
across his shoulders, and that his grea
toe is one foot and half long, an,
that it is all covered over with gold-leaf, S
it looks like great golden giant as hig
as Westinghouse steeple. Wouldn't 20
like to see il Some of them are made @
solid gold even. have read of one fiftee
feet high, made of thick plates of gold wit
diamond eyes. do not suppose there ar
any golden ones around us here in Ceylor
Some of them are stone, and some are WOO
and some brass. | saw very pretty silve
. one out there in one of those villages onc'
At another time saw a man at work cary
ing out a wooden one, and near by anothe
person was gathering up his chips to max
a fire with. Can any of you children fin
place in the Bible that tells us about jus
such scene as that was
And how do they worship them 20
ask, In a great many ways. Most OF tn
idols here are said to be the children c
silva, who is called The Destroyer" and !
always represented as delighting in maxim
men suffer, So the poor ignorant peopl
are afraid of them, and bring offerings I
their temples, of fruits, or of chickens, or @
sheep, To keep off the fever or the sma
pox or the cholera. Sometimes they pu
their hands TO their foreheads, and boz
down to the idol and pray to it. Some G
them spend hours every day bowling an