Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1879-10-01
Letters 10 the ChiIdren..-N0. Ia.

too, and here we are back again in our old
Chavagcherry home. The sun seems to shine
more brightly than ever and the fields are
again dry aud dusty. But the fevers which
were so common all around us have been
checked by the pleasant weather, and now
it is good time for our missionary work
So tonight we will go out and make some
calls. | want you to become acquainted
with some of the children of our neighbors
here IN Ceylon. so we will go and see them
in their homes. Yes, little Nellie may go
too, for we will go and call on two little
girls tonight. Down this long lane we go
in single file, for it snot very wide Strange
fences these would be in Vermont, Tom
great fans six feet in diameter, tied on
couple of poles and set up edgewise There
are some prettier ones made Of cocoanut
leaves, with the leaflets braided together.
Now through this gate and under this long
row of cocoanut trees. These belong to the
father of the little girl on whom we will
make our first call. Here is the house. How
ciodu uue ydru ~ lHe uoube is uOJ large,
but it is larger than many others we have
seen. 1t is covered with palm leaves instead
of shingles. In front is a verandab, with
seat for us made of the same material as the
wall of the house, mud or clay baked hard
by the hot sun. The family all come out to
welcome us, and are very glad that we have
come. The man is such noble looking
man, and seems SO kind and good that we
all like him very much. And here is the
little girl. Her name is " Anna.moot-too,"
or " Precious Pearl" At first she is little
shy, but we shall soon get acquainted with
each other. / am sure you will all like
her. She is bright, pretty little thing
though she is not dressed quite as you
would want her to be. She does not
look so much like a white girl as Nellie does
but you would not think of calling her
negro, or Chinese girl. She has bright
black hair. 1t is all combed back from her
forehead, and tied up in a sort of knot be-
hind, with long silver arrow, or spear, run
through it. She has such high forehead
that Tom will think she must be good
scholar. He will be pretty near right, too,
for she is the first in her classes at school.
She can read Tamil as fast as these Ver-
mont Canadians can talk French, and
think she can beat most of you in Mental
Arithmetic. But her dress is only piece
of clean white cloth, wrapped around her
without any buttons, or pins, or strings, or
pockets, leaving her arms and feet all bare.
Yes, she has a ring on her finger, and, if
they had expected u.s. her mother would
perhaps have put some more rings on her
fingers, and some on her toes too. In her
ears are some queer things. They are sim
ply pieces of palm leaf rolled up into little
wheels, perhaps only as big as my finger.
They are put in to make hole for some ear.
jewels Aunt Mary, up in Vermont, has
only little hole in her ear you know, where
she wears those pretty jewels. But out here
they wear different sort that take larger
holes. Sometimes the hole is so large that
you could put your hand through it. 1t is
the fashion, so they all do it. Only a little
bigger fashion than the Vermont one. 1t is
the fashion out here, too, for some of them
to wear nose jewels. Sometimes there
will be great ring, perhaps an inch in di-
ameter, hanging out on one side of lady s
nose. Yes, Tom, | agree with you.
would have a teapot to drink out of if had
to wear either such Awels or such things
as Uncle John used to have all over his
mouth. But Nellie, little precious Pearl, can
run if she does look as if she was all tied
up in CLOTH She is very quick and active.
She is a very good little girl, good at home,
and good at school too. She has good,
kind father and mother, who teach her how
to be good, and am sure she often prays
for the little girls in America, that they
may be good children aud may do all they
can to tell the poor heather about Jesus.
We will bid her good night now, and go
and call on another little girl We will ride
out little way, and then walk across the
field to another village. We are going to a
place where no missionary has been for ten
years. We can fnd more than one such
village within two miles OF our home. In
an hours ride think we could find people
who had never seen missionary. Here is
the house. 1t is made like the other, only
it is smaller and the roof is older. The lit
tie yard around is pot neat and clean like
that either. No one comes out to welcome
us so we must see if we can arouse the
people. We will not go to the door and
knock. That would be very impolite, and |
do not think they would let us in at all if
we did. We must stop at the gate and
call out, Hoy verlu kardan, which means
hullo, housekeeper. The man who is inside
shouts out some kind of an answer and
comes TO the door. When he sees us he runs
out, puts his hands up to his head, and bows
very low, saying, Salaam." We must all
bow to him and say, " Salaam." lie will
not ask us to come into the house, and there
are good many reasons why we ought to
oo lndHhlui tudI ~ 10 uOt tnc cuStolii VI tne
country. Neither will he ask us to sit down
on the little low, dirty verandah, but for the
sake of seeming friendly and trying to do
him good, we must not mind the dirt, and
so we ask his permission to sit down there
for a few minutes. But he will at once ask
us what is our business with him. Perhaps
even he will do it with little trembling,
for he is not used TO seeing such people at
his door, He will hardly be willing to be-
lieve that we simply came to make friendly
call Perhaps he will expect us to demand
something of him before we go away. We
find it very difficult to make him believe
that we are here simply to do him good, not
to get some gain to ourselves. We ask him
questions about his religion and are as
tonished at his great ignorance. Almost all
the ideas of religion he seems to have are
that there are such beings as gods, who are
dreadful beings living in the dark places
about the temples and the forests, who come
out now and then to torment aud kill people.
He would not dare say it, least some of them
should hear it, but he wishes that there were
no gods. Perhaps he tells us that it costs
him more to keep the gods from hurting him
than II dnaa IN nav for hia food Wa try n