The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1883-08-10
In the Punjab.

Rev. Mr.. Morrison, the PRESBYTERIAN
missionary who has lately returned from
Punjab, tells some stories of the habit:
of the natives there, which throw strong
light upon the social condition of the
people.
I'm passinga native village" he says,
''lOOk at any of the new houses and YOU
will see a large bunch of marigolds OF
some other bri CHIT object over the door
or in the window. This is to attract the
EVIL eye and keep it from dwelling on
the house itself. The people believe
that any of their enemies can do them
injury by looking upon the horfSe anu
cursing it, and the name of those ene-
mics is legion, for neighbors are all the
time quarreling with each other In
fact the men and women spend most of
the evenings on the housetops assailing
their neighbors at large with curses and
vile names, the women being especially
bad in this respect. The depth of super
stition there is very great still, though
there is certainly a breaking of the crust,
and it will not be long, l hope, before
the whole is swept away. 1t is no I'M
common thing to see the students of our
collegeS-still heathens themselves
corner some old Brahmin, make him
sit down with them, and ply him with
questions in science and theology for
the sake of laughing at his stupidity and
Ignorance. Their veneratiOn for their
priests and templesiS fast passing away.
preached once lately on the steps of a
temple in native village:a great statue
of bull saddled and bridled, ready to
be ridden by the god of the temple,
stood beside me; it was extremely
sacred. As preached 1 gradually APP
preached the bull till got near enough
to touch it, after which l emphasized
my address by pounding the animal
at the close of every period. The peo-
pie We're much frightened at first, and
expected to see me struck dead for nv
audacity; but when nothing of the kind
occurred they looked around at each
other with smiles of wonder. finished
my sermon astride of the animal: The
affair had an unexpected result, though,
for when passed that way again they
told me that it had cost them fifty
rupees to sanctify the temple after my
detilement of it. Our horsekeepercame
to me one night in state of great ey-
element and said his wife was possessed
of devil, and he wanted leave to 90
for the nearest priest. l asked him
what the priest would do, and he said
walk round her and make mystic mo-
tions and say mysterious words and
charge him ten rupees. said nom
sense; it was no devil, but he only
laughed and went to the stable. Then
l went to look at the woman. She was
sitting on the ground moaning and
rocking and beating the ground with
her arms, which were being cut to
pieces by the broken glass bangles which
she wore. After cogitating for some
time | threw a bucket of water over her
and held her still by pulling her back
hair. She gradually got better. did
not know that had washed her caste
complaints were made; but L made q
point by telling the people to come to
me and L would cast out such devils
free of charge. / heard great noise
outside my bungalow at day break two
years ago, and going out found 4 father
attempting to kill his son, who had
turned Christian and fled to the mission
house for protection. He had been
kept prisoner in his fathers house for
three weeks, but escaped when they
notified him that if he did not renounce
his intention of turning Christian they
would kill him. This was the first con-
vert we made in Lahore, and others fol-
lowed quickly. There was great ex-
element and mobs gathered at our
doors and called Us to come out. When
we did come out they skunk away. but
there was considerable danger for
time. They accused us of exercising
some ne;y species of American magic"