Idaho news. (Blackfoot, Idaho) 1887-1891, 1888-09-08
RAMA1Ai
Something or tho woman from Indin
Now In NmericR.

something OF tho Woman from India
| Now In America.
You are used, girls and BOYS, TO your school
rooms and blackboards TO your satehels snd
| books, your states and pencils, May be you
| think II hard, sometimes, that YOU have prop
lens to solve, boundaries to learn, and sen'
fences to parse But how would II seem 70
be awakened from sound Sleep every morn
ing before daylight to learn a lesson In san
skirt that ancIen. and most difficult langu'
age, familiar to but few, and those, usually,
eminent scholarsl To learn Sanskrit Is a
greater task that than to learn Greek, and a
much greater task than TO learn Latin.
This Is what a little Hindu girl named
Ramabai had TODD. She was awakened every
morning before the dag dawned, for her San
skirt lesson; this being the only time her
mother could spare from household cares TO
teach her little daughter.
Their dwelling was in the mountains, In q
forest clearing, and there was wild animals
in the jungles all about them The first night
that RambaPs young mother spent In that
solitude, before they had any house at all, she
lay upon the ground, wrapped In a cotton
quilt trembling with terror; meanwhile her
husband watched until daybreak, keeping OF
great tiger which prowled shout them ut
tering hldeous cries. After their home was
built, the husbrnd, who was a Brahman
priest and also very wise and good man,
taught his young wife Sanskrit, because he
loved the poems written in that language,
and wished her to enjoy them with him So,
when Ramabal was six or seven years Of age,
her mother, in turn, taught her little dRugh-
ter Sanskrlt, from her own lips, without any
book. We are told that ''the little maiden,
heavy with sleep, was tenderly lifted from
her bed upon the earth, and aroused with
many endearments and sweet mother words;
and then, while the birds In the forest about
them were ehirping their mOTuing songs, the
lessons were repeated
The fathers dwellIng.plaee IN the mOun.
tains came 10 be regarded as sacred BY the
people, and students and pilgrims sought out
the learned priest. His hospitality aud re-
llgioug duties involved him In debt; and by
the time Ramabaiwas nine years old his prop
erty was 50 diminished that tile family we're
obliged TO give up their home, and to wander
about from one locality to another, as pil.
grims themselves. So we have 10 think OF
Ramabia, not only as the child student OF
but as u little pilgrim girl, roaming
up and down the earth, from the tinle.shs
was until she was l5-homeless and often
In want
Ramabai afterWard became known as a
scholar and lecturer. She married q
graduate OF the Calcutta university, but 10
less than two years was a widow with q little
daughter OF her own, named NanOrama,
hearts ioy
Her love Of education was so great that she
went to England aud entered the college al
Che'tenham, where she became professor OF
sanskrit, and at the same time studied
mathematics, natural science, and English
literature.
In 1886 she came 10 our own country, aud
1t the time OF this writing she Is still here.
She has lofty purpose. II IL that Hindu
girls shall be edneated-fullV, amply edueat.
ID and that with their studies theY shall al.
70 learn TO be teachers, goyernesses, nurses,
md housekeepers.-S NseAola5.