Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1888-12-21
OUR LITTLE FOLKS.
Matters Both Grave and Gou
for the Entertainment of
Children.
THE STAR FISH 1T DINNER.
How A Noted Teacher of Sanskrit First
Rece.ued Her Education.
R0n,0bdi.

Ramnbat.
You are used. girls and boys, to you,
school-rooms and ack-boards, to your
satchels and books, your states and
pencils. Maybe you think it hard,
sometimes, that you have problems to
solve, boundaries to learn, and sentences
to parse. But how would it seem to you
to be awakened from q sound sleep,
every morning before daylight, tolearp
lesson in Sanskrit, that ancient and
most difficult language, familiar to but
few, and those, usually, eminent
scholars? To learn Sanskrit is a greater
task than to learn Greek, and much
greater task than to learn Latin.
This is what little Hindu girl named
Ramabai had to do. She was awakened
every morning before the day dawned,
for her Sanskrit lesson; this being the
only time her mother could spare from
household cares to teach her little
daughter.
Their dwelling was on the mountains,
in forest clearing, and there were wild
animals in the iungles all about them.
The first night that Ramabai's young
mother spent in that solitude, before
they had any house at all, she lay upon
the ground, wrapped in cotton quilt,
trembling with terror; meanwhile her
husband watched until daybrealS, keep
ing off q great tiger which prowled
about them uttering hideous cries. After
their home was built, the husband, who
was 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 Ramabai was six or seven years Of
age, her mother, in turn, taught her
little daughter Sanskrit, 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 chirping their morn
ing songs, the lessons were repeated"
The fathers dwelling place in the
mountains came to be regarded as sacred
by the people, and students and pill
glims sought out the learned priest.
His hospitality and religious duties in
volved him in debt; and by the time
Ramabai was nine years old, his property
was so diminished that the family were
obliged to give up their home, and to
wander about from one locality to an
other, as pilgrims themselves. So we
have to think of Ramabai, not only as
the child student of Sanskrit, but as a
little pilgrim girl, roaming up and down
the earth, from the time she was nine
until she was sixteen-homeless and
often in want.
Ramabai afterward became known as
Sanskrit scholar and lecturer. She
married graduate of the Calcutta Uni
vers1ty, but IN less than two years was
a widow with little daughter of her
own, named Manorama, meaning Hearts
Joy.
Her love Of education was so great
that she then went to England and en-
tered the college of Cheltenham, where
she became Professor of Sanskrit, and
at the same time studied mathematics,
natural science, and English literature.
In 1886, she came to our own country,
and at the time of this writing, she is
still here.
She has a lofty purpose 1t is that
Hindu girls shall be educated-fully,
amply educated; and that with their
studies they shall also learn to be
teachers, governesses, nurses, and house
keepers.-Ma7y L. C. Branch, IN st.
Nicholas.