thy of honour. Before the children reach the age of ten
they must be married. . . . They become the property of the Temple
priests and worshippers who go to the Temple to chant the sacred songs."

A Temple woman herself told a friend of ours: "The child is dressed like
a bride, and taken with another girl of the same community, dressed like
a boy in the garb of a bridegroom. They both go to the Temple and
worship the idol. This ceremony is common, and performed openly in the
streets." In a later letter from the same friend further details are
given: "The child, who should be about eight or nine years old, goes as
if to worship the idol in the Temple. There the marriage symbol is
hidden in a garland, and the garland is put over the idol, after which
it is taken to the child's home and put round her neck." After this she
is considered married to the god.

A young Temple woman in a town near Dohnavur told us she had been given
to the Temple when she was five years old. Her home was in the north
country, but she did not remember it. She had, of course, understood
nothing of the meaning of the ceremony of marriage. She only remembered
the pretty flowers and general rejoicing and pleasure. Afterwards, when
she began to understand, she was not happy, but she gradually got
accustomed to it. Her adopted relations were all the friends she had.
She was fond of them and they of her. Her "husband" was one of the
Temple priests.

A Hindu woman known to us left home with her little daughter and
wandered about as an ascetic. She went to a famous Temple, where it is
the custom for such as desire to become ascetics to enter the life by
conforming to certain ceremonies ordained by the priests. She shaved her
head, took off her jewels, wore a Saivite necklet of berries, and was
known as a devotee. She had little knowledge of the life before she
entered it, and only gradually became aware of the character borne by
most of her fellow-devotees. When she knew, she fled from them and
returned to her own village and the secular life, finding it better than
the religious.

In telling us about it she said: "I expected whiteness, I found
blackness." She told us that she constantly came into contact with
Temple women, none of whom had chosen the life as she and her
fellow-ascetics had chosen theirs. "Always the one who is to dance
before the gods is given to the life when she is very young. Otherwise
she could not be properly trained. Many babie