e likewise; and drawn them, by love, to
civilisation and Christianity. The children, as fast as they grow
up, are put out to domestic service, and the great majority of the
boys at least turn out well. The girls, I was told, are curiously
inferior to the boys in intellect and force of character; an
inferiority which is certainly not to be found in Negroes, among
whom the two sexes are more on a par, not only intellectually, but
physically also, than among any race which I have seen. One
instance, indeed, we saw of the success of the school. A young
creature, brought up there, and well married near by, came in during
our visit to show off her first baby to the matron and the children;
as pretty a mother and babe as one could well see. Only we
regretted that, in obedience to the supposed demands of
civilisation, and of a rise in life, she had discarded the graceful
and modest Hindoo dress of her ancestresses, for a French bonnet and
all that accompanies it. The transfiguration added, one must
charitably suppose, to her self-respect; if so, it must be condoned
on moral grounds: but in an aesthetic view, she had made a great
mistake.

In remembrance of our visit, a little brown child, some three or
four years old, who had been christened that day, was named after
me; and I was glad to have my name connected, even in so minute an
item, with an institution which at all events delivers children from
the fancy that they can, without being good or doing good,
conciliate the upper powers by hanging garlands on a trident inside
a hut, or putting red dust on a stump of wood outside it, while they
stare in and mumble prayers to they know not what of gilded wood.

The coolie temples are curious places to those who have never before
been face to face with real heathendom. Their mark is, generally, a
long bamboo with a pennon atop, outside a low dark hut, with a broad
flat verandah, or rather shed, outside the door. Under the latter,
opposite each door, if I recollect rightly, is a stone or small
stump, on which offerings are made of red dust and flowers. From it
the worshippers can see the images within. The white man, stooping,
enters the temple. The attendant priest, so far from forbidding
him, seems highly honoured, especially if the visitor give him a
shilling; and points out, in the darkness--for there is no light
save through the low doors--three or four squatting abominations,