hey are at the present
day. Thanks to English authority, the people are not oppressed as they
were under the despotic rule of their own native princes. The
Government is the great landlord; the rent of round has not been very
much increased; the taxes have been reduced, and the produce of the soil
fetches three times the price it did forty years ago.

CHAPTER NINE.

HOW A SCHOOLMASTER BECAME A GOD.

We have seen how some old swords were worshipped by Daniel's parents and
friends, and we will now show how, many years ago, a god was made out of
an old schoolmaster, and is worshipped at the present day. The legend
is that, about two hundred years ago, there lived in Goobbe a very
efficient schoolmaster, who was celebrated all over that part, of the
country for his learning, wisdom, and sanctity. He lived to a good old
age, and then died. The respect in which he had been held during his
life was manifested at his funeral, when there was a very large
gathering of mourners. His death was looked upon as a public calamity.
But he would doubtless soon have been forgotten had it not been for the
gratitude and activity of one of his pupils, named Burree Gowda. This
man had, during the course of twenty or thirty years, become very rich,
and a person of considerable influence. He attributed all his success
in life to the teaching and good example of his old schoolmaster, and he
felt disposed to do something to perpetuate his memory. He therefore
one day called together all the influential men of Goobbe, amongst whom
there were probably a few of Burree Gowda's fellow-students, and to this
assembly he opened his mind fully. He enumerated the excellencies of
his old teacher, and stated his conviction that the good schoolmaster
was something more than an ordinary mortal; indeed, that he was an
incarnation of some deity; adding that, being divine, he ought to be
worshipped. To this opinion the assembly assented. He next proposed
that a temple should be erected, and all arrangements secured for the
schoolmaster being worshipped as the god `Goobbe-appa'--that is,
Goobbe-father. All agreed to this also, as being calculated to benefit
the people of Goobbe, as well as to do honour to the schoolmaster. But
when Burree Gowda proposed to meet all the expenses himself, we may
fairly conclude hat the proposal was carried by acclamation. In due
time the temple was built, an idol (the bust of a man with a face of
gold) was made