priest commanded me to get up, and come along with him. I said, `Be
patient, my lord; I am suffering from a thorn in my foot.' However, in
a very loud and angry tone he said, `Get up, I command you, and come
with me after the god.' Then I felt angry too, and replied, `Why do you
bawl out in that way? The god does not want me; but if he does, I
cannot come; I am lame; he may help himself.' On hearing these words of
contempt for the god, the priest abused me very much, took the torch
from me, and ordering another person to carry it, he left me on the
ground trying to get the thorn out of my foot. Whilst I was lying there
in great pain, I heard a cry of `Thieves! thieves!--robbers! thieves!'
and saw many men running back from the burning car to the town. I
learned afterwards that a great many robbers had laid their plans to
enter the town quietly as soon as the inhabitants had left their houses
and shops to join the _Goobbe-Appa_ procession. The thieves did not
accomplish all they planned to do, but they stole very much valuable
property." All that happened at this festival served to convince Daniel
that `Goobbe-Appa' was as helpless as any other idol, and that the
so-called worship was senseless.

This whole account of `Goobbe-Appa' shows how Hindoo ideas as to. God
and His worship differ from the ideas of Christians who have been
favoured with the Holy Scriptures. And the account will, it is hoped,
excite pity for the Hindoo men, women and children; and induce the
juvenile collectors, as well as others, to renewed efforts for sending
more Missionaries to India.

At the annual festival, which lasts ten days, the Missionaries are fully
engaged distributing tracts, preaching, and conversing with serious
inquirers who have come from distant towns and villages. The
accompanying sketch, in which a Missionary is preaching, was taken near
the entrance to the town of Goobbe, close to the `Mantapa' in front of
`Goobbe-Appa's' temple. A mantapa is an open temple, or halting-place
for an idol on procession days.

CHAPTER TEN.

THE IDOL WHICH SHED TEARS.

When Daniel was about sixteen years of age, the cholera broke out for
the first time in Goobbe. It prevailed for about eighteen months, and
many persons died of it every day. The inhabitants of Singonahully, and
of all the other villages round about, were in consequence very much
afraid to enter the town. One day, during the prevalence of this
disease, an