neighbouring house, out of the sun which made that hat a necessity. Once
it was off they lost all fear, and crowded round in the friendliest
fashion; but later, one of the Band was amused by hearing me described
in full: "Not a man, though great and white, and wearing a white man's
turban, too! Was it not an appalling spectacle?" And the old body who
was addressed held up both her hands amazed, and hastened off to
investigate.

An English magazine told us lately exactly what these poor women think
when they see, for the first time in their lives, the lady missionary.
They greatly admire her, the article said, and consider her fairer and
more divine than anything ever imagined before--which is very nice
indeed to read; but here what they say is this: "Was it not an appalling
spectacle? A great white man!"

And now that the spectacle was safe in the house, the instincts of
hospitality urged clean mats and betel. Betel (pronounced _beetle_) is
the leaf of a climbing plant, into which they roll a morsel of areca nut
and lime. The whole is made up into a parcel and munched, but not
swallowed. This does not sound elegant; neither is the thing. It is one
of the minor trials of life to have to sit through the process.

We took a leaf or two, but explained that it was not our custom to eat
it; and then we answered questions straight off for ten minutes. "What
is your Caste?" "Chee!" in a tone of remonstrance, "don't you see she is
_white_? Married or widow? Why no jewels? What relations? Where are they
all? Why have you left them and come here? Whatever can be your business
here? What does the Government give you for coming here?" These last
questions gave us the chance we were watching for, and we began to
explain.

Now what do these people do when, for the first time, they hear the Good
Tidings? They simply stare.

In that house that day there was an old woman who seemed to understand
a little what it was all about. She had probably heard before. But
nobody else understood in the least; they did not understand enough to
make remarks. They sat round us on the floor and ate betel, as everybody
does here in all leisure moments, and they stared.

The one old woman who seemed to understand followed us out of the house,
and remarked that it was a good religion but a mistaken one, as it
advocated, or resulted in, the destruction of Caste.

In the next house we found several girls, and tried to persuade the
mothers to let the