to, if only they can get peace to their souls.

Oowikapun spent weeks in a state of indecision, and then resolved to
follow the advice of old Mookoomis; and so in his blindness and folly he
found himself, although he knew it not, in company with a vast multitude
who in their ignorance and superstition, are hoping by inflicting
torture on their bodies to atone for sin and merit heaven.

Great indeed was, and still is, this innumerable company of deluded
ones. They are found by the missionaries almost everywhere. The poor,
ignorant Hindoo on the burning plains of his native land, seated on a
stone pillar, with arm extended until it has become fixed and rigid,
while the ever-growing finger nails have pierced through his clenched
hand, is one of the sad company. Another is that poor fanatic who
measured the whole distance, many hundreds of miles, which stretched
from his jungle home to the Ganges by prostrating his body on the ground
as a measuring rod. In this sad procession are millions, and millions
of unhappy souls, without God, and therefore without hope. They are
going down from the darkness of sin and error to the darkness of the
tomb, with none to whisper in their ears the story of redeeming love;
and so in their blindness and folly, believing that God delights in
misery and pain and suffering, they torture their poor bodies; and in
some instances still, as in olden times, "give of the fruit of their
body for the sin of their soul," if by these or any other means they can
propitiate the One whom they hope can give them peace.

The contemplation of a multitude so vast and in a condition so
deplorable makes our hearts sad, and shows us how imperative is the call
to each of us to do all we can to carry to them, or, if this is
impossible, to aid in sending to them, the blessed truth which alone can
make them happy. Poor Oowikapun was now in this sad company. All his
fears are aroused, and in his vain efforts to quiet them he is about to
go through a most severe ordeal of fasting and acute physical suffering.
How terrible is sin! How dreadful must be the goadings of the guilty
conscience when men and women will so punish themselves, if thereby they
can find relief!

When Oowikapun had finally resolved on his course of action he
immediately set about carrying it out. He joined himself to a company
of "braves" who were also going to pass through the ceremony of
_hock-e-a-yum_. Different motives were in the hea