as for instance when travelling, the exigences of modern
life have brought about a number of small concessions to the
strictness of the rule concerning food and drink, so that the
inconveniences have been mitigated or removed.

Numbers of Hindus break their caste rules in private. More than once a
high-caste visitor in the verandah, when he was alone, has asked me
for a drink of water; and there is no breach of caste so heinous as to
take water from the hand of a Christian. Now and then a Hindu lad will
display such an audacious courage in religious matters that it
partakes rather of the nature of a boyish freak. Several big Brahmin
lads, most of them being about sixteen or seventeen years old, had
been visiting the Mission-house rather frequently and showed a good
deal of interest in Christianity. One of them, when sitting in the
verandah, suddenly said to one of the Fathers: "Could I have a drink
of water?" The Father replied that he would fetch him the water if he
wished. The lad said: "Bring it, please"; and when the glass of water
was brought, he drunk it in the presence of his companions, and thus
deliberately and publicly breaking his caste. Unless he had been
prepared to follow his action up in some definite way, it had no
particular use; but it was not for us to suggest scruples. It need
scarcely be added that the visits from that particular group of lads
ceased, and it was long afterwards that, meeting the perpetrator of
this rash act in the road, I asked him what penalties he had had to
undergo for what he had done. He denied that any results followed, but
the cessation of his visits gave the lie to this assertion.

[Illustration: NIRARI BHOSLE.]

One of the village boys, who is endowed with a strong spirit of
mischief, implored me to cut off his pigtail in order that he might
have the fun of seeing his mother's horror when he returned without
it. But as he had no present intention of becoming a Christian, and it
would have made a row to no purpose, I refused to be an accomplice to
his mischief.

CHAPTER XXV

WILD BEASTS IN INDIA

Tigers not often seen. Unlooked-for visits. Appearance of a
tiger. The dead panther. Government rewards. Annual return
of people killed. The tiger's den. Jackals; their cry.
Wolves. So-called "wolf-boys." The Asiatic lion.

When an English boy meets a missionary from India the only thing he
wants to know is whether he has ever seen any tigers, a