ses
are decorated and garlanded, and the grooms bring them round to the
front verandah of the bungalow in order to obtain the expected
recognition. Care needs to be taken to see that, in the desire to be
kind, a sort of tacit countenance of Hinduism is not involved. English
visitors to India unthinkingly are sometimes remiss in this respect.
There is a hill just outside Poona City called Parbatti. It is a
well-known centre of idol worship, and for this reason many visitors
climb up it out of curiosity, but also to see the view. One of the
custodians of the temples, after showing an English priest the idols,
etc., asked for a contribution towards "the support of the temple," as
he expressed it. And in spite of the terms in which the request was
couched, the priest gave an offering, to the astonishment of his
better instructed lay companion.

Hindus have a festal day for their cattle, called _Bile polar_, on
which they give them extra food; their horns are coloured and
decorated with gold paper and long tassels made of the fibrous roots
of a shrub, and a variety of devices are imprinted on their bodies in
red paint, generally circles or the outstretched hand. The biggest
bull of the chief man of the village sometimes wears a sort of crown,
or some farmer who is well-to-do drapes his best cattle in ornamental
cloths, reaching nearly to the ground on each side. The people also
set up clay models of cattle in their houses at this season, to which
they do reverence. When the cattle have been decorated they are
driven, with shouting and noise, up to a temple; and the fact that it
is their festal day does not save them from the whacks which the boys
bestow upon them freely in order to hurry them on. Some of their
owners go into the temple and worship the god, and soon afterwards the
cattle are driven back with the same demonstrations to their
respective homes.

It used to be the custom (and perhaps may be still) for horses to be
driven past the Pope on the Feast of S. Anthony (the patron saint of
animals), and he blessed them as they went by. It is good that the
creatures who do us faithful service should be gratefully remembered.
The Hindu festival of the animals might possibly be Christianised.
Their generous rations and their gay decorations, with the exception
of the paint marks on their bodies, are customs which might be
retained, and they might be brought in joyful procession to the church
door on S. Anthony's Day to b