the mission. We are astir by daybreak-missionaries, native ministers, catechists, local preacl.ers, and theological students-as large a staff of workers as we can muster. We get into a thoroughfare leading up to the temple, but far enough away from the noise for our voices to be heard. The strains of a Christian lyric soon attract attention, and the passers-by gather round us as, for longer or shorter periods, we tell them of the Saviour. Our audience is a very restless one and continually changes. Many with goats on their shoulders or in their arms stop and listen for a while, and then rush on with their victims. Others who have been earlier to the temple are now returning with the headless, skinless carcasses of their victims slung upon their shoulders. Some of these will stop with their ghastly, bleeding burdens for a few moments, but the majority of them are too much excited by the fact that their offering has been accepted, and by the prospect of the feast that awaits them when they get back to their villages, to give any heed to the voice that cries to them from the wayside. On they rush with eager haste to prepare what will be for them and their families

probably the heartiest, heaviest, and merriest meal in the whole year.- Wesleyan Record.

The Golden Temple of Amritsar. AMRITSAR, a city of the Punjab, is the chief commercial emporium of northern India. Here is loca ed the "Golden Temple." the chief temple of the Sikhs. In the center of the city is a beautiful lake, and in the center of the lake is the Golden Temple.

Visitors are met at the entrance gate of the temple by an official guide. Their shoes are removed and their fect covered in canvas socks. A causeway. about seventy yards long, conducts to the temple itself. Ou both sides of the way are rows of beggars and musicians, to whom every worshiper gives a few grains of rice or other cereal. There are also nine curious gilt lamps on each side of the pier. The temple stands on a square platform. It is only fiftythree feet square, but for richness of decoration it is the most splendid temple in India. Its charm consists greatly in the beauty of its surroundings and the splendor of its color. The interior is richly

carved and decorated with floral patterns. In the center sits the chief priest, reading from the sacred book, surrounded by pious worshipers, who chant with him the verses he reads aloud. The domes, cupolas, and the upper portion of the walls are covered with thin plates of gold, hence the name "Golden Temple."

The Conepur Mela.

THE Rev. G. J. Daun, of the English Baptist Mission in India, writes to his society of a mela, or religious fair, among the Hindus, held not far from his station at Allahabad. He says:

"The view, as seen in the picture, shows an old masjid on the left bank of the Gandak River, at the head of the road leading up to Hajipur. The numerous elephants which are brought for sale swim the river at this point, and a large number of the pilgrims cross in boats and land just about our camping ground. The new temple of Hari Har Nath is the one in which pooja is now performed, the older one having been superseded by it.

"Ours were motley congregations. Many were horsedcalers, as mendacious and slippery as the semigipsy frequenters of Barnet Fair, and with the doubtful advantage of being Hindus and Mohammedans; and, therefore, able to lie and cheat without any troublesome, conventional fears as to conscience and public opinion. On the other hand many of the people were simple villagers-a far more unsophisticated and hopeful class. Here might be seen gentlemen's domestic servants, a few policemen, and,

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standing on the skirts of the crowd, listening with an air of protest and apology for such condescension, an educated Hindu or Mohammedan gentleman. And driving down the bazaar at full speed, with a syce running ahead to push the slow-moving pedestrians out of the way, came planters, officers, and ladies, staring with polite or scornful surprise at us as they scattered our congregations in alarm by turning the corners recklessly and sharply in true Anglo-Indian style.

"A native gentleman heard us singing at this spot one of Mr. Jolin Christian's popular bhajans, and came to me in great delight, asking me to sell him the book, and offering any price I chose to fix. He went away the happy possessor of two hymn books at one and two pice respectively. Why,' he said, 'you padri sáhibs have quite become Hindus. You write and sing like ourselves.' I told him that such was our duty and privilege-to become all things to all men, if by any means we may gain some. He said he had thought Europeans would never win India, as they were not gifted with the fine imagination of the oriental peoples. I advised him to read our Scriptures, especially the discourses of our Lord and the Psalms of David. He thanked me politely, and went away, reading from his newly-purchased volumes as he went."

The Car of Jaganath at Serampore, India.

(From the Calcutta Indian Witness of July 9, 1892.) Ox Monday last Jagat Nath, the Lord of the World," having spent ten days at the house of his

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Like

maternal aunt, returned to his own residence. other great ones of earth, he has his own private conveyance which, in size at least, is fitly designed to impress men with a sense of its master's exalted station. And surely if any object lesson that men can prepare is able to effectively show the place held by Jagat Nath, or Jaganath, in the minds of the multitude, the yearly journey from his own house to his aunt's and back again ought to make such an impression. The real Jaganath resides at Puri, Orissa, and all these displays in Bengal are simply rehearsals of the original event at Puri. But Bengali Hindus are richer than their Oriya brethren, and hence it comes to pass that in many places of Bengal the celebration of this rath jatri, or pilgrimage, of the chariot of Jaganath I is a much more imposing display than at Jaganath Puri itself. The town of Serampore enjoys the proud distinction of providing the largest of

hundred feet in advance of the car; the whole width of the earriage way was so crowded with human heads that one could have walked on the solid mass as on a cobble stone pavement. But though solid it was neither quiet nor silent. They who have seen a swarm of bees alight on the outside of the hive, the whole mass alive with incessant movement yet remaining unbroken, will have an idea of the appearance of the mass of humanity that surged and shouted and tugged at the ropes while dragging their lord back to his home.

It is a veritable conquest of Bengal. The Bengali has accepted this Oriya cult as his own, and the loud creaking wheels of the unused chariot answered the shouts of the crowd in a wild barbarous note of triumph over Bengal. True, the Bengalis do not so regard it. Jaganath is theirs; they are conscious of no race jealousy toward the Oriyas and this

Jaganath.

all chariots for the use of Jaganath, and the celebration of the festival is more impressive there than elsewhere.

Here is a model of the Hindu temple, so common in Bengal, mounted on a heavy plinth three feet above the ground, moving on six sets of doubl: wooden wheels five feet in diameter. The structure is simply a very large temple placed on wheels, the whole affair built of wood in the most substantial manner, rising three stories high, with domed turrets on each corner and in the center a large open cupola, in which is placed the idol, rising high above the corner turrets. The weight of the structure is immense, and it is said six hundred men are needed to drag the car along the smooth, metaled road, while generally not less than one thousand men are on the great cables that are as thick as a ship's hawser.

The struggling mass of bareheaded Oriyas and Bengalis on these ropes was a spectacle never to be forgotten. The four great cables led on several

worship of rude force. Yet this was the principal impression made ou our minds, as for the first time, Monday last, we witnessed this wild, semibarbarous procession. Bengal, left to itself, would have invented something more intellectual, something more like religion than this deification of brawn and muscle, and it is, or ought to be, to Bengalis a humiliation, instead of becoming, as they have made it, the especial occasion of displaying their wealth and piety.

This performance is a puzzle to one asking for the reason of things. Why is it so many millions enthusiastically interest themselves in celebrating a mythical story from the Ramayana. Its origin defies our philosophy, though its perpetuation is more easily accounted for. Twice or thrice during its short procession of a few hundred yards the car was halted and remained stationary, while copper coins rained upon the wooden roofs of the car. Like monkeys on the roof a bazaar, Bralimans, young and old, swarmed on the terraces of the car and scrambled for the pice. There was money in it! money for the pujuris who run the show, and there was opportunity for ostentatious display of pious benevolence; above all there was the grand attraction of excitement of the first quality. We have seen the mounted marshel of a Fourth of July procession in a Pennsylvania town; we have seen the coachmen of the civic carriages on Lord Mayor's Day in London, but never have we seen such a display of personal importance as was shown by the tall, old Brahman who stood on the back of the

carved horse in front of the chariot. It was worth two hours' weary waiting in the sun to see that old man brushing imaginary flies from the head of that wooden horse. The grace and dignity of the old fellow's movements were simply matchless, and showed how fully he believed in the show that was going on.

The coincidence of this Rathjatra festival with the suminer solstice suggests the query that perhaps Jaganath represents Surjya, the sun, and this ten days' outing is the short period before and after the solstice, in which the sun is north of the zenith. The present influence and probable permanence of the celebration is a more important question. The testival no doubt stirs the fire of devotion in many hearts, but the rude and barbarous and nakedly materialistic character of the celebration must weaken

the faith and cool the ardor of intelligent and educated people. Time was when the ponderous car drawn by a thousand mea was the most imposing spectacle of conquering greatness the people knew, and so the great car moving slowly along the streets left on their minds a deep impression of the greatness of Jaganath. But now the prosaic railway car is its more than successful rival. Each of the many crowded railway trains that brought the people to Serampore last Monday was incomparably greater, larger, more irresistible than the procession of the Rathjatra. Jaganath suffers by comparison. His car is no longer the greatest moving thing, and the mob of howling coolies tugging at the ropes furnishes such a ludicrous contrast to the locomotive engine that as an object lesson in the greatness of a Hindu deity the celebration becomes a ridiculous failure.

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The Todas of India.

REV. T. WALKER, a missionary in India, writes of a visit he made to the Nilgiri Hills, and of the people he saw there. He says:

"Perhaps the most interesting part of my stay in the hills was the visits I paid to the Todas. This

ligion is hardly worthy of the name. It consists in a certain respect for the buffalo, as the milk giver. In every village, or mund, a man is set apart as sacred dairyman,' and his duty is to milk the buffaloes of the mund, and to attend to the butter. etc., derived therefrom. Above and beyond this, they have páláls, or priest milkmen, who are attached to tiriéris, or sacred munds,' (supposed) holy spots where no ordinary foot is allowed to enter, and where the sacred buffalo cows are tended. To these cows belong by inheritance certain bells, called Der Moni, which are objects of peculiar veneration. Thus it is seen that the belief of the Toda is centered in his buffaloes. Though possessing a dim, distant idea of the existence of an Almighty God, and though making 'salaams' to the sun and the moon-yet, in point of fact, the religion of the Todas is unlike the nature worship of the Hindus. Their gods are their buffaloes a fact sad enough for the Christian to contemplate.

"The funerals of the Todas are rather grand ceremonies. They are twofold: the Pachai Hédu, or 'green funeral,' immediately after death; and the Bara Hêdu, or dog funeral,' following a year later. The chief feature of both is the slaughter of several buffaloes, which are supposed to follow the dead person to minister to his wants in Amanor, the Toda Paradise. The Toda salaam to the rising and setting sun and moon, and speak a blessing on the house: May it be well with the male children, the man, cows, female calves. and everyone.'"

A TODA MAN.

strange people form one of the hill tribes of the Nilgiris. Their origin is unknown, but their language is rather like Tamil, and their handsome, swarthy faces are almost of a Jewish type. Their sole occupation consists in tending their herds of buffaloes in secluded spots on the hillsides. They proudly call themselves Alâm'- The People'-and look down upon all others as their inferiors. They levy tribute on the neighboring tribes, and regard themselves as 'kings of the Nilgiris' and lords of the soil. Their hamlets, or munds, consist of small groups of from four to seven huts, and are always situated in picturesque and secluded spots.

"The Toda hut is a squat-looking erection, with a circular roof, and is entered on all fours through a hole standing two feet from the ground. Their re

A TODA WOMAN.