108 BAPTISMS AT ABBEOKUTA. [SEPT. the termination of the address every hand was lifted up two or three times to express their satisfaction and assent. A blessing was pronounced by the chairman, and the assembly called upon to pour out their offering on the floor before the pulpit. A great rush followed: all were eager to contribute; and a heap was soon raised that took eleven strong persons to carry away, amounting to 222,000 cowries, several cards of "I promise to pay" to the sum of 4l. 8s., together with 97. 4s. 2d. in gold, silver, and copper coins, amounting in all to 207. 10s. 11d. sterling, the cowries being bought at 12s. 6d. per bag. The various coins used in a collection like this serve to indicate the progress made by the natives in the use of coin and the advance of civilization. The readers of the "Iwe Irohin" will be interested to know the amount and value of the coins collected: they were as follows: two sovereigns, two half-sovereigns, one five-franc gold piece, four dollars, four half-dollars, two half-crowns, eleven florins, twenty-eight shillings, fortyseven sixpences, fifty-eight threepenny pieces, twenty-five pence, three halfpence various sums were sent afterwards. BAPTISMS AT ABBEOKUTA. (From the Iwe Irohin.) ON Monday, the 14th instant, thirty-one adults were received into the church at Ake by baptism, of whom seventeen were men, and fourteen women. Of these, twelve were of Abbeokuta, ten natives of Ijaye, two of Aibo, one of Oyo, one of Effon, a country beyond Ibadan, in the interior, two of a town called Abala, beyond Ilorin, one of the Ibomna country, somewhere near the Niger, one of Abaka, and one who had been stolen away at an early age, and had forgotten his country: thus there were twelve of Abbeokuta, and nineteen strangers of various countries, who had been driven by distress, or taken as slaves and brought to Abbeokuta. God in his own good providence will cause his truth to be known among all nations: He often causes his work to go on by means most unlooked for by men. Aibo refused to receive the messengers of the Gospel; but now, the people having been scattered by war, many have received the truth in Abbeokuta. The afflictions the Ijaye people suffered are giving many of them ears to hear, who, in the days of their prosperity, never listened with attention to the word of God preached among them. People from countries beyond the limit reached by Missionaries, are forced by the hands of violence and cruelty to come within hearing of the glad tidings of salvation from a greater bondage than that caused by the slavery of man. Thus in Abbeokuta the white man comes in contact with representatives of very many tribes that will be for a long time to come inaccessible to them. The slave-trade brings down people of all the interior tribes, but the check given to the slavetrade on the coast stops the outward flow of slaves: the encouragement given to lawful traffic gives employment to the slaves brought down, and means of self-emancipation; so that, in course of time, and by the help of God, many will return to their father-and-mother-land better people than when they left. 1863.] ( 109 ) THE LEPCHAS OF SIKKIM. A SANATARIUM, sufficiently near to Calcutta to be promptly available, having been found most necessary, Darjeeling was purchased from the Rajah of Sikkim about the year 1840, being 370 miles 110 THE LEPCHAS OF SIKKIM. [OCT. northward from Calcutta, and from 6500 to 7500 feet above the level of the sea. The view from hence of the snowy range is unparalleled in grandeur. The mountains are so near, and yet of such altitude, more than 12 peaks rising above 20,000 feet; none falling below 15,000; while one rises above 28,000, and seven others above 22.000. The nearest snow is on a beautiful sharp conical peak 19,000 feet high, and 32 miles distant, whilst Kanchin, which forms the principal mass both in height and bulk, is 45 miles distant. This mountain country is Sikkim, and we wish to introduce to our readers its inhabitants. The Lepcha is the aboriginal inhabitant of the country, and the prominent character in Darjeeling, where he undertakes all sorts of out-door employment. The race to which he belongs is a very singular one, markedly Mongolian in features, and a good deal, too, in habit; still he differs from his Thibetan prototype, though not so decidedly as from the Nepalese and Bhotanese, between whom he is hemmed into a tract of mountain country, barely sixty miles in breadth. The Lepchas possess a tradition of the flood, during which a couple escaped to the top of a mountain (Tendong) near Darjeeling. The earliest traditions which they have of their history date no further back than some three hundred years, when they describe themselves as having been long-haired, half-clad savages. At about that period they were visited by Thibetans, who introduced Buddh worship, the plaiting of their hair into pig-tails, and many of their own customs. An attentive examination of the Lepcha in one respect entirely contradicts our preconceived notions of a mountaineer, as he is timid, peaceful, and no brawler; qualities which are all the more remarkable from contrasting so strongly with those of his neighbours to the east and west; of whom the Ghorkas are brave and warlike to a proverb, and the Bhotanese quarrelsome, cowardly, and cruel. A group of Lepchas is exceedingly picturesque. They are of short stature-four feet eight inches to five feet-rather broad in the chest, and with muscular arms, but small hands and slender wrists. The face is broad, flat, and of eminently Tartar character, flat-nosed and oblique-eyed, with no beard, and little moustache; the complexion is sallow, or often a clear olive; the hair is collected into an immense tail, plaited flat or round. The lower limbs are powerfully developed, befitting genuine mountaineers: the feet are small. Though never really handsome, and very womanish in the cast of countenance, they have invariably a mild, frank, and even engaging expression, which is perhaps due more to the absence of any thing unpleasing, than to the presence of direct grace or beauty. In disposition they are amiable and obliging, humorous, and polite, without the servility of the Hindus; and their address is free and unrestrained. Their intercourse with one another and with Europeans is scrupulously honest: a present is divided equally amongst a party, without a syllable of discontent or grudging look or word; each, on receiving his share, coming up and giving the donor a brusque bow and thanks. They are constantly 1863.] THE LEPCHAS OF SIKKIM. 111 armed with a long, heavy, straight knife,* but never draw it on one another family and political feuds are alike unheard of amongst them. The Lepcha's dress is very scanty, and when we are wearing woollen under-garments and hose, he is content with one cotton vestment, which is loosely thrown round the body, leaving one or both arms free; it reaches to the knee, and is gathered round the waist; its fabric is close, the ground colour white, ornamented with longitudinal blue stripes, two or three fingers broad, prettily worked with red and white. When new and clean, this garb is remarkably handsome and gay, but not showy. In cold weather an upper garment with loose sleeves is added. A long knife, with a common wooden handle, hangs by his side, stuck in a sheath; he has often also a quiver of poisoned arrows and a bamboo bow across his back. On his left wrist is a curious wooden guard for the bowstring; and a little pouch containing aconite poison and a few common implements is suspended to his girdle. He seldom wears a hat, and when he does, it is often extravagantly broad and flat-brimmed, with a small hemispherical crown. It is made of the leaves of Scitamineæ, between two thin plates of bamboo-work, clumsy and heavy: this is generally used in rainy weather, while in dry a conical one is worn, also of platted slips of bamboo, with broad flakes of talc between the layers and a peacock's feather at the side. The umbrella consists of a large hood, much like the ancient boat called a coracle, which, being placed over the head, reaches to the thighs behind. It is made of platted bamboo, enclosing broad leaves of Phrynium. Lepchas running along in the pelting rain, with these on, are very droll figures: they look like snails with their shells on their backs. The Lepchas are fond of ornaments, wearing silver hoops in their ears, necklaces of cornelian, amber, and turquoise, brought from Thibet, and pearls and corals from the south, with curious silver and golden charmboxes or amulets attached to their necks or arms. These are of Thibetan workmanship, and often of great value: they contain little idols, charms of written prayers, or the bones, hair, or nail-parings of a Lama: some are of great beauty and highly ornamented. In these decorations, and in their hair, they take some pride. The women always wear two braided pig-tails, and it is by this they are most readily distinguished from their effeminate-looking partners, who wear only one. When in full dress, the woman's costume is extremely ornamental and picturesque: besides the shirt and petticoat, she wears a small sleeveless woollen cloak, of gay pattern, usually covered with crosses, and fastened in front by a girdle of silver chains. Her neck is loaded with silver chains, amber necklaces, &c., and her head adorned with a coronet of scarlet cloth, studded with seed-pearls, jewels, glass beads, &c. The common dress is a long robe of indi, a cloth of coarse silk, spun from the cocoon of a large caterpillar that is found wild at the foot of the hills, and is also cultivated: it feeds on many different leaves, Sal, castor-oil, &c. The Lepchas profess no religion, though acknowledging the existence of good and bad spirits. To the good they pay no heed: "Why should It is called "Ban," and serves equally for plough, toothpick, table-knife, hatchet, hammer, and sword. 112 CHURCH MISS. SUNDAY-SCHOOL TREAT AT MADRAS. [OCT. we?" they say: "the good spirits do us no harm; the evil spirits, who dwell in every rock, grove, and mountain, are constantly at mischief, and to them we must pray, for they hurt us." Every tribe has a priestdoctor: he neither knows nor attempts to practise the healing art, but is a pure exorcist; all bodily ailments being deemed the operations of devils, who are cast out by prayers and invocations. Still they acknowledge the Lamas to be very holy men, and were the latter only moderately active, they would soon convert all the Lepchas. Their priests are called "Bijooas:" they profess mendicancy, and seem intermediate between the begging friars of Thibet, whose dress and attributes they assume, and the exorcists of the aboriginal Lepchas: they sing, dance (masked and draped like harlequins), beg, bless, curse, and are merry mountebanks: those that affect more of the Lama Buddhist carry the "Mani," or revolving praying-machine, and wear rosaries and amulets; others again are all tatters and rags. They are often employed to carry messages, and to transact little knaveries. The natives stand in some awe of them, and being, besides, of a generous disposition, keep the wallet of the Bijooa always full.' Death here, as elsewhere among the families of fallen man, goes forward on its mission, and on each, when the appointed time comes, the sentence takes effect, "It is appointed unto man once to die." How dark that moment is when He is unknown, who can alone enlighten it! "The poorer are buried, the richer burnt, and their ashes scattered or interred, but not in graves proper, of which there are none. Nor are there any signs of interment throughout Sikkim. Although chaits are erected to the memory of the departed, they have no necessary connexion with the remains." CHURCH MISSIONARY SUNDAY-SCHOOL TREAT AT MADRAS. THERE was a pleasing scene in town on Friday evening the 10th of July last. The young people connected with the Sunday school in the northern division of the Church Missionary Society's district were brought together in the central school, with their teachers, for a treat, consisting of reward-books, fruits, and sweets. Proceedings commenced at five o'clock, by the Bishop taking the chair. After a hymn had been sung and prayer offered by the Rev. W. Saumerez Smith, the Rev. J. Bilderbeck briefly stated the object of the gathering, and described the character of the school. It consisted of two branches, one in town and the other in Tondiarpet; the former numbering sixty-four scholars, and the latter forty; making in all 104 present of these, twenty-one were girls and the rest boys. The subjects of exercise varied according to the capacities of the pupils and the choice of their teachers. Sometimes the collects for the day are explained, sometimes selected portions of Scripture, and sometimes Catechisms *The extracts are taken from Dr. J. D. Hooker's Himalayan Journals, 1855. |