My dear Children—­The people of India are divided into castes, as they are called.  Their sacred books declare, that after Brumha had peopled the heavens above and the worlds below, he created the human race, consisting of four classes or castes.  From his mouth proceeded the Brahmin caste.  Those of this class are the highest and noblest beings on earth, and hold the office of priests.  At the same time there flowed from his mouth the Vedas, or sacred books, of which the Brahmins are the sole teachers To their fellow-men, they were to give such parts of these books as they thought best.  From Brumha’s arm proceeded the military caste.  The business of this class is to defend their country when attacked by enemies.  From his breast proceeded the third caste, consisting of farmers and merchants.  From his feet, the member of inferiority, proceeded the Sudras, or servile caste.  Carpenters, braziers, weavers, dyers, and the manual cultivators of the soil, are included in this class.

Caste is not a civil, but a sacred institution.  You must get some one older than yourself to explain what this means.  Caste is a difference of kind.  Hence, a man of one caste can never be changed into a man of another caste, any more than a lion can be changed into a mole, or a mole into a lion.  Each caste has its laws, the breaking of which is attended with great disgrace, and even degradation below all the other castes.  For instance, if a Brahmin should, by eating any forbidden thing, break his caste, he would sink below all the other castes.  He would become an outcast, or pariah.  For beneath the fourth, or lowest caste, there is a class of people belonging to no caste—­a class of outcasts, held in the utmost abhorrence.

By the system of castes, the Hindoos have been divided into so many selfish sections, each scowling on all the rest with feelings of hatred and contempt.  The spirit which upholds it, is similar to that spirit which says, “Stand by thyself, for I am holier than thou,” and, of course, is nothing but pride.  This is one of the greatest obstacles to the spread of Christianity in this dark land, and for the exhibition of which we were lately obliged to cut off many of the members of our churches.

The Brahmins, in consequence of their being of the highest caste, and of their having been taught from their infancy to regard all other classes of men with the utmost contempt, are very proud.  They make great efforts to keep themselves pure, in their sense of the word, both without and within.  They are exceedingly afraid of being defiled by persons of other castes.  They have the utmost dread even of being touched by a pariah.  For them to eat with any of these pariahs, or to go into their houses, or to drink water which they have drawn, or from vessels which they have handled, is attended with the loss of their caste.  A Brahmin who should enter their houses, or permit them to enter his, would be cut off