sick woman to me, she would direct the child to take up one of the parcels containing the white flowers.  It so happened that the child took up one of these parcels.  Of course, he brought her to me.  Had it taken up a parcel containing the red flowers, she would have been taken to a native doctor.  May we not hope that, not Meenaache, but Jehovah directed him to bring her to me, that she might hear of a very different being from her goddess, even of Jesus.  Of him she has fully heard.

CHAPTER X.

FESTIVALS OF THE HINDOOS.

My dear Children—­The Hindoos have many festivals.  These are all occasions of joy and gladness.  On such days, the people quit their usual employments.  Friends and relations unite in family parties, and give entertainments according to their means.  Innocent pastimes and amusements of various kinds are resorted too to add to their happiness.

There are eighteen principal festivals yearly, and no month passes without one or more of them.

One of the most solemn of these ceremonies is held in the month of September, and appears to be principally in honor of Parvathe, the wife of Siva.  At this time every laborer and every artisan offers sacrifices and prayers to his tools.  The laborer brings his plough, hoe, and other farming utensils.  He piles them together, and offers a sacrifice to them, consisting of flowers, fruit, rice, and other articles.  After this, he prostrates himself before them at full length, and then returns them to their places.

The mason offers the same adoration and sacrifice to his trowel, rule, and other instruments The carpenter adores his hatchet, adze, and plane.  The barber collects his razors together and worships them with similar rites.

The writing-master sacrifices to the iron pen or style, with which he writes upon the palm-leaf the tailor to his needles, the weaver to his loom, the butcher to his cleaver.

The women, on this day, collect into a heap their baskets, rice-mill, rice-pounder, and other household utensils, and, after having offered sacrifices to them, fall down in adoration before them.  Every person, in short, in this solemnity sanctifies and adores the instrument or tool by which he gains a living.  The tools are considered as so many gods, to whom they present their prayers that they will continue to furnish them still with the means of getting a livelihood.

This least is concluded by making an idol to represent Parvathe.  It is made of the paste of grain, and being placed under a sort of canopy, is carried through the streets with great pomp, and receives the worship of the people.

Another festival of great celebrity is observed in October.  At this time, each person, for himself, makes offerings of boiled rice and other food, to such of their relations as have died, that they may have a good meal on that day.  They afterwards offer sacrifices of burning lamps, of fruit, and of flowers, and also new articles of dress, that their ancestors may be freshly clothed.