The Hindoos, as I before observed, have eighteen annual festivals.  One of these festivals is held for the purpose of worshipping this serpent.  Temples in many places are erected to it, of which there is one of great celebrity in Mysore.  When the festival occurs at this temple, great crowds of people come together to offer sacrifices to this creeping god.  Many serpents besides the Cobra Capella live within it, in holes made especially for them.  All of these are kept and well fed by the Brahmins with milk, butter, and plantains.  By such means they become very numerous, and may be seen swarming from every crevice in the temple.  To injure or to kill one would be considered a great crime.

Many of the natives call the Cobra Capella nulla paampu, that is, good snake.  They are afraid to call it a bad snake, lest it should injure them.  The following is the prayer which is offered before the image of this snake.  O, divine Cobra, preserve and sustain us.  O, Sheoh, partake of these offerings, and be gracious unto us.

Can you think of any thing, my dear children more dishonoring to a holy God, than such worship?  And what have you ever done to prevent it?  Have you, every morning and evening, prayed that the Gospel might be sent to this people?  Did you ever give any money to send it to them?  Did you ever think whether it may not be your duty, by and by, to come to them, to tell them of this Gospel?

CHAPTER XII.

THE RIVER GANGES.

My dear Children—­If you will look at the map of Asia, and find the country of Hindostan, you will see running through it a very celebrated river—­the river Ganges.  It is called the Ganges, after the goddess Gunga.  The Hindoos say that the goddess Gungu—­who was produced from the sweat of Vrishnoo’s foot, which Brumha caught and preserved in his alms-dish—­came down from heaven, and divided herself into one hundred streams, which are the mouths of the river Ganges.  All classes and castes worship her.  The sight, the name, or the touch of the river Ganges is said to take away all sin.  To die on the edge of the river, or to die partly buried in the stream, drinking its waters, while their bodies are besmeared with mud, is supposed to render them very holy.  On this account, when it is expected that a person will die, he is hurried down to the river, whether willing or unwilling.  Sometimes the wood which the people bring to burn their bodies after death, is piled up before their eyes.  O, how inhuman is this.  After it is supposed that they are dead, and they are placed on the pile of wood, if they should revive and attempt to rise, it is thought that they are possessed with the devil, and they are beaten down with a hatchet or bamboo.