ward centipede may find his way into your robe, or even into your bed; white ants may push through a crack in the cement floor right under your trunk and eat out great holes in your garments before you know it, or they may secretly work up into your library until some day on opening the covers of a book you find half the inside eaten out and carried away. Your pantry tables must be insulated from the red and black ants, the latter often of enormous size and of grotesque appearance as they strut about in seeming defiance with their erect abdomens. You will often be compelled to lay aside your reading or sewing in the evening and remove your lamp to the veranda to rid yourself of the cloud of gnats, moths and beetles that are surrounding it and covering you. Of course there is nothing else to do now but to sit in the dark or retire under the mosquito bar till morning. Is the reader now ready to ask again, "How is it possible to make life tolerable Well, it is possible by things coolly and as in such a country?" just taking all these matters of course, and by practising unremitting vigilance. Let me give you one experience out of many : BANYAN TREE OF INDIA HANAMACONDA, June 16, 1883. "Since the rains began the insects have troubled us so in the evening, flying about our lamps, into our faces and hair, and sticking on our clothes, that it is sometimes impossible to keep the house open. We have to shut out the breeze and make an artificial breeze inside with the punkah. Last week we had a run of small beetles about the size of a pea. Their operations seemed to be confined exclusively to two large, flowering trees in front of our veranda. They had eaten the leaves off as clean as canker-worms eat an apple tree. One evening, after vain attempts to read at our table, we set a lantern on two sticks over a wash-basin half full of water. In two hours the basin was even full of a wet, benumbed, crawling mass of beetles. Then we moved the lantern for the night onto a small water tank in the garden nearly under the trees. Here, in three successive nights, we caught, by actual measurement, over a bushel of these living peas. We had them dipped out of the water and buried in earth." The trees were exotics and one of them died the next year. The inhabitants of India, instead of being homogeneous and bound together by a common language into a great nation, are divided into a great variety of racial and tribal elements held together only by the strong arm of a foreign dominant power. The British government rules, in part directly, in part indirectly, over all these diverse elements, keeping them in friendly, or at least peaceful relations one with another. Of these ancient tribes the Telugus are one of the most numerous and important. Although they are found in scattered communities in nearly every part of Southern India their proper country may be roughly outlined by following the railway from Madras northwest about half way to Bombay, then proceeding due north to the Go davery river, and following its course toward the east as far as the Eastern Ghants, thence going northeast to the borders of Orissa, and reaching the coast at a point just north of Chicacole. We have thus included a territory having a coast line of about 500 miles, and extending inland as far as 300 miles, and having an area as great as that of all the New England states, plus New York and Pennsylvania. With the exception of scattered settlements of other tribes, and some mixture along their borders with their neighbors, and about ten per cent of Mohammedans of various origins, scattered about in their midst, the great mass of the people in this territory are Telugus, speaking a common language, and having a common civilization and religion. The country is divided longitudinally into two sections by the Eastern Ghants, which, in the latitude of Ramapatam and Ongole, for instance, lie from 60 to 100 miles from the coast, receding and diminishing in size as they extend north. The flat country east of these mountains, "the plains," as it is called, is dependent upon the northeast monsoon for its rains, which begin about the 15th of October and last for two months more or less. The interior portion, which is a part of the great Deccan plateau, from 1,000 to 2,000 feet above the sea level, gets most of its rain from the southwest monsoon, which in this locality is "wet" from early in June till about the 1st of October. This is the rainy season at Secunderabad and Hanam. aconda, during which mission travel is impracticable. During this period, however, there is scarcely any rain upon the coast; the mountains usually wring out of the air almost every drop of moisture, and as it passes over the plains it becomes superheated, so that by the time it reaches the eastern coast it is very hot and very dry. THE HE assault on Rev. Alfred C. Fuller, of Podili, June 12, has already become known through the daily and weekly press. The sub-magistrate or chief local officer of the village having recently died, the subordinate officers refused to allow Mr. Fuller's servant to enter the office when sent there by the missionary on a matter of business. Mr. Fuller recognized this as an attempt to establish a new rule and as an intended indignity to himself and his work, which it would not do to allow to pass unnoticed. He accordingly went to the office himself, taking the servant, and demanded for him the usual treatment when sent there on business. The clerks were insolent and would give no satisfaction, and Mr. Fuller left, intending to place the matter before the higher authorities. On his way to his home he was surrounded by a crowd, his horse was seized, and an attempt made to throw him to the ground. Providentially the horse was large and strong, a present from Mr. Fuller's father. The missionary's servants also fought for him bravely, and he was able to extricate himself from the angry mob and reach his home safely by a circuitous way. During the attack Mr. Fuller was struck several times by stones. and clubs, and it was only by the mercy of God that he escaped serious injury. As soon as they heard of the matter, Mr. and Mrs. Levering, of Nellore, bravely hastened to the assistance of Mr. Fuller, Podili being an isolated station. There is no question that the case will be fully adjusted by the higher authorities, but this attack on one of our missionaries is an indication of the disturbed feeling among the natives of India at the present time. There is great reason for thankfulness that the results were not more serious. Hon. Robert O. Fuller, of Cambridge, Mass., the father of the missionary, who is also Chairman of the Board of Managers of the Missionary Union, kindly furnishes us with the following account of the circumstances which led up to this attack: About one year ago Rev. Alfred C. Fuller was having his compound enclosed by a ditch, having just returned from the hills, where he had been ordered by a physician on account of illness. He had not fully recovered his health. The morning after his return he was waited upon by a delegation of 150 Mohammedans. They said there were two trees on his compound where they had a praying station. The trench would prevent their access to the place. Mr. Fuller replied, "I have been here some years and have never objected to your going there; I will leave a place so that you can enter whenever you wish." They said this was perfectly satisfactory, and departed. That same afternoon they came and filled up quite a length of the trench. This was a high-handed action. If one allows a matter of this kind to pass, the natives. believe he is afraid, and are more insolent. Mr. Fuller lodged a complaint against the parties. At the hearing it was proposed to view the premises. When the day came Mr. Fuller found one thousand people there, all hostile. All the officials are natives; they favored his giving in to the claims of the Mohammedans. The question was asked how much they required. They spread out in a circle of about six hundred feet in diameter. They were quite assertive in their demands, appearing to feel sure of success. Mr. Fuller finally said that he would take time to consider it; but this did not suit them, as they wanted a decision at once. Mr. Fuller returned to his bungalow and wrote out a statement of the case and sent it by special messenger to Dr. Clough, thirty-five miles away, also to the Brahmin lawyer he had employed at Ongole when he had bought the lot. After the lawyer came he proved that Mr. Fuller had applied to the Rajah (who owns all the land) for permission to locate there; that the Rajah had given a title to the American Baptist Missionary Union, or their representative; that he had been paid for the land, and Mr. Fuller had paid the taxes; that the claimants had never asked or received any permit to locate there; that they had no claim, and Mr. Fuller's title was good. This settled the case for that time. While this case was pending other claims were made; viz., that their cattle had been accustomed to feed on the land; that a right of way had been gained across the lot; that Mr. Fuller's line projected several feet into the highway. Several other vexatious matters of oppression of the Christians had required careful attention. The mental wear and tear upon him has been very great. We learn from a Telugu missionary in this country if the Mohammedans had been successful in their land claim they would have been so insolent and annoying it would have hardly been possible for Mr. Fuller to have remained in Podili. Late letters from Mr. Fuller state that the suits six in number-that had been tried before the native judge in Podili, and decided in his favor, have all been appealed to a higher court. The decisions had been given before the attack on him June 12. The judge over the next higher court is also a native. On the last date, July 26, the collector or governor, the next highest in rank to the English official in the Madras presidency, had arrived at Podili to examine into the cases, to see if he would transfer them to his own list of trials. There are thirty-three accused and more than one hundred that rendered themselves liable during the mob. Mr. Fuller writes: "I was in court today from eleven A.M. to six P.M. without a break, and from three to six I was being cross-examined by the other side. The head man (whose photo was in the August MAGAZINE) is the leader of those against me, and he has become very bitter. This man had previously been quite helpful. I do not know who to depend upon as friends from one day to another. "It looks as if famine would be pressing sore upon us in a very few weeks. People are already going to the prickly pear cactus and the white ant-hills to find food; that is generally the last resort before starvation. None are dying yet, but when the dying begins then it is famine in good earnest. I hope this stage will not come, but I fear it may. At the very best we are bound to have pinching times till the end of the year. There has been no rain to do any good here. Rain should begin by June 16. It is too late to sow any but a limited number of varieties of grain." PUNDI ALFRED C. FULLER. UNDITA RAMABAI, the eminent Hindu lady who became a convert to Christianity, and established a home for widows at Poona, India, after careful study of the scriptures, has sought and received baptism in the scriptural form, by immersion. Her associate in the Home, Soondrabai Powar, and ten of the widows were baptized at the same time. BAPTIST THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY, RAMAPATAM, INDIA THE REV. DAVID DOWNIE, D.D., NELLORE HE Seminary Commencement occurred on Friday the 16th of April, when ten men and four women completed the four years' course. There were other women in the class, but they did not get certificates as they had not attended all the classes. For The examinations began on Wednesday and continued till Friday morning. the first time in many years there was a full board of trustees present to conduct the examinations. This is but one of many indications that a growing interest is felt by the missionaries in the seminary. The examinations were generally very satisfactory, but there were one or two classes which had evidently suffered for want of competent instruction, a defect which the board resolved to remedy by a change of teachers. Messrs. Heinrichs and Ferguson were full of enthusiasm in their work, and it was a pleasure to see the impress of their zeal and thoroughness on their students. There was a decided improvement in the graduating exercises over all previous years. The student who took the prize for scholarship, by a very small fraction over the second in rank, also carried off the prize for elocu tion. Three more prizes were offered for next year, making five in all, two of which are for women. The address to the graduating class was delivered by Dr. Boggs. The two students just referred to requested permission to pursue a post-graduate course of one year, chiefly in English. This was granted provided they bore all their own expenses, except tuition. This is probably all right, but the pressing need of the great field for a better class of mission helpers, makes it hard to see why these two able young men should not at once enter active service. Beginning with July, 1898, the admission of married students is to be discontinued except under very special circumstances. This we believe to be another step in the right direction. Admitting all the advantages that may be claimed for women studying in the same classes as their husbands, including the fact that frequently the wife is the better student of the two, yet experience has proved that the presence of so large a number of married men and women in such an institution has not been beneficial to it or the mission. [From the Almanac of the American Board, Rev. E. E. Strong, D.D., Editor.] |