Far Off; Or, Asia and Australia Described: With Anecdotes and IllustrationsMortimer, Favell Lee
Religion
Far Off; Or, Asia and Australia Described: With Anecdotes and Illustrations
Mortimer, Favell Lee
Asia -- Description and travel; Australia -- Description and travel
There was once a little Hindoo girl named Rajee. She went to a
missionary's school, but she would not eat with her schoolfellows,
because she belonged to a higher caste than they did. As she lived at the
school, her mother brought her food every day, and Rajee sat under a tree
to eat it. At the end of two years she told her mother that she wished to
turn from idols, and serve the living God. Her mother was much troubled
at hearing this, and begged her child not to bring disgrace on the family
by becoming a Christian. But Rajee was anxious to save her precious soul.
She cared no longer for her caste, for she knew that all she had been
taught about it was deceit and folly; therefore one day she sat down and
ate with her schoolfellows. When her mother heard of Rajee's conduct,
she ran to the school in a rage, and seizing her little daughter by the
hair of the head, began to beat her severely. Then she hastened to the
priests to ask them whether the child had lost her caste forever. The
priests replied, "Has the child got her new teeth?" "No," said the
mother. "Then we can cleanse her, and when her new teeth come she will be
as pure as ever. But you must pay a good deal of money for the
cleansing." Were they not _cunning_ priests? and _covetous_ priests too?
The money was paid, and Rajee was brought home against her will. Dreadful
sufferings awaited the poor child. The cleansing was a cruel business.
The priests burned the child's tongue. This was one of their cruelties.
When little Rajee was suffered to go back to school, she was so ill that
she could not rise from her bed.
The poor deceived mother came to see her. "I am going to Jesus," said the
young martyr. The mother began to weep, "O Rajee, we will not let you
die."
"But I am glad," the little sufferer replied, "because I shall go to
Jesus. If you, mother, would love him, and give up your idols, we should
meet again in heaven."
An hour afterwards Rajee went to heaven; but I have never heard whether
her mother gave up her idols.
THE GANGES.--This beautiful river waters the sultry plain of Bengal. God
made this river to be a blessing, but man has turned it into a curse. The
Hindoos say the River Ganges is the goddess Gunga; and they flock from
all parts of India to worship her. When they reach the river they bathe
in it, and fancy they have washed away all their sins. They carry away
large bottles of the sacred water for their friends at home.
But this is not all; very cruel deeds are committed by the side of the
river. It is supposed that all who die there will go to the Hindoo
heaven. It is therefore the custom to drag dying people out of their
beds, and to lay them in the mud, exposed to the heat of the broiling
sun, and then to pour pails of water over their heads.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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