I have been requested by friends of Mr. Gangooly to make proper reference here to some most unworthy and disgraceful remarks in three or more of the Calvinistic and Baptist newspapers--“religious journals,” so called--about the conversion, the mission, and the objects of this Hindoo disciple. I have had these papers before me, and have noted the gibes and sneers which they have cast, in the interest of a poor and discomfited bigotry, upon the personal character and history and the aims of an unoffending and thoroughly earnest believer of the Gospel of Christ, who has come to it through a process unlike that which for methods and results they approve. But I have not thought that it would help the cause of Christian charity, or be in harmony with the beautiful spirit exhibited in the pages following, for me to name those “religious papers,” or to extract their offensive matter. The harm they can do is steadily, year by year, becoming more circumscribed, as the readers for whose poor entertainment or “edification” they are edited form a proportionately smaller and smaller portion of our intelligent communities, and have an equally diminished importance or influence in giving a tone to the religion of the time. If this book should fall into the hands of any of those readers whose sectarian journals have lavished their abuse or ridicule upon its author, while it will be sure to engage their interest for him, it may also soften some of their own prejudices. G. E. E. CONTENTS. LIFE AND RELIGION OF THE HINDOOS. PAGE PREFACE xxvii BOOK I. CHAPTER I. Hindoo Caste.--Its Origin, Elements, Division, Subdivision, Strength, and Influence on the People. 1 CHAPTER II. The Birth.--Distribution of Presents.--Writing on the Forehead.--The Feast of Eight Peas.--The Day of Purification, etc. 13 CHAPTER III. Education.--Sanscrith.--Chalk in the Hand.--Patshata, the Teacher.--The Discipline in the School. 18 CHAPTER IV. The Second Birth.--Brahmun Consecrated Thread.--Discipline and Privileges of the Brahmun’s Life. 27 CHAPTER V.