"Walking out into a village where the boat stopped for the night I
found the worshipers of Kali by the sound of their drums and cymbals.
Invited by the Brahmins to walk in I entered and asked a few questions
about the idol. The Brahmin who spoke bad Hindoostanee disputed with
great heat, and his tongue ran faster than I could follow, and the
people, about one hundred, shouted applause. I continued my questions
and among other things asked if what I had heard of Vishnu and Brahma
was true, which he confessed. I forbore to press him with the
consequences, which he seemed to feel; and then I told him what was my
belief. The man grew quite mild and said it was _chula bat_ (good
words), and asked me seriously at last what I thought, 'Was idol
worship true or false?' I felt it a matter of thankfulness that I
could make known the truth of God though a stammerer and that I had
declared it in the presence of the devil. And this also I learnt, that
the power of gentleness is irresistible. I never was more astonished
than at the change in deportment of this hot-headed Brahmin.... Came
to on the eastern bank below a village called Ahgadup. Wherever I
walked the women fled at the sight of me. Some men were sitting under
the shed dedicated to their goddess; a lamp was burning in her place.
A conversation soon began, but there was no one who could speak
Hindoostanee. I could only speak by the medium of my Mussulman,
Musalchee. They said that they only did as others did, and that if
they were wrong then all Bengal was wrong. I felt love for their
souls, and longed for utterance to declare unto these poor simple
people the holy gospel. I think that when my mouth is opened I shall
preach to them day and night.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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