The Pandarists wear no other garment than a piece of yellow cloth enveloping the whole figure. This dress guards them from the dangerous rays of the tropical sun, to which they are exposed the whole day. They sometimes wear a cap, an addition absolutely necessary to the European who would avoid a stroke of the sun; but they walk barefoot, except on occasions of ceremony, and in crossing the burning sands of the country, when they adopt a sandal of a peculiar construction. It is not fastened by a strap, but attached to the foot by means of a wooden peg between two toes. This clog is of little value for purposes of travelling, as it produces violent swellings of the legs and feet; but it is useful in crossing the deserts. The Pandarists allow the beard to grow, which is a mark of distinction in India, and carry a staff as a symbol of authority. Their diet is of the plainest kind, and entirely vegetable; animal life being held too sacred among them for the purposes of food, and therefore of course interdicted to all who would adopt their mode of life. This rigorous rule might have discouraged souls less ardent than John de Britto; but to him no sacrifice, no painfulness, seemed too great in his Master's service; and he cheerfully entered upon it, in spite of his feeble health and European constitution for the love he bore to Jesus Christ, and his yearning for the salvation of the idolators. Father de Britto set sail from Goa for the coast of Malabar, and landed at Ignapatam; then through Tanjore, where he was detained nearly a year by illness, he passed on to Ambalgata. In the college at this station Father de Britto, after a retreat of a month, took his monastic vows, and received his appointment to the Madura mission. He set out immediately with one other missionary and a few neophytes for Colli. They suffered excessive hardships on the route: they had to climb steep and rugged mountains, to pass through forests dense with briers and brushwood, and swarming with reptiles, to cross swollen rivers and pathless deserts; but at length they reached Colli, on the festival of S. Ignatius. There he found the plague raging, and he made it the means of converting very many to the faith by his intrepidity in relieving the sufferers. After the pestilence had ceased, the conversions increased so rapidly, that it became necessary to divide the northern and southern district of the mission, and the latter was committed to Father de Britto.