Things as they are : $b Mission work in Southern IndiaCarmichael, Amy
Religion
Things as they are : $b Mission work in Southern India
Carmichael, Amy
India -- Social life and customs; Missions -- India
There is a temple in the Hindu village near us. We have often tried to
reach the temple women, poor slaves of the Brahmans. We have often seen
the little girls, some of them bought as infants from their mothers, and
trained to the terrible life. In one of the Mission day schools there is
a child who was sold by her "Christian" mother to these Servants of the
gods; but though this is known it cannot be proved, and the child has no
wish to leave the life, and she cannot be taken by force.
Sometimes we see the little girls playing in the courtyards of the
houses near the temple, gracious little maidens, winsome in their ways,
almost always more refined in manner than ordinary children, and
often beautiful. One longs to help the little things, but no hand of
ours can stretch over the wall and lift even one child out.
Among the little temple girls in the Great Lake Village was a tiny girl
called Pearl-eyes, of whom we knew nothing; but God must have some
purpose for her, for He sent His Angel to the house one afternoon, and
the Angel found little Pearl-eyes, and he took her by the hand and led
her out, across the stream, and through the wood, to a Christian woman's
house in our village. Next morning she brought her to us. This is what
really happened, I think; there is no other way to account for it. No
one remembers such a thing happening here before.
I was sitting reading in the verandah when I saw them come. The woman
was looking surprised. She did not know about the Angel, I expect, and
she could not understand it at all. The little child was chattering
away, lifting up a bright little face as she talked. When she saw me she
ran straight up to me, and climbed on my knee without the least fear,
and told me all about herself at once. I took her to the Iyer, and he
sent for the Pastor, who sent a messenger to the Village of the Lake, to
say the child was here, and to inquire into the truth of her story.
"My name is Pearl-eyes," the child began, "and I want to stay here
always. I have come to stay." And she told us how her mother had sold
her when she was a baby to the Servants of the gods. She was not happy
with them. They did not love her. Nobody loved her. She wanted to live
with us.
But why had she run away now? She hardly seemed to know, and looked
puzzled at our questions. The only thing she was sure about was that she
had "run and come," and that she "wanted to stay." Then the Ammal came
in, and she went through exactly the same story with her.
We felt, if this proved to be fact, that we could surely keep her; the
Government would be on our side in such a matter. Only the great
difficulty might be to prove it.
Meanwhile we gave her a doll, and her little heart was at rest. She did
not seem to have a fear. With the prettiest, most confiding little
gesture, she sat down at our feet and began to play with it.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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