. Had it taken up a
parcel containing the red flowers, she would have been taken to a native
doctor. May we not hope that, not Meenaache, but Jehovah directed him
to bring her to me, that she might hear of a very different being from
her goddess, even of Jesus. Of him she has fully heard.

CHAPTER X.

FESTIVALS OF THE HINDOOS.

My dear Children--The Hindoos have many festivals. These are all
occasions of joy and gladness. On such days, the people quit their usual
employments. Friends and relations unite in family parties, and give
entertainments according to their means. Innocent pastimes and
amusements of various kinds are resorted too to add to their happiness.

There are eighteen principal festivals yearly, and no month passes
without one or more of them.

One of the most solemn of these ceremonies is held in the month of
September, and appears to be principally in honor of Parvathe, the wife
of Siva. At this time every laborer and every artisan offers sacrifices
and prayers to his tools. The laborer brings his plough, hoe, and other
farming utensils. He piles them together, and offers a sacrifice to
them, consisting of flowers, fruit, rice, and other articles. After
this, he prostrates himself before them at full length, and then returns
them to their places.

The mason offers the same adoration and sacrifice to his trowel, rule,
and other instruments The carpenter adores his hatchet, adze, and plane.
The barber collects his razors together and worships them with similar
rites.

The writing-master sacrifices to the iron pen or style, with which he
writes upon the palm-leaf the tailor to his needles, the weaver to his
loom, the butcher to his cleaver.

The women, on this day, collect into a heap their baskets, rice-mill,
rice-pounder, and other household utensils, and, after having offered
sacrifices to them, fall down in adoration before them. Every person, in
short, in this solemnity sanctifies and adores the instrument or tool by
which he gains a living. The tools are considered as so many gods, to
whom they present their prayers that they will continue to furnish them
still with the means of getting a livelihood.

This least is concluded by making an idol to represent Parvathe. It is
made of the paste of grain, and being placed under a sort of canopy, is
carried through the streets with great pomp, and receives the worship of
the people.

Another festival of great celebrity is observed in Oct