receive
his soul." The dying man may be roused to sensibility by the violence.
He may entreat his priest to desist; but his entreaties are drowned. He
persists in pouring the mud and water down his throat, until he is
gradually stifled, suffocated--suffocated in the name of
humanity--suffocated in the name of religion.

It happens, sometimes, in cases of sudden and violent attacks of
disease, that they cannot be conveyed to the river before death. Under
such circumstances, a bone is preserved, and at a convenient season is
taken down and thrown into the river. This, it is believed, contributes
essentially to the salvation of the deceased.

Sometimes strangers are left on the banks to die, without the ceremony
of drinking Ganges water. Of these, some have been seen creeping along
with the flesh half eaten off their bones by the birds; others with
their limbs torn by dogs and jackals, and others partly covered with
insects.

After a person is taken down to the river, if he should recover, it is
looked upon by his friends as a great misfortune. He becomes an outcast.
Even his own children will not eat with him, nor offer him the least
attention. If they should happen to touch him, they must wash their
bodies, to cleanse them from the pollution which has been contracted.
About fifty miles north of Calcutta, are two villages inhabited entirely
by these poor creatures, who have become outcasts in consequence of
their recovery after having been taken down to the Ganges.

At the mouth of the river Hoogly, which is one of the branches of the
Ganges, is the island Sauger, which I saw as we approached Calcutta
after having been at sea for one hundred and twenty-eight days. Now, my
dear children, if you come out to India as missionaries, you will have
to sail nearly one hundred and thirty days before you can reach it.
Sauger island is the island where, formerly, hundreds of mothers were in
the habit of throwing their children to the crocodiles, and where these
mothers were wont to weep and cry if the crocodiles did not devour their
children before their eyes. Think what a dreadful religion that must
be, which makes mothers so hard-hearted. Did you ever take any corn or
Indian meal and throw it to the chickens? And what did these chickens
do? Did they not come around you and eat it? Well, just in this way the
crocodiles would come near those mothers, and devour their children.
Here is a picture of a mother throwing her child to