the
Brahmins in order that their coffers may be well filled. I will name a
few of those ceremonies which relate to everybody's life and death, and
which cannot, therefore, be neglected.

"As soon as a mother knows she has conceived, a Brahmin must be sent for
to read certain formulas; when the child is born a Brahmin must be
called for the same purpose, also when it is a week, six months, two
years and eight years old, and again when the young people are to be
married; in all cases of sickness, at the death-bed, at the cremation of
the body, and every month the first year after a person's death; and at
each one of these visits the Brahmin is entitled to money or other
gifts. Also if a family is subject to any misfortune the Brahmin must be
called to conjure the evil powers; if a bird of prey alights on the
roof, the owner of the house must call a Brahmin to purify the house by
his blessing; when he moves into a new house the Brahmin must bless it
beforehand; when a man dies on an _unlucky day_ his son must pay the
Brahmin money to ward off a similar calamity from him; when a well is
dug a Brahmin must bless it before its water can be used; during
eclipses of the sun and the moon everybody sends gifts to the Brahmins;
at every change of the moon the Brahmin is entitled to gifts as well as
on forty regular holidays every year; during small-pox or cholera
ravages he is called to ward off the plague; the farmer cannot reap his
grain, the fisherman cannot go to sea, the merchant cannot make a
bargain unless he has bought the blessing of the Brahmin and paid for
the same."

And still the Hindoos possess a high culture, and their civilization is
one of the oldest in the world. They are endowed with a strong religious
feeling. They are profound, peaceful, diligent, economical and law
abiding; many of them have become distinguished in learning, art and
science; they have been the teachers of the philosophers and scholars of
other nations, and for thousands of years they have pondered deeply on
questions pertaining to the human soul, immortality and the life to
come, and endeavored to satisfy their craving and yearning for a closer
union with the infinite by a devotion and self sacrifices which can well
be compared with the sufferings of the Christian martyrs. Accordingly if
any people could attain a higher development and a happy condition by
other means than the influence of the Christian religion, that people
ought to be th