ng Christians. When the week was over and the missionaries gone,
the Khasis performed a ceremony in honour of their tribal deities. Their
pastors regarded this as a woeful lapse from grace but no disbelief in
Christianity or change of faith was implied. The Khasis had embraced
Christianity in the same spirit that animated the ancient disciples of
the Buddha: it was the higher law which spoke of a new life and of the
world to come. But it was not understood that it offered to take over
the business of the local deities, to look after crops and pigs and
children, to keep smallpox, tigers and serpents in order. Nobody doubted
the existence of spirits who regulate these matters, while admitting
that ethics and the road to heaven were not in their department, and
therefore it was thought wise to supplement the Christian ceremonies by
others held in their honour and thus let them see that they were not
forgotten and run no risk of incurring their enmity.

My object in this chapter is to point out at the very beginning that in
Asia the existence of a duly labelled religion, such as Buddhism or
Confucianism, does not imply the suppression of older nameless beliefs,
especially about nature spirits and ghosts. In China and many other
countries we must not be surprised to find Buddhists honouring spirits
who have nothing to do with Buddhism. In India we must not suppose that
the doctrines of Ramanuja or any other great teacher are responsible for
the crudities of village worship, nor yet rashly assume that the
villager is ignorant of them.

CHAPTER II

HISTORICAL

It may be useful to insert here a brief sketch of Indian history, but
its aim is merely to outline the surroundings in which Hindu religion
and philosophy grew up. It, therefore, passes lightly over much which is
important from other points of view and is intended for reference rather
than for continuous reading.

An indifference to history, including biography, politics and geography,
is the great defect of Indian literature. Not only are there few
historical treatises[107] but even historical allusions are rare and
this curious vagueness is not peculiar to any age or district. It is as
noticeable among the Dravidians of the south as among the speakers of
Aryan languages in the north. It prevails from Vedic times until the
Mohammedan conquest, which produced chronicles though it did not induce
Brahmans to write them in Sanskrit. The lacuna is being slowly f