superior; her
rose-coloured seeley is clean, and two large gold jewels are in each
ear; she has a little gold necklet round her throat, and silver bangles
and toe rings. All the others are hopelessly grubby and very
unenlightened, but they listen just as most people listen in church,
with a sort of patient expression. It is the proper thing to do.

I am talking to them now, and till I am half-way through nobody says
anything, when suddenly the girl remarks, "We have ten fingers, not just
one!" which is so astonishing that I stop and wonder what she can be
thinking of. I was talking about the one sheep lost out of one hundred.
What has that got to do with one finger and ten? She goes on to explain,
"I have heard all this before. I have a sister who is a Christian, and
once I stayed with her, and I heard all about your religion, and I felt
in my heart it was good. But then I was married" ("tied," she said),
"and of course I forgot about it; but now I remember, and I say if ten
of our people will join and go over to your Way, that will be well, but
what would be the use of one going? What is the use of one finger moving
by itself? It takes ten to do the day's work."

"If ten of you had cholera, and I brought you cholera medicine, would
you say, 'I won't take it unless nine others take it too'?" I replied.
She laughs and the others laugh, but a little uneasily. They hardly like
this reference to the dreaded cholera; death of the body is so much more
tremendous in prospect than death of the soul. "You would take it, and
then the others, seeing it do you good, would perhaps take it too"; and
we try to press home the point of the illustration. But a point pricks,
and pricking is uncomfortable.

The three men begin to shuffle their feet and talk about other things;
the old mother-in-law proposes betel all round, and hands us some
grimy-looking leaves with a pressing invitation to partake. The various
onlookers make remarks, and the girl devotes herself to her baby. But
she is thinking; one can see old memories are stirred. At last with a
sigh she gets up, looks round the little indifferent group, goes over to
the fireplace, and blows up the fire. This means we had better say
salaam; so we say it and they say it, adding the usual "Go and come."

It will be easier to help these people out of their low levels than it
will be to help their masters of the higher walks of life. But to do
anything genuine or radical among either s