real indigenous plant. He went on to say--"Even if we were to
put aside the tradition of St Thomas having preached here, we know
that, at any rate from the eighth century onwards, with only a few
intermissions, there has been Christian effort at work in the
country." The conclusion that he came to was that "there has been too
much of the individual and too little of the Holy Spirit. St Francis
Xavier baptized thousands of children, and then went his way. The
Church has always depended on foreign aid, and when left to itself has
either died away or kept itself alive by maintaining a sort of
Christian caste. The Eastern people are, to a certain extent, pliant
and easily led. The somewhat masterful foreign missionary had bent the
people to his will and his ways. The house has been built square and
solid, and finished in appearance. But it is a building, not a plant.
It has not within it the power of life and growth. There has been more
building than sowing. It depends on the force of the individual, and
but little room is left for the power of the Holy Spirit to make it
really fruitful."

CHAPTER XIV

INDIAN MUSIC

Women singing as they grind. Singing to the bullocks.
Singing on the road. The rest-house. Soldiers singing.
Palanquin bearers. Indian taste in music. Indian musical
instruments. The native band. The "Europe" band. Sir G.
Clarke on Indian music. Evil associations of native tunes.
Indian choir-boys.

One of the commonest sounds in India is that of women grinding at the
mill. You not only hear the grating of the revolving stone, but since
it is a hard and monotonous task, the toilers almost invariably
enliven it by singing. They do so rather melodiously, and it sounds
pleasant in the distance. Their songs are to a large extent made up on
the spur of the moment, and form a sort of running comment on what
they are doing, or on what is going on around them.

This custom of singing in order to relieve the monotony of labour is
universal in certain departments, and even the beasts get to look upon
it as a stimulus to work. When drawing water from the wells, the man
in charge of the operation invariably encourages the bullocks with a
cheery sing-song, at the critical moment when they are raising the
heavy leather pouch of water from the well, and if he was to remain
silent, the Indian bullock, who is a strong conservative, would
certainly refuse to start. When they travel rou