women were a good
deal amused at her alarm. It was evident that everything that they saw
was an enigma to them. Naturally Hindu visitors constantly ask, "Where
is the God?" and they are a good deal astonished to find that there is
no visible God. The widows were naturally interested in the needlework
of the altar cloths and hangings, and asked several questions about it
and admired it. Like the lady visitors from the Hindu college, they
showed some diversity of taste and opinion in their dress and
ornaments and arrangement of hair.

When plague was bad in Poona City many of the well-to-do people left
their homes and camped round about Yerandawana. In the evening, when
Brahmin ladies were taking a walk with their children, or returning
from their daily visit to the Hindu temple in the village, a party of
them would now and then come into the church and study it at leisure
with great interest. The beautiful figure of the Crucifixion, with Our
Lady and St John, above the high altar, worked in silk and gold, they
looked at and discussed with much appreciation of the skilled
needlework and the richness of the materials. How far the picture
itself appealed to them it was difficult to say. Finally, they would
gather round the great font, sometimes with caution till they saw that
there was no water in it, and listened respectfully to the description
of its use.

"Yes, I see, it is for a religious bath," said one of them; and we
wondered how long it might be before some of these good women would
again gather round the font to receive their own baptism.

CHAPTER IV

INDIAN EMPLOYERS OF LABOUR

Studies of Indian character. Workpeople rude to their
employers. Disobedience of female workers. The contractor's
pay-day. The labourers cheated. The caretaker of the
wood-store; the risk of fire; the caretaker's fidelity; his
cheerful poverty; the tyranny of clothes; his prayers. The
wood-cutters defrauded.

While the village church was in process of building, many valuable
opportunities occurred for getting insight into Indian character.
Various grades of men were employed, from the rough coolies who dug
the foundations, to the skilled decorator who gilded the cross on the
top of the tower. The prosperous Hindu contractor with his clerks and
overseers were constantly on the spot, and vendors of wood and stone
and other materials were frequently in the compound making bargains
about fresh supp