people are to-day much more absorbed in pacifying the devils which
infest every village than they are in worshipping purely Hindu
deities.

The prevailing faith of the Dravidians, therefore, is demonolatry; and
the myriad shrines in the villages and hamlets, and the daily rites
conducted in them, attest the universal prevalence of this belief and
the great place it has in the life of these so-called Hindus.

A run of a hundred and fifty miles directly south brings us to Cape
Comorin, the southernmost point of India. It is also the extreme south
of Travancore, "the Land of Charity," and one of the richest and most
charming sections of India. It is a Native State under the control of
the Brahmans.

[Illustration: THE GOLDEN LILY TANK IN THE MADURA TEMPLE]

It is unique in the large proportion of Christians which are among its
inhabitants. Though the Christian community in India averages only one
per cent of the population, in the State of Travancore it amounts to
25 per cent. It is here that we find the ancient Syrian Church, with
its three hundred and fifty thousand souls. Though it calls itself
"the Thomasian, Apostolic Church," and though the Romish Church
accepts the legend, modern historians deny its apostolic origin, and
claim that it was founded no earlier than the third century. Even
thus, it furnishes an intensely interesting study. The writer was
deeply interested to see and enter its two churches at Kottayam, both
of which are at least eight hundred years old.

Four centuries ago, Roman Catholicism used all the resources of the
Inquisition in order to absorb this Church. They succeeded only too
well, and half of the Indian Syrian Church is now subject to Rome.
Nearly a century ago, the Church Missionary Society of England lent a
helping hand to the Syrian Church, and has brought new life and
progressive energy, and a new spiritual power and ambition, into a
portion of that decrepit type of ancient Christianity.

Furthermore, a century of work given by the London Missionary Society
and the Church Missionary Society has created a Protestant Christian
community of more than one hundred thousand souls in that little
kingdom alone.

We pass from Travancore into the little State of Cochin, on the
north. We are impressed by the colossal Christian church in the town
of Cochin, in which, however, only a small handful of English people
worship every Sunday evening. It was erected by the Portuguese four
centurie