In and out of the homes of India

Front matter

r

Lee, Ada.

■7?

Preface

Im answer to many calls from Mission Stady Classes, Sunday School Superintendents, Leaders of Young Peoples' Societies, and Mission Circles for something fresh from the field I have put together the following sketches from my own experience in my work among the people.

The Author.

Calcutta, India.

AT 46 DHARAMTALA ST., CALCUTTA

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Facing

Ada Lee and her Baby Frank. Title

A Beautiful Spot. Preface.

A Village in Bengal. i.

“ The everlasting Snows 1

A Waterfall in the Himalaya Mountains. 2 Hindu Temples 7

One of the Farmer Caste. 16

A Widow at Six Years of Age. 20

A Hindu Young Man and his little Girl Wife 26 Little Wives in their Wedding Dress. 31

A Village Day School. 35

Bible Women starting out two and two —

to their Work 41

Christian Teachers in Holiday Dress. 42

A Jogee or Devotee. 48

Bathing in the Ganges. 51

Widovvs now Bible Women. 54

Native Preachers. 58

Chetrio as a Mission worker and two Bible Women saved from the Famine. 62

Cooking Indian Style 66

, Our famine Children sewing and making Lace 63 Chetrio as he came. 70

One year after the Famine. 72

Famine Skeletons — Laughing Baby. 74

Eogonath’s Wife. A Native House. A

Girl carrying Water. 80

Bindu. 82

Our Praying Band during the Revival. 92

Bengali School Boys. 98

Babies from the Rubbish Pile — Nathio’s

Baby (the one to the left) 100

‘‘To other little Ones as well” 103

“ Was I worth saving 105

CONIENTS.

Chap. x'AGE.

1. India. — The Pkovince of Bengal i-

11. Hindlt Mythology.— Krishnaisai 6.

III. The Influence of Caste .. 13.

IV. Is Child Marriage Binding? 20

V. Child Wives and Mothers 25.

VI. Doorga. — The Child Widow 31.

VII. Day Schools : Their Part in Mission

Work P5.

Till. The Work of the Bible Woaien 41.

IX. Gunga Sadgor 43.

X. The Hindu Widow’s Last Pilgriaiage 53.

XI What it Costs a Bengali to Becoaie a

Christian 58.

XII. Work Hours — Industrial Missions ... ^5.

XIII. Light .and Shade in the Dark Faaiine

Picture 70.

XV. A Jewel froai the Jungle 82.

XVI. Fruits of Higher Education 88.

XVII. The Revival. How it C.aaie 93.

XVIII. The Boy and the Bicycle 97.

XIX. Was it for the Master ? A Pleverie ••• lOl.

Introduction

Christian people studying Missions, in the Home land, will be greatly helped in arriving at a correet understanding of the abject misery of the Christless world, and the value of Foreign Missions, through the testimony of such a competent and expert witness as Ada Lee, the author of this book. Some tourists, after visiting Foreign Mission fields testify, ‘‘ I have been in a certain Mission field and I saw very few Native Christians, and I believe that the work of Missions is almost a failure.” Other tourists, who go to Mission fields, prejudiced against Missions and Missionaries, come home enthusiastic advocates, provided they have taken the time and the trouble to investigate Missionary work. Returned Missionaries always testify, We know there is successful Mission work, and that there are thousands of Native Christians.” Therefore in estimating ihe value of the conflicting testimony of those tourists who represent Missions as a failure, would it not be well to ask them some such questions as How much effort did you put forth to see Native Christians'?” “ How much time did you give to investigating the work of Missionaries'?” “ Did you ever ask a Missionary to take you into a Native Christian village ?” ‘‘ Have you ever con-

versed with a Native Pastor, or asked him to take you a Native Christian service'?”

Suppose a foreigner, not knowing the English language should visit America for about six weeks, the average length of time that a Globe-trotter gives ixi India. He engages an irreligious interpreter, visits the

Niagara falls, sees the sights, puts up in a first class hotel in New York, attends the theatre, visits Chicago, sees the stock yards, the Sunday beer gardens, and takes a hasty trip to a few other places, hearing only his irreligious interpreter’s version of affairs in America. Could he be a competent witness, concerning the Christian homes and Christian work being done on the American continent ? On his return to his Native land should he and a Christian minister from America meet on a Mission platform, which of the two could give the most intelligent and reliable information concerning Christian work on the American continent ?

Sir Andrew Fraser, late Lieutenant-Governor of Bengal, the most populous province in India, a son of a Presbyterian Missionary, and an earnest Christian worker, who was all his life intimately associated with Missionaries, after his retirement from a full Government term of Indian service, at a great Missionary meeting held in London, told an incident, illustrating the necessity of a personal knowledge of Missionary work to make one competent to give reliable evidence concerning Missions. He said, A Missionary, who was a friend of mine was travelling in India, without any particular clerical sign, wearing a kind of khaki, and might have been mistaken for anything, perhaps even for a sportsman. He got into the train with a gentleman who was returning from sport ; and they had a long talk. The genial Missionary thoroughly entered into the spirit of his companion’s sporting anecdotes. Soon after that they got to speaking about the people of the country, and gradually they dropped on the subject of Missions. This young officer said that he had been some years in the country and did not think there was very much in Mission work for he had not seen anything like a really

( iii )

good Christian Church. ‘ Well ’ said my old friend,

‘ that was precisely what occurred to me in regard to your stories about sport. I have been thirty years ui the country and I have never seen a tiger j and a doubt occurred to me as to whether your stories might not be untrue, absolutely without foundation.’ The young ofncer was rather inclined to be angry, but the Missionary went on, ‘ I turned that away from my mind at once. I said ‘^No this gentleman is telling me what he knows and what he has seen ; I have not seen it, and know nothing about it, but accept his evidence.” I can tell you, (he said) of many a fine Christian character among the iSTative Christians. I can tell you of successful work. You have never seen it and you know nothing about :t but you must take it from me.’ ”

I esteem it a great privilege to furnish an introduction to this collection of instructive and thrilling personal experiences written by Ada Lee, a talented ancf divinely commissioned Missionary, and the author .jf Chundra Lela. Her maiden name was Ada Jones, but is now the wife of Rev. D. H. Lee, of Calcutta. They are both widely known throughout the Christian world, because of their great sorrow, caused by the loss of their six lovely children in the Darjeeling disaster, and l:he marvellous work done in the Lee Memorial Mission ” of Calcutta.

In the 111th Psalm we read, “The works of the Lord are great, sought out of all them that have pleasure therein.” When we seek for enlarged knowledge on any particular subject, we naturally turn to a specialist who has taken “pleasure therein.” The same principleapplies to greater knowledge of Missionary work. M hether or not Ada Lee has taken sufiicient pleasure in Missions to fit her to give the Home Church a larcer

( iv ;

And more accurate knowledge of Mission work, the r ^aaer may judge as he ponders the following brief outline of her call to India, and her services as a Missionary.

The childhood days of Ada Jones were spent in a. home of piety in West Virginia, where she early began to read Missionary literature. She received her primary education in a country school and later took hei College course by working her own way through College. During her first year she was powerfully convicted ui sin, and surrendered to Christ, passing from a terrible sense of sin, Into the bright sunlight and giorio-us liberty of the children of God.” Soon after receiving this Apostolic type of conversion, a clear conviction came to her that she was divinely called to be a Missionary 'n India. She however, even after such a clear conversion, and undoubted call, had a long and hard struggle with aerself before she was ready to obey the heavenly vision. Concerning how she got the victory she writes, ‘‘ One day I fell down on my knees in submission to God, and said ‘ Lord I will go anywhere.’ ” Six months later she had typhoid fever, and went nigh unto death, and one day as a cold chill passed over her, she asked an aunt, “ Is this death ?” The aunt softly answered ‘'les, are you afraid?” She writes “I answered, ‘No,’ and then God seemed to say to me ‘ If you live, will you live for India ?’ and I answered back ‘ India or heaven, whichever be thy will. Oh! my Father.’ ”

Shortly after this entire consecration of her whole young life to God for Missions, Ada Jones started for India, arriving in 1876, and was married during 1381. She writes concerning her journey that “ On my way out I received the blessing of perfect love, and took thtr -Holy Spirit as my sanctifier.” This experience market]

the completion of her spiritual preparation to begin a Missionary career. Because of her husband’s ill healtt) she was compelled to spend some years in America, but they were spent in incessant use of her annointed tongue and pen for India.

Her love for work, and loyalty to her call was severely tested on the 25th of September 1899, when her six beloved children were taken to the heavenly world through the terrible landslide at Darjeeling, in the Hymalaya Mountains. The mother was at that time,- at her Mission work in Calcutta, several hundred miles distant from Darjeeling, where the children were away from the Calcutta heat, in a mountain school. It was mine to be among those who had to break the heart rending news to the most affectionate mother. Could I ever forget that night '? Mrs. Lee fell into her husband's arms, pale and cold as death. For a time her breathing was scarcely perceptible, then in agony with hands rising and falling at her side, she moaned for her children, calling them by name, all through the long hours of that dreadful night of fiery testing ; but during the whole night not a v/ord escaped her lips looking toward disobeying or regretting her call to be a Missionary, or toward, at this awful crisis, giving up her work. Nor a suggestion that it might not have happened if she had not obeyed the call and come to India. As soon as she returned from the funeral a,t Darjeeling, she took right hold and continued her Missionary work for her beloved Bengali girls, widows, and women.

Further, the things about which this, queen among Missionary women, writes, are not matters of theory or hearsay, but things which she herself has seen and heard and felt, and therefore vv^hat she has written in this book about such heathen customs as Caste, Child Marriage,

{ Vi;

Child Wives, Child Mothers, Child Widows, Lifelong enforced Widowhood, and Heathen Melas, are horrors that have been burned into her very soul for many years. On the other hand, what she writes about the blessings of Christianity in India, through Day Schools, Bible Wo^ men, and her various interesting stories about rescued lives, such as “ The Jewel from the Jungle,” she tells of the things that have gone on under her own eyes. Any who could have been with us on March 23rd, at the laying of the Corner Stone of the main building of the Lee Memorial Mission ” and have seen the magnificient plant for Mission work as a Memorial to the six translated children and seen the hundreds of happy Bengali girls who had been rescued, as famine waifs, or .as child widows, from the horrors of heathenism, and heard them sing with joy and enthusiasm, Yisu nam, Yisu nam, Yisu nam,” the chorus of a song of victory to Jesus, would be ready to sit at the feet of Mrs. Lee and listen to anything that she might say either about the horrors of heathenism or the victories of Missions. One American lady who was present, who is a student of Missions from the Home land, looked on in wonder and admiration, weeping for joy that the Lee memorial Mission was bringing about such marvellous transformations in the heart of this heathen city.

Truly in introducing the writings of Ada Lee, I not only introduce one whose testimony can absolutely be depended upon as entirely true, but one who has worked for many years in the very heart of Calcutta, one of the greatest fields for zenana work in the Non-Christian world, and therefore her Missionary experiences have been in the very midst of the sufferings connected with the awful customs of child marriage, motherhood and widowhood, and the terrible secrets of zenana seclu-

^ vii )

sion. She has therefore had opportunities for knowing the inner workings of heathenism such as are given but to one out of many millions.

The book will prove to be an exceedingly valuable contribution to Missionary literature because it is made up of short, charmingly written chapters of real Missionary experiences, that can be used to great advantage on a great variety of occasions. One who has seen the manuscript says, The book will be used in thousands of pulpits.” A chapter at a time can easily be read, and with profit, at young people’s meetings, Missionary gatherings, for either men or women. Drawing Room meetings, Sunday Schools and Mission Study Classes, and to all be full of interest and profit, giving the supporters of Missions very vivid pictures of real Mission conditions and ‘‘ things as they are.” I rejoice that this book is being published at this time when the Churches, through the great Laymen’s movement, and in other ways are calling for first hand knowledge of the real conditions of the Christless world, and of the efficiency of foreign Missions. With admiration for the author, and enthusiasm for, ^Tn and Out of the Homes of India” I heartily commend it to all who are interested throughout the whole Christian world.

Frank W. Warne.

Lucknow, April 7th, 1900.

The everlasting Snows.

IN AND OUT OF THE HOMES OF INDIA.

Chapter I. 1ndia.-the Province Of Bengal

India is a beautiful country. Her broad plains are ilotted, here and there, with mango topes and widespreading banyan trees ; while her thatched roofed villages lie, in great numbers, half hidden among the stately palms. Here a river where float many crude and strange barks, and on the banks of which gathers many a weary pilgrim ; there a lake glistening in the sunshine, on whose bosom floats in great profusion the sacred lotus. Towering over this densely populated country, as sentinels of the ages, are the loftiest mountains in the world, the Himalayas. These afford to the lover of nature most varied and beautiful scenery. Here grows the rhododendron, the queen of the flowering trees. Over our head is a canopy of luxuriant vegetation, such as is seldom seen in any land ; mountain oaks covered with hanging moss, ferns, and orchids i f many colors, each tree forming a flower garden of its own ; while under our feet is a rich carpet df lacipodium and stag moss. Mountain after mountain looms up from behind each other, while fleecy clouds nestle in between.

2 IN AND OUT OF TBE HOMES OF INDIA.

One day I stood high up on the mountain side and j enjoyed a storm at my feet. I saw the lightning flash ; in the clouds below, and heard the thunder roar ; while i all about me was the bright sunshine. Oh, that we may j learn the lesson in our spiritual life of living above j the clouds, and basking continually in the sunlight of j God’s love ! In the distance may be seen the higher i ranges covered with the everlasting snows, and lifting i their crystal peaks into the deep blue of heaven. As we j gaze on the magnificent sight, we are reminded of the pearly gates of the Beautiful City. Never was it more truly said of any country than of this, ‘‘Here every pros- ' pect pleases, and only man is vile.”

India contains about 300,000,000 people. Bengal is ; her largest Province, with an area of 151,185 square ‘ miles, and containing a population of 80,000,000, nearly as many people as the whole of the United States, — less j than one half a million of whom are Christians ; the i other 79,500,000 are without Christ. This will give our people some idea of the work yet to be done in this one province alone. Calcutta is the largest city of ; Bengal, and the capital of India. It contains about one million people, given up for the most part to idolatry, as its name indicates. Calcutta is the Bengali name Kalighat anglicized, which means the bathing place | of the black goddess Kali. The temple of this goddess is found on the outskirts of the city ; and is ! not noted for its beauty, but is a picture of darkness ‘ and wretchedness, a fit emblem of the religion it represents. To this present temple throngs of pilgrims con tinually wend their way, and have for the last three i hundred years. Kali, sometimes called the bloody goddess, is supposed to be the wife of Siva^ the god of destruction. “ She is represented as a black or dark

A Beautiful Spot.

INDIA.— THE PBOVINCE OF BENGAL.

blue woman, with four arms. In one hand she has a sword, in another the head of the giant she has slain, with the two others she is encouraging her worshippers. For earrings she has two dead bodies ; she wears a necklace of skulls. Her only clothing is a girdle made of dead men’s hands ; and her tongue protrudes from her mouth. Her eyes are red as those of drunkards, and her breasts are besmeared with blood. She stands with one foot on the thigh, and the other on the breast of her husband.” The sacred books say that ‘‘ after her victory over the giant, she danced for joy so furiously that the earth trembled beneath her weight.” It was before this hideous idol that the thugs of India whetted their knives, and asked her blessing upon their murderous deeds. And, to-day, the mothers of India carry their babes to her shrine, and, laying them prostrate before the idol, press their little faces to the dust, and thus teach them to worship this horrible object, instead of the true God who made them.

The people of Bengal are a beautiful race of light olive color and graceful form, with good intellects, capable of taking the highest education. They are, for the most part, small in stature, with little feet and hands. The men go with their feet shod and with bare heads ; while the women cover their heads and faces, and never wear shoes, but wear anklets, and rings on their toes. They have many fine traits of character, but are bound by sad customs, rigorous caste, and religious rules which make them, in many parts, difficult to reach and help.

It has been said that the women of Bengal love their children more passionately than the mothers of other nations. This may be so ; but I rather think that they show more blind love for their children because they have so little else to love. There is not the com-

IN AND OUT OF THE HOMES OF INDIA.

panionship between husband and wife among them, as exists in other lands. Woman is considered so much , man’s inferior that it is not possible for her to be one [ with him. There is no home life ; in fact, there is no such word in the Bengali language as home. They have i haree or ghar, meaning a house or place of abode.

The man and wife never eat together. He eats first I and she after, usually eating what remains on his plate. They usually eat on the floor, sitting on a little mat or board, and eating off of brass plates with their fingers, ' | using the right hand only. This is their native custom | which they greatly enjoy. Superstitious fear makes life full of anxiety and bitterness. I often find a little boy with long hair done up like a little old woman, and dressed like a girl. I ask, “ Why do you dress your boy like a girl? Why do you not shave his head and dress | him like other boys? ” The answer is, “All our first sons have died. Yama (the god of death) does not care so much for girls ; so we are cheating him, leading him ,

to think our boy is a girl.” Sometimes I find a boy ;

eight or ten years old without a name. When asked why, they will say, “If we name our boy, Yama will learn his name, and call him away from us.” They do not like you to praise their children, or to speak of their “ beautiful, healthy baby,” lest you cast an evil eye upon it, and the baby sickens and dies. W"e can,- |: however, by careful study, learn how not to offend, and \ how to win by love.

Child marriage is practiced here in its most terrible form, the man seldom marrying untfl from eighteen to twenty-five ; and then he marries a little girl from four to j nine years of age. The upper classes of women are shut up in the zenana ; and, until of late years, women of all mniA.—TKE PEOVIH^CE OF BENGAL, classes were uneducated ; and, even now, the masses are illiterate. Bengal is still unevangelized. ' Some districts of several millions have but one or two, if any, missionaries ; and hundreds of villages have never had the Gospel. Our hearts ache for the many little children who never have enough to eat ; and for the mothers, full of ignorance and superstition, with so few of the necessities, and none of the comforts of life, who live in these villages and crowded parts of our cities. We are appalled at the steady march into eternity every day of those who know not God. How we long to reach and save as many as possible in this dark land ! Will you not help, sisters'? Ask God to show you how.

Chapter II. Hindu Mythology.- Krishnaism

India has been called the “ Land of Temples,” and, when we take into consideration that a sacred tree be* comes a temple, or a spot along the roadside may be chosen and a stone god set up and become a place of worship, India surely is full of temples. India is not only full of temples of all sizes and grades, but all over the land are the sacred trees and the spots and places of worship.

Some of the leading temples are the following ; Kali* ghat, in honor of the goddess Kali, which is situated in Calcutta, the capital of India ; then the Doorga, or Monkey Temple, at Benares, which is the sacred city of the Hindoos. This city is wholly given up to idolatry, whither pilgrims come from all parts of India. The temple of Jagannath is at Puri, which ii found in Orissa, and to which thousands of pilgrims g( every year during the Car Festival. One in the extreme south of India is Ramnath, which is in honor of the god Ram ; on the north, the twin temples Kedarnatb and Badrinath ; and on the west the temple of Dwarkanath. This last is the scene of the sports and sinful do* ings of Krishna ; and millions of pilgrims visit this place. A^nd one does not wonder when it is written of it : “ Whoever visits that holy shrine, the place whertJ Krishna pursued his sports, is liberated from all sins.” These four last shrines, situated at the four points of the compass, are the shrines to which the widows make the pilgrimage call ‘Chardom,’ which pilgrimage, when

HINDU MYTHOLOGY .—KBiSHN AISM.

completed, is said to liberate them from the sin which caused the death of their husbands.

It would be impossible in this chapter to describe all these temples, and the idol-worship practised in them ; neither could we give a treatise on Hindoo mythology. The stories of the Vedas and the sacred books of the Hindoos are so mythical and disconnected, and contain such a variety of accounts of impossible things connected with the gods, that it is difficult to settle upon any one story or belief. But we find one phase of Hindoo mythology, Krishnaism, being taught in the Christian land of America, that I feel sure our people would never tolerate if they knew the vile doctrine underlying, and disguised by beautiful oratory.

In our work among the bigoted and ignorant people of India, even among the women, while telling them of Christ, and speaking of Him as the Saviour of the world, quite frequently some old woman will say, “Oh, that is our Krishna.” We who know the story of Krishna, as believed in by the Hindoos, are compelled at this juncture to stop and explain to them the differ- ^«ce between the awful life of Krishna and the pure and noly life of our Saviour. But when we speak of the sin of Krishna, the answer usually is, “Oh, but he was a god. Those things were not sins when committed by him.” Or, “Has not a god the right to do as he pleases?” Others more enlightened and who are honest, not only admit these acts committed by Krishna as being vile, but are ashamed of them.

TK.5 Hindoos believe in a triad, or three grand divisions among the gods. The first is Brahm, the god of creation ; the second, Vishnu, the god of preservation ; the third, Siva, the god of destruction. Each one of these has a number of incarnations, and wives with their incarnations ; so that, in Hindoo mythology, the gods are represented as going to war with each other, practising polygamy, and becoming intoxicated, as in their Puranas, for example, Vishnu and Siva are both spoken of as guilty of lying, stealing, adultery, and every other sin committed by man.

Krishna is the eighth incarnation of Vishnu. One of the accounts of his incarnation is as follows ;

“It is said that Kansa, king of Muttra, was a great enemy to cows and Brahmans. Concerning this the gods sought the assistance of Vishnu who, listening to their request, plucked off two hairs from his head, which he said would assume incarnations and destroy Kansa. The white hair became Balarama, and the black one, Krishna. Krishna was the eighth son of Vasudeva. A voice from heaven had told Kansa that he should dir by the hand of the eighth son of Vasudeva, and he therefore sought to destroy all his male children, Krishna, born at midnight, had a very dark skin. The gods lulled the guards to sleep and the father, stealing out undiscovered, went across the Jumna River with the child. There he found the cart and oxen of a herdsman named Nanda, whose wife had an infant female child, which he took away, and left instead his own son Krishna. He was taken to the village of Gokula, and there spent his childhood. Many wonderful stories are told of the childhood of Krishna. He and his companions, the children of the herdsmen, amused themselves by going into the houses when the people were out, and stealing the butter, eating some of it, and throwing away the rest. When he would be caught in these acts, he would deny them, placing the blame on other persons.”

UTNVU MYTHOLOGY.—EItlSENAISM. i)

One of the forms in which Krishna is worshipped is as a boy with a lump of butter in his hand that he has just stolen. Another form is that of Krishna standing on the head of a snake, and drawing its body up over his head. This represents Krishna destroying the snake king. One of the well-known stories of Krishna is that of his stealing the clothes of the milkmaids, when they were in bathing ; and obliging them to come to him naked. He used also to dance and sport with them. He is also accused of taking by force the herdsman’s wife, Rukmini. He is said to have had eight queens and sixteen thousand wives. His history is full of accounts of evil and sensuality ; and, in speaking of him, he is often called the profligate god.” The annual festival m honor of Krishna is so vile and degrading that, in many parts of the city, it is impossible for women to pass through the streets without being insulted. Impure songs and acts are performed, and drunkenness is permitted in the name of Krishna on that day, often by persons who would not be guilty of such deeds at any other time. In some places the chief priests, called Maharajas, are regarded as incarnations of Krishna. Men and women prostrate themselves at their feet, offering them incense, fruits, and flowers, and waving lights above them. It is believed that the best way of propitiating Krishna in Heaven is by ministering to the sensual appetites of the Maharajas. Body, soul, and property are to be wholly made over to them. Women are taught to believe that the highest bliss will be secured to themselves and their families by intercourse with the Maharajas.