Page:Deplorable effects of heathen superstition.pdf/24



The following anecdote is related by the Missionaries at Kidderpore.

On the 21st of July, we visited Rammakalchoke, and were happy to find that Geredhor, a person of the village, who is a regular attender on the means of grace, had destroyed his idol.

About a week prior to our visit to the village, this man’s aunt was taken ill, and he prayed to his domestic idol to heal her, making a vow that he would offer a buffalo in sacrifice should his aunt recover. The prayers and the vow were both unavailable; for the woman died. A few days after, his first cousin was seized with affliction: he again applied to his domestic oracle for relief, but help was sought in vain—death carried off this relative likewise. The man, enraged at the stupid idol, who had refused to hear his cries in such a season of calamity, declared that Panchanund, the family god, was destitute of power. He therefore forthwith took it down from its seat, bound it up with the corpse, and proceeded to the place of burning, where he was about to commit it to the flames. A Brahmin however, being present at the spot, entreated him to desist from committing such an outrage upon the idol. The man listened to this remonstrance, and, upon the Brahmin’s request, gave him the image, It was soon consecrated afresh; and it now occupies a place among the Brahmin’s domestic idols. Geredhor continues to hold idolatry in contempt, and is, we hope, not far from the kingdom of heaven.