Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/110

90 schools with the Hindus themselves. The often-repeated assertion, that the use of the Christian Scriptures would be offensive to the Hindus, is an absurdity. Nothing could be more in accordance with their ideas of propriety than that youth should be taught in the Shastres or holy books of the language they are studying.

There are about six hundred young men, boys, and girls receiving instruction at the station under the care and influence of the missionary, at a very small expense—the whole cost being but $1200 a year. Of this sum, nearly the whole is given by English gentlemen residing in Madras or its vicinity. The Church of England, the London and Wesleyan Societies, as well as the Scotch churches, are engaged in similar labours for the idolaters of Madras.

having yet visited Triplicane, a suburb quite near Chintadrepettah, I started on foot, in the evening after the sun had gone down, on a tour of exploration. Passing for a short distance over the dusty red road that leads to