Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/183

Rh air with loud explosions. From the clangor of the Hindu music which accompanied the explosion of fireworks, I at first took it to be a heathen wedding procession. The merry ringing of the bells of the Roman Catholic church, some five minutes' walk distant, chiming in, led me to ask myself whether this could be a Christian ceremony on the Christian Sabbath? Having seen but little of the practices of the Romish Church, I was slow to believe it, and yet these sights and sounds evidently came from the compound of the Catholic church. To satisfy myself, I walked to the church. It is a large, substantial edifice, standing in the centre of an enclosure of some fifteen acres, with a belfry close by well supplied with large bells. As I drew near, the music became more noisy, and the light more brilliant; and when the gate of the outer wall was reached, all doubt as to the scene of these sights and sounds was dispelled. It was a religious service of the church which proclaims itself in India, as well as in other lands, the only true church of Christ, the only channel of salvation.

Entering the gate, I found myself in a throng of Roman Catholics, Mohammedans, and heathen, who were gazing at the passing procession.