Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/313

Rh flowrets as a memento of Wandiwash Mountain, with a heartfelt prayer that God would confound these idols, and cast them to the ground, we began the descent.

By half-after seven, we had reached the base of the mountain; but even at this hour, the sun was oppressively hot, making the shelter of a roof very agreeable.

We had fine audiences in the tent, which we had pitched in front of the bungalow. The people listened with attention, were intelligent, and very many of them could read. Their questions were so proper, and their behaviour so agreeable a contrast to that of our Brahmin friends at Perumanaloor, that we felt greatly pleased with the place and people. To each one that could read, we gave a copy of one of the Gospels, printed separately for distribution, and a small tract containing the substance of the Gospel in poetry and prose.

Of poetry and singing, the Hindus are extremely fond. No matter how noisy a crowd may be, the singing of a stanza will, at all times, command complete silence. When the preacher finds his audience inclined to invert the proper order, by making him listen, while ten or a dozen of them address him at the same time, he