Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/317

Rh During the few days of our stay at Wandiwash, we had a constant succession of visitors, some of whom came from villages at a distance, having heard of the arrival of “padrés” with books and medicines. Some came to converse, some to get a book, some for medical advice, and all to have a look at the strangers. We also visited a few of the neighbouring hamlets.

In one of these villages, visited toward the close of a sultry day, I was interested by the people saying that they had never seen a white man there before; for the name of Jesus had probably never there been uttered. It was a town of some two hundred houses, of which half where of the Jaina sect; and, like most Hindu towns, beautifully shaded by trees planted about the houses. Entering the place on foot, I addressed some of the older men who were seated on the narrow verandahs of their houses. They suggested that we should go to the place where the people were accustomed to meet, near the house of the head-man of the village. We accordingly moved off to a spot where a great and widespreading tree had a square platform of stone built around its root. Here we found the head-man, with a number of others, sitting to talk over the events of the