Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/597

Rh faces. Here, as at Bhowanipur, I was struck with the fact that the heathenish marks were removed from almost every forehead, (if not from every one,)—a thing which would in Madras be held a sign of renunciation of Hinduism; and, in place of the shaved head, with the sacred coodamy or queue, there universal, here the lads, almost without exception, wore their hair all over the head, in the European manner. They also, for the most part, wore shoes; and if transported to Madras, would be taken for a company of professed Christians. These are but straws showing which way the stream flows, revealing to the observer familiar with Hindu customs the great change which is working its way through the apparently impenetrable strata of Hindu society. At no very distant day the educated men of Bengal will burst the bonds of superstition, break through the restraints imposed upon them by bigoted priests and pundits, and assert their right to free thought, free speech, and free action. It becomes the church to see to it that, when that day comes, Christianity, not infidelity, takes the place of a hideous but dead heathenism.

Already, through the influence of English science as taught in the government schools,