Page:The People of India — a series of photographic illustrations, with descriptive letterpress, of the races and tribes of Hindustan Vol 1.djvu/80

Rh With this view, the whole extent of country to which its influence has spread, comprising an area of not less than 6000 square miles, is about to be divided into parishes, each under a native pastor, and each with its church and school.

The first of these churches and school-houses is now being built from funds subscribed by the whole body of converts; for a second, materials are collected; and to both of these parishes catechists and schoolmasters have been appointed.

Major E. Dalton, to whom we owe the accounts of the Cole races, add:—

"In my paper on the Moondah and Oraon races, I noticed they had naturally musical voices and were fond of singing. Their village and great national dances and songs, that they so delight in, and which I have described, they are obliged to abjure when they join the congregation; but the German missionaries have taken full advantage of their musical talent, and wonderfully cultivated it. All the children are regularly taught to sing and form the choir; and, as great numbers have left the school and joined the adults of the congregation in the body of the church, the number of instructed singers in every congregation is considerable; and when all join, the hymn singing is full, solemn, and impressive. They also sing anthems and chants with wonderful correctness and great sweetness.

"In the photographs given of the Oraons and Moondahs, male and female, their excessive fondness for ornament is sufficiently indicated. Beads, brass ornaments, and flowers, they delight in. It will be seen that the Christian girl photographed is quite unadorned. They are required to be tidy and clean; but, as one of the mortifications of the flesh to which, as some kind of test of their sincerity, they are subjected on admission into the congregation, they are compelled utterly to abjure and cast away all such vanities as beads and brass ornaments.

"Whilst earnestly desiring to see the further spread of Christianity amongst the Coles, I sincerely hope that in time the necessity for such rigid austerity may cease, that the cheerful social meetings, shorn of all that is exceptional in character, may be restored to the native Christian communities, and that the girls, at least, may be again allowed the harmless and pleasing custom of tastefully arranging flowers in their hair."

The Photograph which follows No. 19, is that of a Rajpoot Christian employed in connection with the Chota Nagpore Mission.