MISSION NOTES by Evelyn M. Riley

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Nov 10, 1898

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 24, No. 45.

MISSION NOTES.

By Evelyn M. Riley

The Folly of Caste.

It is considered a sin for a Hindu to go to Europe. Whenever native Hindus return to India after spending a few years in England or America or any other foreign land, they are expected to take “Prayaschitta.” By this term is implied the ceremony of a “dip in the Ganges,” which is a sign of purification and also a pledge that they will not in the future take any food save from consecrated hands.

Most of these young men get broader ideas when in Europe, and when they go to their homes, refuse to do this.

Recently two gentlemen who had been in England, returned home and refused to take “Prayaschitta.” They were at once boycotted. The educated men of the city felt very sorry about this, and so one plucky Brahman and his wife gave a dinner inviting these two men, with others of the same caste. To their surprise, they all came to the dinner, and these two men were re-instated in their place in public esteem.

The African Plague.

The rinderpest has caused the death of nearly all the cattle in Central and Southern Africa the past year. Had it occurred last year, when food was so scarce, it is frightful to think what the results must have been, for there would have been no means to transport food to needy places. This is a disease of cattle that comes every few years. During the years that Livingstone spent in Africa this same disease broke out, carrying off nearly all the cattle. EVELYN M. RILEY.