London:
GALL & INGLIS, 25 PATERNOSTER SQUARE
AND EDINBURGH.
PREFACE.
THE fanciful title of my little volume is given advisedly, as descriptive of what I desire its contents to be. In this heathen land of India, hundreds of thousands of natives have been receiving an education from Government, one from which religion is excluded, but which enables them to be reached by means of the Press. Those engaged, like myself, in Mission work, desire to give the Hindus books—cheap, in order that they may be bought; and amusing, in order that they may be read. If tales like the following appear to the English reader fanciful and childish, our object is the more likely to be gained. Natives delight in allegory, and stories are to them as the sweetmeats that form so large a part of their feasts. Valuable commentaries and controversial works are like heavy artillery brought up to assail the bulwarks of idolatry, but in our missionary warfare, small bullets also are needed. The story in this volume entitled "A Son of Healing," has been constructed so as to divide into twelve minute books, to be sold at less than a mite each! These are small shot indeed! Yet, if God vouchsafe His blessing, each may hit its own mark.
I have had the advantage of the criticism of a highly-educated native, himself a converted Hindu; one too sensible not to suggest, and too polite to praise. He can judge better than most Europeans can, what is likely to strike his countrymen. Though I have been more than three years in India, were I to treble the time, I should feel my own ignorance still.
Instead of encumbering my story with long footnotes, it seemed better to place under separate headings a little information regarding Goru Nanak, the founder of the Sikh religion, &c., which may be new to some English readers. I am indebted for this information to a small history of the Punjab, written by a native, in a simple, amusing style and for the translations from the Granth to Dr. Trumpp's large and valuable work.
In conclusion, I would earnestly ask the reader to join in a prayer that the time may speedily come when such childish tales as "THE MIRROR AND THE BRACELET" may be as little needed in India as in our own favoured land. It is possible that the earnestness of the prayer may be increased by the glimpse given in the following pages of the degrading thraldom in which millions of our fellow-creatures, our fellow-subjects, are held by Satan, the father of lies!
A. L. O. E.,
Hon. Missionary of Batála, Punjab.
CONTENTS.
