While thankfully availing myself of the opportunities presented of preaching the Gospel to our own countrymen, such opportunities as I never had at any previous period of my Indian career, my chief attention was given to the work for which I had been sent to Ranee Khet. I have already mentioned missionary work done on visits to the schools. At Ranee Khet opportunities were found for conversation with shopkeepers and their customers. Thousands of work-people were employed on the buildings which were being erected, and these, when the work of the day was over, flocked to the Bazar to buy food. After the toil of the day, when eagerly anticipating their only cooked meal in the twenty-four hours, they were not inclined to listen to a stranger telling them of his strange religion. Occasionally I did succeed in getting for a time the attention of some not so eager as others to get their evening meal. Most heard quietly, but sometimes individuals replied with bitter words. Many of the work-people had come from a great distance. The most prominent of these was a band of Cashmeeree Mussulmans, who spoke against Christianity with a fierceness which showed what they would do if they had the power. From one of them I got a retort, which it was difficult to repel. I tried to put the party into good humour by asking them about their country, and I smilingly said, "Is there no food in your country, that you have come all this way for it?" To which I got the reply: "You, sir, have come much farther than we have done. Had you no food to eat in your country?" I must acknowledge I felt myself shut up under this rebuff.
During my residence at Ranee Khet I had much intercourse with two classes widely separated from each other—educated young men, and Doms.
I have mentioned that from the Almora Mission School a number of young men had gone into all parts of the Province. Several got situations in the public offices of Ranee Khet, and to them in the course of time persons of the same class were added from Bengal. I visited these at their quarters, and did all in my power to maintain friendly intercourse with them. A room in the school-house, supplied, partly at their own expense and partly by the liberality of friends, with newspapers, periodicals, and books, was turned into a reading-room, which was always open in the evening. One evening in the week they met me in class, when we had as our text-book the Advanced Reader of the Christian Vernacular Education Society, which furnished full opportunity for conversation on the most useful and important subjects. The attendance was not so steady as could be desired. All were friendly in their bearing, and some seemed much interested in our study and talk. A few professed Brahmist views, but none were inclined to join the Brahmist community and break with their own people. There was no indication of the spiritual concern which compels the soul to earnest investigation, with a view to following truth wherever it may lead.
MISSION WORK AMONG THE DOMS.
The other class with whom I had much to do at Ranee Khet were the Doms, to whom reference has already been made as in all probability the descendants of the aborigines of the country previous to the Hindu invasion. They are a most useful part of the community. As the artisans of the country, the people of every caste have much to do with them. They are largely engaged in agriculture. They do things by which the caste people would be defiled, such as carrying away the carcases of animals. In a high-caste village it is not uncommon to see, a little aside from it—if the ground permits, below it—a number of houses occupied by Doms. The pigs and fowls around the meaner dwellings, and the poorer looks of the inhabitants, tell what they are. As artisan work is now in great demand the circumstances of the Doms are much improved, and there is every prospect of their rising into a higher position. They bear, and for many a year they may be expected to bear, indubitable marks of having been for ages a servile, despised, downtrodden class, having no respect from others, and entertaining little respect for themselves. Their improved circumstances will do something towards raising them in the social scale, but we cannot look for high moral excellence and real manhood till they come under the power of the Gospel.
On account of the abundance of work which the formation of an English station was sure to afford, a colony of these people erected a village for themselves on the side of the Ranee Khet hill below the Bazar. I had when in Almora conversed frequently with Doms. At Ranee Khet I saw much of them, and had more encouragement among them than among any other class. To some who expressed regret they could neither read nor write, I said it was not too late; that I would take care that they be taught if they were willing to learn. To test them I opened a night-school, and a number availed themselves of it. It was a gratifying sight to see them, at ages varying from fifteen to thirty-five, conning their spelling-books at the door of the school-house as evening was coming on, or trying to form letters on their slates. A few became soon discouraged, but a number held on, night after night for two or three hours, with the greatest eagerness, till they could read, write, and count very fairly. One result of the school was that they began to attend, with great regularity, a service held every Sabbath afternoon in the hall of the school-house. During the last year of our residence in Ranee Khet, the attendance at this service was larger than at any previous period, and it was mainly composed of Doms. Nothing could exceed the quietness and apparent interest with which they heard the simple addresses given. I cannot say I saw any evidence of spiritual awakening, but the torpor of their previous life was shaken in a way which inspired the hope of their being brought into the fold of Christ.
I have mentioned the fierceness of the Cashmeeree Mussulmans. This charge cannot be brought against them all. One of their number, a young lad, came to the school, and was in every respect one of the best pupils in it. With another, one so trusted by the rest that he was the go-between in the arrangements for work with the English engineer, I had much intercourse. Though the head of the party, and himself doing no manual work, he could neither read nor write, and was entirely dependent on accounts being kept by another. To my surprise he came to the night-school, and applied himself so diligently that he acquired a fair measure of elementary education, though his knowledge of the Hindee language was very imperfect. He regularly attended the Sabbath evening service, and seemed to listen most eagerly. One day he came to our house. I at once saw that he was greatly excited. He shut the door behind him, as if afraid of being seen, came close to me, got down on his knees, and said: "Sir, what am I to do? Last night Huzrut Isa" (the name given by Muhammadans to our Lord, which may be translated "His Honour," or "His Excellence Jesus") "appeared to me in a dream, and said, 'Follow me; follow me.' But how can I follow Him? My people will kill me, they will kill me!" I have seldom been more touched than when I looked on the anguish in the face of that poor man, and the tears coursing down his cheeks, as he uttered these words. I need not tell the Christian reader what I endeavoured to say. Shortly afterwards the Cashmeerees left Ranee Khet, and this man with them. I could not find out where they went, and I have lost all trace of my friend.
ITINERACY.
A considerable part, sometimes the greater part, of the cold weather was given to itineracy. Some winters we went down to the foot of the hills to prosecute mission work among the large population found there at that season. We moved from place to place, erecting our tent in central spots, from which within a radius of two or three miles we could visit populous villages, some built of rough stones, but most composed of grass sheds. I was generally accompanied by a catechist. We had many opportunities of speaking to the people on the highest subjects. Not infrequently we met persons whom we had met in the hills, and then we were sure of a special welcome. Once I came on a party of Doms, tailors, whom I had seen a short time previously, and I said to them: "As you have no cattle, and do not cultivate the ground, what has brought you down?" To which I got the reply: "We have come in search of the sun." This gave me an opportunity of speaking of that Sun in whose warmth and light their spirits might dwell at all times, in all places. I endeavoured to set up schools in the Bhabhur, but had not any encouraging measure of success.
There was much which was pleasant and exhilarating in this movement from place to place, and in camping under the trees: but it was at times very fatiguing, and in bad weather very unpleasant. More than once we were overtaken by severe storms, but happily the worst of these storms came on us in favoured places, where we could find shelter on escaping from our tent.