1861.]

LIGHT DAWNING IN DARK PLACES.

83

of her assertions. She even confronted the haughty Brahmins and the husbands of her pupils, using argument and persuasion to remove their objections. But nothing could change their decision they positively forbade their wives and daughters to attend her school. She continued her daily visits to them as before, reading the Bible, and explaining to them the plan of salvation; but not one dared again to look at the primer or its forbidden treasures.

This was a heavy blow to the Missionary. She had felt that if she could but succeed in teaching even a dozen women to read, she should thereby strike a powerful blow at the prejudices of the people, and prepare the way for the elevation of the entire sex. But the door was shut against her. Weeks passed by, and her continued efforts failed to produce any remission of the prohibition. Which way should she turn? What new device could she adopt to convince the people that their prejudices were false and unjust? Night and day her thoughts dwelt upon the subject. She could find no pleasure in her own intellectual resources and mental cultivation, while, wherever she turned, she beheld crowds of immortal beings, with minds locked in ignorance and superstition, and grovelling at the feet of a crafty priesthood, having no hopes or aspirations for the future above the beasts that perish.

At length, after much deliberation, the Missionary hit upon another plan which seemed to hold out more encouragement to her. She had often seen little orphan girls in the bazaar, whom no one seemed to care for, and who were destined, she well knew, to a life of shame and ruin. She persuaded a few of them to come to her house; and, winning their confidence by kindness, finally induced them to consent to remain with her. A trifling present to their relatives or acquaintances who claimed to be their guardians, sufficed to gain their consent to the arrangement. Thus in a little time a school of a dozen girls was gathered in the Missionary's house.

She now felt that she had a field of usefulness, where she could labour with great 'promise of success. While still making daily visits to the houses of the village people, instructing the neglected women in the way of salvation, she yet worked with stronger faith and greater hopefulness upon these minds, which were more entirely under her influence, and more free from the corrupting power of evil associations. With what exquisite delight she watched the opening of those minds-their eager thirst for knowledge, the quick glance of the eye, and the starting tearas she told them that Christ died for them, as well as for her countrywomen!

After months of unwearied effort and earnest prayer, how tremblingly she ventured to hope that some of them had felt the striving of the Spirit, and how she wrestled in prayer, that they might not grieve the heavenly messenger. And when they gathered in her room in their weekly prayer-meeting, and one and another described, in simple language, the joy they had found in believing in Christ, oh how the words thrilled her soul with happiness that cannot be expressed!

In this delightful work, not, indeed, without many, many trials, but still with many joys, she spent the last years of her life. Now and then one of her little flock left her to become the wife of a native preacher,

84

RAIN FOR THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES.

[JULY.

and another orphan girl was taken in her place. The natives sometimes visited her school from curiosity, and, as they heard little girls read more fluently than many Brahmins could do, and saw them industriously weaving and sewing their own clothing, cooking their daily food, and presenting the appearance of modest and intelligent women, they were filled with astonishment, and their prejudices began to give way. "It cannot be so bad a thing," they said, "for our girls to learn to read;" and it was not long before some of them ventured to request the foreign lady to teach their daughters. She gladly received them, and her school soon became so large that it fully occupied all her time, and taxed her utmost energies.

But health at length compelled her to give up her charge into other hands for a season, that she might visit her native land, and recover her exhausted strength; but it was not until she had the infinite happiness of seeing that the barriers of prejudice and superstition which were arrayed against her, in her first attempts to educate her sex, were giving way, and that one link in the iron chain that bound woman in ignorance had been broken.

The education of woman must go hand in hand with that of man; and while we must not, for a moment, neglect the great and primal work of preaching the Gospel to all, young and old, we must insist that educating the mothers of the nation must not be omitted. While the preacher goes forth into the streets and highways, proclaiming salvation, let the more quiet, but not less useful work of teaching the mothers, sisters, and daughters of the land be gladly taken up by Christian women.-The Macedonian.

RAIN FOR THE NORTH-WEST PROVINCES.

THE period of the year when the rains are wont to visit the North-West Provinces is close at hand. They failed last year, and the result has been a dearth. What if they should fail this year also? Since 1858 there have been in these blood-stained districts no good harvests: the crops having been more or less short; and should the means of irrigation fail this year, six millions of people will be thrown for the support of life on such supplies as can reach them from other districts of India. But suppose there be a sufficiency of surplus grain elsewhere, how shall it reach the North-West Provinces ?

Six millions of people would require, for one year, nearly one million tons. Supposing the average distance from whence the grain has to be brought be 200 miles, a single cart would deliver twenty-eight tons during the year. To deliver a million of tons, therefore, would require the continuous employment of about 35,000 carts, with from about 180,000 to 200,000 draught cattle. But the province of Rohilcund, containing five millions of people, could barely furnish one-tenth of the number; while even if the carts and draught-cattle were available, the cost of transport alone would amount to three and three-quarter millions sterling.

What remedy for such prospects? But one-prayer! It is with the Lord to give the rain. Let us then, in this country, entreat that He may do so.

THE vast plains of Tartary, broken here and there by mountains and hills rising abruptly from the midst of them, are called steppes. They are the home of nomad races, who, with their flocks and herds, wander over them. To some of these people we wish to introduce our readers,

86

THE KIRGHIZ.

[AUGUST,

and in this paper, more particularly, to the Kirghiz. Russia is now occupied in bringing under her yoke these wild tribes; and, with a view to this object, she has surrounded the steppes with Cossack picquets, which are gradually encroaching upon the frontier, and reducing to submission one tribe after another, until at length, their independence being broken, they shall become the subjects of the Czar.

On entering the Kirghiz territory, a desert has usually to be crossed in the first instance, a vast plain, in parts slightly undulating, and covered with rough grass; a solitude unbroken by any sound; so much so, that one might suppose all nature slept, and that every thing possessed of life had sought repose in some subterranean abode. The dreary waste is perhaps succeeded by barren hills, on surmounting which the traveller finds himself in a plain covered with good pastures, over which great herds of cattle are feeding. An Aoul, or Kirghiz encampment, is soon reached, consisting of a number of tents, or yourts. The framework of a yourt is formed of willow trellis-work, put together with untanned strips of skin, made into compartments which fold up. The dome is formed of bent rods of willow, put into the mortice-holes of a ring about four feet across, which secures the top of the dome, admits light, and lets out the smoke. The lower ends of the willow rods are tied with leathern thongs to the top of the trellis-work at the sides, so as to render the whole strong and secure. Over the whole, sheets of voilock are thrown, a kind of felt, made of wool and camels' hair, so as to make the tent watertight and warm. A piece of voilock closes the doorway at night. In the day-time it is rolled up, and secured on the top of the yourt. The interior of the tent is capacious, sometimes forty feet in diameter and thirteen feet high in the centre.

In the centre of the tent, on the ground, the fire is kindled; beside it, on the floor, voilocks are spread, on which are placed divers boxes containing the riches of a Kirghiz dwelling, various articles of clothing, pieces of Chinese silk, tea, dried fruits, ambos (small squares), of silver On the top of the boxes are laid Bokharian and Persian carpets often of great beauty. In one part of the yourt is the koumis bag, koumis being the milk of mares, which has fermented in the bag, and is the favourite beverage of the Kirghiz. Of this, on the arrival of a stranger on a summer-day, some is always presented in a Chinese wooden bowl, beautifully painted and japanned.

On the bales of carpets the saddles are placed. The Kirghiz being great equestrians, their horse-trappings are highly prized by them. The saddles are often beautiful and costly, decorated with silver inlaid on iron, and with velvet cushions. Their chief weapon is a battle-axe, the head of which is moderately heavy and sharp, with a handle about four feet six inches long, secured by a leathern thong around the wrist. This is also inlaid with silver.

The summer costume of both men and women, consists of two, sometimes of three, silk or cotton kalats, or garments somewhat like a dressing gown. They are made double, so that when one side is dirty the other side may take its place. This inside-out process is persevered in so long as the garment holds together, the question which is the cleanest side having long before changed into which is the least dirty, a

1861.]

IMPROVING ASPECTS.

87

point at the last difficult to be decided. In winter, fur coats take the place of the cotton kalat.

Another important portion of the dress is the tchimbar, or wide trowsers, sometimes of leather and sometimes of black velvet embroidered with silk; these are made so large, that a Kirghiz can tuck the laps of his three or four kalats into them when he rides, the whole being tied round his waist by a leathern strap. The dress of the Sultans and their wives are sometimes very rich. Of one of those chiefs the kalat was of Chinese satin, of a very deep purple colour, with flowers embroidered in various-coloured silks; a rich yellow crape scarf was tied round his waist; his cap was sable, turned up with crimson silk; and he wore light-green boots and yellow over-shoes. The Sultana was dressed in a black velvet kalat, embroidered with coloured silk, with a crimson crape scarf round her waist, and a white muslin dress. Their daughter had a kalat of crimson and yellow silk, reaching a little below the knee, white cotton drawers, and a white silk turban.

The group in the engraving are the family of Sultan Beck, the largest man, and the most wealthy Kirghiz in the steppes, the proprietor of ten thousand horses, with camels, oxen and sheep in proportion.

Every Sultan has his merchant, as well as his mullah, or priest, who is usually the only man in the tribe who can either read or write. He sells his amulets to the Kirghiz, at a sheep for each scrap of paper with a few characters traced upon it.

IMPROVING ASPECTS.

SIGNS of spring are pleasant after a protracted winter. Symptoms of revival in Mission fields, where lifelessness and discouragement have long prevailed, are still more so. Then, indeed, the waiting Missionary may say, "The winter is past, the rain is over and gone, the flowers appear in the earth, the time of the singing of birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard in the land."

Our North-Ceylon Mission, carried on amidst a Tamil-speaking people, long appeared dull and cheerless. But we rejoice to find that it begins to assume a new aspect, and the hearts of our Missionaries are cheered, as they hasten to communicate to us such points of interest as will be found in the following extracts—

On Easter Tuesday (says our Missionary, the Rev. C. C. M'Arthur, April 4th), we had our service for thanksgiving for the harvest just gathered in, and by the sale of first-fruits, which took place after the meeting, we realized a sum sufficient to support a girls' school for a year or more. This is a large sum for a poor congregation, and at such a time, when every thing is so dear, and also when it is remembered that the Sunday before we had a collection of two pounds for the relief of those who are suffering from famine in India. . .

This was one of the most interesting meetings I have seen in Ceylon. The church was quite full on the occasion, so full, indeed, that many of the young had to sit on the floor. After the Tamil service, the Missionary scenes were exhibited, and the collection was made after the New