THE CHURCH MISSIONARY GLEANER. THE KADERS OF THE ANAMALAI HILLS. Ir is an idea among many persons that India is inhabited exclusively by Hindus and Mohammedans. But India has its mountain glens and tablelands, inhabited by those who are neither Hindus nor Mohammedans, where tribes of wild people-some of them in considerable numbers, others mere fragments-have their home. Amongst some of these tribes Missionary efforts have commenced, and that with considerable encouragement -amongst the Santhals of the Rajmahal Hills, and the Coles of Chota Nagpore; but the great majority of them remain untouched, while every day brings new groups of them to light. Southward of the Palghat Gap, an opening in the western Ghauts, through which passes the railway from Beypore, on the Malabar Coast, to Madras, there rise the Anamalai ranges of mountains, the highest summits of which are not less than 8000 feet above the sea-level. Here are to be found extensive tablelands at an elevation of 4000 or 6000 and 7000 feet, while the surrounded ranges are to an immense extent covered with dense forests. Through these districts, as yet scarcely known to the European, are to be found dispersed various tribes of people -Kaders, Puliars, Malsars, and Muduwars. The Kaders are the lords of the hills, as their name implies. They will, as a matter of favour, carry a gun or load, but they perform no menial labour, and are deeply offended if called Coolies. They are described as trustworthy, truthful, and obliging, and as exercising some influence over Puliars and Malsars. Smaller in stature, in features they resemble the African. They have curly hair, tied in a knot behind, and file the four front teeth of the upper jaw to a point, as a marriage ceremony. The Puliars are chiefly herdsmen and merchants, while the Malsars are cultivators of the soil. They are all very expert in climbing trees, and the precipitous face of the rocks, in search of honey. Dr. Cleghorn, on a recent visit to these wild districts, observes— "Opposite our bivouac was a remarkable rock called Cundita-Malai, apparently 200 feet in height, on the precipitous scarp of which was a rattan cable, eighty feet long, securely fixed above. This chain was formed of large rings of the calamus stem, connected by another straight rattan which passed down through the centre of the hoops. By means of this the Kaders descend the face of the rock to collect honey." May these people not be regarded as too wild or too few to be deserving of attention. Even one immortal soul is worthy of an effort, much more many. IMPORTANT INTELLIGENCE FROM SIERRA LEONE. THE Church in Sierra Leone is the eldest born of the Church Missionary Society, and it is therefore according to the due order of things that it should be the first to leave the parental home to enter upon its own proper and independent sphere of usefulness. It is this event which has just taken place. The Native Pastorate of Sierra Leone is no longer dependent on the funds of the Church Missionary Society: the native church has charged itself with the support of its own ministry. We copy the following paragraph from the "Free Press and Sierra-Leone Weekly Advertiser" of November 8th, in which it appears as the leading article Friday last, the 1st instant, was an important day to the church in Sierra Leone. It is well known that for many years past the Church Missionary Society have been anxious to withdraw their grants from the colony, as their aid is anxiously and earnestly needed in regions lying in heathen darkness, and where the light of the glorious Gospel has not shed its illuminating rays. Since his arrival in this colony the Bishop has been anxiously engaged in endeavouring to establish the native pastorate on a sure and certain foundation: this having been accomplished, the whole of the native clergy were accordingly transferred from the funds of the Church Missionary Society to native support, on Friday last, the 1st of November. We understand that from the Native-Pastorate Fund means will be provided to keep in constant repair the churches of the various stations. It must not be imagined that it is from any want of sympathy, or any indifference on their part, that the Church Missionary Society is now withdrawing its aid. Having laboured upwards of fifty years, by its agents, in this colony, and being sorely needed elsewhere, that Society naturally look to Sierra Leone, where its first labours were commenced, to relieve it of the burden of supporting the native ministry. It looks, indeed, upon this colony with all the anxiety and fond care of a mother committing her firstborn to the world, to mark out for himself, under the divine guidance, an independent course of self-support. We shall be much surprised, and no little mistaken, if, in after years Sierra Leone so far forget her debt of gratitude as not to strengthen the hands of those who have so carefully, so anxiously, and so beneficently watched over, protected, and guarded the helpless infancy of the early church. As an evidence of the life and energy with which Sierra Leone is entering on the discharge of its new duties, we introduce the following account of THE RE-OPENING OF REGENT CHURCH, AND THE MOUNTAIN-DISTRICT On Sunday, the 3d of November, in accordance with previous notice, two |