India is a very old land, and those who live there look far back into the past. They listen to the stories that were told of men and gods in those old days, and follow the customs that were followed then. There are many gods in India, and many priests who serve in their temples and at their shrines. The priests have more power over the lives of the people than the gods have, but custom has far more power than either gods or priests. No one can tell how many hundreds of years have passed since th

Very long ago, though the mountains stood at the world’s centre, and India lay at their feet, there was no Ganges river, and the plains lay bare and fruitless. The god Siva then lived on the top of a high mountain, and spent his time in thought. Up over his head above the mountains the Princess Ganga lived free as the wind. She was the daughter of King Himalaya, and the air nymph Menaka, and so her home was in the air among the heights. At that time there lived a very wise man on earth, and, as

Long long ago, the unknown spirit began to play a game of life and death, and he is still playing it. That is what a Hindu child is taught, so life is not a real thing to him, but is only make-believe. Yet the rules of this game are so hard and fast that none of the puppets can escape from them. The Hindu story of life and death all circles round one rule of the game. That rule is that everything anyone does and everything anyone says must be punished or rewarded in another life, so that a littl

Far back in the early days four kinds of people sprang from Brahma the creator, to form the castes of India. The first, the Brahman caste, sprang from his mouth, to rule all the others. The second sprang from his arms to be the warriors of the land. The third sprang from his loins to be the business men and the land-owners, and from his feet came the fourth to serve the others. The Brahmans are still the powerful caste. From amongst them priests are taken, and they rule all others. But the other

When a baby is born in India the lines between the bones of its skull can be traced just as they can be traced in a fair-skinned child. The mother of a white baby does not notice them much, but they mean a great deal to an Indian mother, for an ancient story is told about them. Very long ago a little daughter was born to Brahma, the creator, and its mother asked the father to tell her what would happen to the little child. Then the god Brahma turned his back to his wife and his baby, and stretch

There are hundreds of other old stories that affect the life of Indian children to-day; but if we remember those which tell us of the holy land—the seats of the gods—amongst the Himalayas; of the sacred river of the Ganges, whose waters are even said to flow underground to feed the other rivers of the land; of what life and death, fate and caste mean to the Hindus, we shall have something to guide us. But all those who live in India are not Hindus. Once, long ago there was an Arabian named Moham

Even in high caste homes, where the women are never allowed to leave their own dingy part of the house, little girls, while they are still very young, play freely with their brothers. They are never thought of with pride as the boys are, and they must keep in the background when a visitor comes, for a father does not like to take any notice of his daughters when a stranger is there, though he will call his boys to speak to his friends. Yet boys and girls together have a happy time. They make mud

But the children of India have to act as men and women long before anyone here would think them old enough to do more than learn and play. Very early indeed a little Hindu child is married. Sometimes a baby is married in the cradle, but a little girl is generally nine or ten years old before she goes away to her husband’s house. That does not mean that she and the little boy to whom she is married have a cottage, and live there together. It only means that she comes in, a frightened wee girl, to

Once upon a time a boy was born in a manger in Bethlehem. When He was still a child wise men from the East came to worship and to lay gifts before Him, because they had seen a star which guided them to His cradle, and they knew that He was born to be a King. The wise men worshipped the child and returned to their homes in the East, and the child grew up to be a man. And when He had reached the full age of a man He went about in His own land, and taught and healed the sick, and there gathered aro

Men and women have gone to India to tell of the King of the world, and because of that new things are coming into the lives of the children there. There is great excitement when a European is seen for the first time in an Indian village. One day the boys of Holapura heard that an English lady had entered the house of the headman of the place. They left their games and hurried to the hut, but ere they got there, it was crowded to the door, so they climbed on the roof and looked down through the h

There have often been learned Hindu men who have lost their faith in idols, and the story of one of these has so much to do with the lives of many children in India to-day, that we must not miss it out. Ananta Shastri was a seeker for the King of India, though he did not know it; and his daughter Ramabai is now helping hundreds of little girls to find Him. Many Hindus think that no woman ought to be allowed to learn to read or to write, or to study the sacred books. Even if a husband is a learne

Ramabai and her brother were alone, but they had one treasure that very few Hindu brothers and sisters then had. They had their friendship for each other, their common interests and hopes and fears. They were still very reverent to shrines and idols, though strange thoughts and questions were rising in their minds, and the thought of the one great God of whom their father had spoken to them grew ever stronger. One day they found that they were near a sacred lake, in which there were seven floati

Before we leave India we shall hear the stories of four others of its children who found their way to Christ the King. The name of the first of these is Hormasdji Pestonji. He was not a Hindu, nor a Mohammedan, but a Parsee. There are not very many Parsees in the world, and most of them live in India. They are a powerful people, though they are few in number. Their religion is a worship of fire, and their ideals of character are high and noble. Hormasdji went to a mission college in Bombay. Thou

Sita was only a child but she was very miserable. The other little girls she knew romped and played about, but she had to work hard and to bear blows and many other kinds of cruelty. She did not know why this was, but she could remember a time long before—at least it seemed long before—when people were kind to her, and she could play and romp about too. Even in her dim memory of these days one person had been unkind to her. An old man who had shaken her and told her to be quick and grow up that

Far away in the north of India a little boy was born. He was trained to two things—to be a robber and to obey the Prophet Mohammed; and he learned what he was taught thoroughly, for he could steal cleverly and he was careful to pray five times a day and to fast through Ramadan. From the high hill side he watched the roads by which men crossed the country. When poor people passed along he always stayed quietly where he was, and let his sword lie by his side, though he kept his gun in his hand to

It is not only to poor and outcast girls that the sight of the King of India brings joy. There are women in that land whose lives were happy and glad before they saw Him, who yet felt, whenever they knew Him, that there was nothing that could make up to them for missing His service. Sooboo was one of these. She was a young girl of high caste in Madras. Her father was wealthy and honoured and she still stayed with him, though she was married, because, though she had all the honour that is given t