Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/523

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THE BADAGAS.
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Why is it that when friends depart, I sorrow not as those who are without hope? May we, who have been enlightened from on high, understand the gift of God, and not sink to a more hopeless grave by turning from the proffers of eternal life in Jesus Christ!



The Badagas.

About four miles from Ootacamund, and in the bosom of one of the loveliest basins of the Neilgherries, is the home of the German mission to the peasantry of the mountains. Looking down from the saddle of the higher Ootacamund Valley, its appearance is most charming. The road winds its zigzag way down a steep hill-side to a rolling surface of rounded hills in a high state of cultivation, and dotted here and there with villages, while the slopes of the heights rising beyond are all green and gold with fields of wheat, barley, and other grains. Beyond these the summits of still higher peaks mingle with the blue of the sky.

The Kaytee-house was built entirely away from European society by Lord Elphinstone,

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