CHAPTER XII
POOR FOLK
Virtue is the best of friends, vice is the worst of enemies, disappointment is the most cruel illness, courage is the support of all.- SLOKA.
It is not among the Kitty Kirkpatricks and Skinners that the chaplain is destined to find a sphere of labour. The Eurasians who come under his spiritual charge in South India, and who most need his care and attention, do not as a rule rise above their low-born and low-caste ancestors. A great many of them bear Portuguese names, and are in complexion almost as dark as the darkest natives. Up to the beginning of the nineteenth century the women wore the Spanish mantilla. And though bonnets were assumed by a few of the more enterprising, the black lace shawl was the favourite head- covering. The French and English shawl succeeded the mantilla, and to this day it is worn by the lowest class. The darkest and poorest of the Eurasian women cling tenaciously to their old-fashioned dress; and generation follows generation without seeing any change from the skirt and jacket the skirt, ungored and voluminous; the jacket, loose and concealing the figure rather than displaying it which were introduced into the East by the Dutch nearly three centuries ago.
At the distribution of some clothes made by the Children's League in Bangalore, a poor East Indian, who showed a little pride in her personal appearance, was
