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of declaring himself in the face of all a true man. It was cleverly put, but fully entering into and sharing their motive, we declined, merely pointing out that the meeting had been called in accordance with the expressed wish of certain prominent members of our congregation, that these had now said their say, and, while it was of course open to any other Christian to stand up and follow their example, and we should be only too rejoiced to see any do so, on the other hand we had no wish to subject our converts to any strain for which they were not prepared; that in short, so far as we were concerned, the meeting was at an end, and any further step, if such was to be taken, must emanate from them. In the force of this they reluctantly acquiesced, and it was decided that each headman of a district should call out one by one the names of those who lay within his jurisdiction. They next asked us to oblige them with a little Ganges water for the purpose of the test, to which we replied that the article being in no demand among us was unfortunately not to hand, and sorry as we were not to be able to oblige our quasi guests in any particular, yet in this one we must ask them to provide for themselves. And it was wonderful how rapidly such provision was made, considering that the Ganges lies at a distance of not less than forty miles as the crow flies. A boy lifting a pot disappeared, taking by a curious coincidence, which I merely mention for what it is worth, the direction of the nearest well, and in an incredibly short space of time reappeared with the holy fluid. To a person sceptically disposed the incident might have presented difficulties. All we felt was that it was no concern of ours, and that so long as those for whose use it was intended were satisfied, we had no occasion to be anything else. And now all was ready, and after a few minutes of really very anxious suspense, for there was no question that a real crisis in the life of our little congregation had come, the calling out commenced. Designedly or otherwise it happened that the first five names called were those of men of very weak character, low esteem, and poor position among both their old and their new caste-fellows, and it was with less surprise than sorrow that I (who knew them best) saw them one after the other step forward in obedience to the summons and raise the water to their heads. It was done rather amidst the jeers, half suppressed, than the real approval of the Chamárs. On our part we made no sign, except that as each stepped forward I also advanced to the middle with a pencil and paper, and, as he lifted the water, wrote down the name as a
