sion of listeners every minute, Mr. Kleinknecht addressed the people, taking for his text "Come unto me all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." The reverend gentleman drew such a vivid picture of the sorrows and sufferings of humanity, and manifested such glowing sympathy for the labouring poor, that the audience (the majority of whom were of that class) seemed to be greatly affected. While the preacher was going on with his subject with great earnestness and fluency, one here and another there exclaimed-" All that the Padre Sáheb is saying is quite true!" When, however, he touched on the last clause of the text and spoke of the eternal rest as the gift of the Saviour, he did not seem to carry along with him the sympathy of his audience. At the conclusion of the address a discussion followed, in which some Bráhmans and Kayasthas took part, but the arguments of which it is here unnecessary to detail. At the close of the discussion, Christian tracts written in the Bengali language were distributed gratuitously among the people, who showed such eagerness to obtain them that they trod upon one another's toes, and nearly threw the missionary and his catechist off

their legs. In the melée our hero got hold of a tract entitled the Satya Ásraya ("The True Refuge") which he took home and used occasionally to read. As the sun had already set, the hát broke up, and buyers and sellers wended their way homewards—some to Kanchanpur, and others to neighbouring villages.

CHAPTER XXVI.

LADIES' PARLIAMENT.

But chief do India's simple daughters,
Assemble in these hallowed waters,

With vase of classic model laden,
Like Grecian girl or Tuscan maiden,
Collecting thus their urns to fill

From gushing fount, or trickling rill.

H. H. Wilson.

THOUGH Bengali women in the villages visit one another in their houses for friendly conversation, nowhere do so many women meet together and talk on so many different subjects-village politics not excluded-as at the bathing ghats of those tanks to which they resort for their daily ablutions. I have already told the reader that Kánchanpur has a great many large and beautiful tanks, but all of them were not popular for bathing purposes. The two tanks in

the village which were resorted to by the largest number of bathers were the Himságara in the south, and the Ráya's tank in the north of the village. As Badan lived in the northern division of the village, the members of his family all bathed every day in the Ráya's tank, so called from the zamindár, who belonged to the Ráya family. It had two bathing gháts, one for men, and the other for women, and they are so situated with respect to each other, that the men who bathe in the one ghát cannot see the women who bathe in the other. Both have flights of steps built of masonry, going pretty far into the tank, which is very deep. These steps

are enclosed by walls of masonry, which, however, do not rise above the surface of the water. At the head of the steps is a large floor, also of masonry, where the people, after coming out of the water, wipe their bodies, their hair, and sometimes change their wet clothes for dry ones, though the general custom is to go home, however distant, in wet clothes. On two sides of the floor are two tulasi plants, raised above the floor by masonry work.

If the reader wishes to listen to a conversation

carried on by a number of women, let him accompany me about the middle of the day, say between eleven and twelve o'clock, to the women's gháṭ of the Ráya's tank. It is, however an expedition attended with some peril, for if we are seen standing near the ghát, and listening to the conversation going on, we are sure to be called all sorts of names, and abused as Bengali women only can abuse. We must therefore get to the ghát some one or two hours. before, and conceal ourselves among the thick foliage of a sacred sriphal tree (Ægle Marmelos) which stands just a little beyond the floor.

It is eleven o'clock. The women are dropping in one by one. Most of them are bringing with them brass kalasis (water-vases), and a few have earthen ones, in which they intend taking home drinking water, and which they all put down on the floor described above. Their faces are all looking glossy, for they have been well rubbed with oil. Women of all ages, of all ranks, of all castes except the very lowest, are there. There is a venerablelooking old woman of seventy, all her hair white as flax. She has no kalasi, as she is too feeble to