That heathen customs will die bard in India is not only to be attributed to the ignorance of the masses of the people, but also to the fact that there are largo numbers of Brahmins—the priestly caste—who from time immemorial have held comfortable posts in connection with temple worship, and they can form no idea that they or their children after them could ever hold a different office. Atleast they could never in any other city be so revered, and the present is good enough for them, so why change it? All Brahmins are of course sacred, and every t. must be a Brahmin, though all Brahmins" are not priests. the most intellectual of the races of India, for centuries necustomed to study the sacred books and to apply their wisdom by keeping their ascendency over all other classes, the Brahmin may be found to-day in great numbers filling government appointments large and small, therapy proving their intellectual superlarity to other castes. Men of low caste, or no caste, may indeed be found in similar or even higher posts, but not in large numbers. Nevertheless that there are very large number of the priestly caste high solely connected with the temple worship, is'shown in an article which lately appeared in leading Madras paper, informing us that in the native State of Travancore alone there are 10,000 temples besides 15,000 other places of worship such as shrines to sacred serpents and the like. And this in a state about half the size of Ireland, only one-third populated, the rest being mountains and im-
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.