(80 miles W. S. W. of Madura.) LETTER FROM MR. NOYES, June 30, 1868. Hook-Swinging. Several paragraphs of this letter, in regard to the condition of different village congregations, trials, defections, encouragements, etc., which were marked for use, must be omitted for want of room, but the following account of a ceremony witnessed much more frequently by missionaries years ago than of late, will serve to show that the days of idolatrous superstition, folly and cruelty are not yet ended in India. "Recently, while laboring in the itineracy, I witnessed the 'hook-swinging festival.' At the beginning of this festival, the priest of the pagoda sends the sacred ashes, and other things, to a person whom he selects as a victim to be suspended. On the reception of these gifts, the man commences a fast, denying himself all bodily indulgence. On the day fixed for the celebration of the feast, he enters the temple with pomp and ceremony, and appears before the idol. The priest performs a ceremony over him, uttering munthrams, or heathen forms of prayer, and he pretends to be under the influence of devils, and acts like a mad man. While in this state, some person standing by gives him a severe blow on the back, which produces a slight swelling. The muscle is here pierced in two places, and openings are made sufficient for the insertion of the iron hooks, which are immediately introduced, and then pressure is applied on every side of the wound, to prevent the issue of blood, greatly increasing the man's sufferings. The fact that no blood flows is regarded by the people as a miraculous interposition. After these preliminaries, the man is taken to the machine upon which he is to be suspended and swung about. This consists of a fourwheeled platform car, in the centre of which is an upright post, 20 or 30 feet high, and upon the top of it a transverse beam, 40 feet long, fitted to work like a well-sweep, and also to be swung around in a circle. Upon one end of this beam, the hooks already inserted in the man's back are fastened by strong ropes. Long ropes are also attached to the other end, by means of which several men manage its motions. The victim is first swung around in a circle, and then raised high in the air, while the multitudes below fill the air with their shouting. In going up he favors himself by catching hold of the rope with his hands, but pretty soon lets go, and is suspended by the hooks inserted in his back, being bent almost double, his head and feet hanging, and the muscles of his back being pulled out to their utmost tension. While he is hanging in this position, the car is drawn by hundreds of men, over rough ground, around the temple, the man being shaken and tossed from side to side by the motion of the car. It was a full hour, by my watch, that I saw the man thus suspended. His countenance was a picture of distress, and when taken down he seemed much exhausted. - "He is next presented to the people to receive their offerings, and receives large presents of money and lands, — property such as he could not have accumulated by the labor of years. He is now taken to his house, the hooks are removed, and his wounds are treated by the application of small cakes of mud, made so hot as to burn the skin. Three of these plasters are placed on each wound and kept there for seven days, when they are taken off and other medicines are applied. This is severe treatment, but the wounds are said to be effectually healed by it in twenty days, if the man survives it. On the first day he suffers but little, because he is made insensible by intoxicating drugs and potions. On the second, and several succeeding days, his sufferings are so great that he will often attempt to commit suicide; but as he is strictly watched by his friends he finds no opportunity, and the deed is seldom done. "The barbarous practice of hook-swinging was discontinued for many years in the Madura District, until it was again revived in 1867; and as the people have come to understand that the Government will not interfere to prevent it, it is likely to become a common occurrence. I estimated the number of persons present on this occasion at 15,000. We preached to several audiences, but such occasions are very unfavorable to making an impression. I much prefer to see the people when they are quiet in their own villages. One hundred and sixty villages have been visited by myself and helpers on this tour, and we have preached to nearly 400 audiences. The people generally admit the truth of our statements, but too often, alas! it produces no lasting impression." PROCEEDINGS OF OTHER SOCIETIES. (ENGLISH) CHURCH MISSIONARY SOCIETY. view of the missions of this Society, and the statistical returns given in the last Report, THE following table presents a summary which, it will be seen, are incomplete. 6 38 1,976 2,296 15,523 1,002 949 36,236 293 36,529 In regard to income and expenses the Report states: "Thankful to Him whose are the silver and the gold,' the Committee again announce an increased income. Commerce has been depressed and the Committee embarrassed, but the Society's great mission has not been materially injured. The ordinary income has exceeded that of the previous year by £8,611, and has reached £153,997 5s. 10d ($769,987, gold). Adding £3,291 1s., -given for special objects, the total receipts are £157,288 6s. 10d. . . . Last year it was announced that the proceeds of Associations had reached £115,871 19s. 4d., a VOL. LXIV. 27 larger amount than had been received in any previous year; and now the Committee, with gratitude to God, can announce an increase in the Associations of £5,256 17s. 2d., making the receipts from that source alone £121,128 16s. 6d. The legacies have been £1,950 less than last year, but the donations have advanced £4,910." Some months since, the Society published, on a leaflet for letters, the following "facts and figures," taken, it will be seen, from a previous report, the numbers being now, often, larger, as the foregoing table shows: "On the 12th of April, 1799, sixteen clergymen and laymen of the Church of England - among whom were John Venn, John Newton, Thomas Scott, John Bacon, the sculptor, and Josiah Pratt, met at the "Castle and Falcon," Aldersgate Street, and founded the Society. Its total income for the first three years amounted to £911; for last year it was £145,000. The whole amount received by the Society to the present time, is £4,400,000 ($22,000,000). Of this, foreign missions expenditure, disabled missionaries, and students, have absorbed £85 per cent.; association expenses, publications, and management, £12 0 11d per cent.; and investments have been made at the rate of £2 19s. 1d per cent. During the last twenty years, management and incidental expenses have averaged about £2 3s. 7d. per cent. "The first missionaries of the Society were two Germans, who were sent, in 1804, to the west coast of Africa; since that time the Society has sent out into the mission field 703 European missionaries and agents, and now supports 277 missionaries, 1,830 lay agents, and 878 schools. 66 In Sierra Leone, the native clergy, inclusive of the pastors of the native church, are more than three fourths of the whole missionary staff. In the Yoruba mission they are more than one third. In the Niger mission staff, of 16 agents, not a single European missionary is found. In the Indian missions there are 38 native clergy, to 94 European; of ordained missionaries, in Ceylon nearly one half, in New Zealand two fifths, and in Northwest America one third a natives. The development of this native pastorate is the result of the Society's expenditure upon schools and native agency. "In 1854, the native church at Sierra Leone took up the schools, relieving the Society of about £800 per annum. In 1862, the native pastorate was founded, and ten pastors placed on funds. The Society's connection with Sierra Leone is now mainly confined to the maintenance of educational establishments. Six missions have sprung out of Sierra Leone - the Timneh, the Yoruba, the Niger, the Bullom Shore, the Quiah, and the Sherbro. During the past year, the native church at Sierra Leone have raised £800 for their Native Pastorate Fund, and £830 as a Church Missionary Society Jubilee Fund. "The first missionaries to India went out in 1814; the Society now has there, 1,655 missionaries and agents and 697 schools; for the year ending December, 1866, there were 26,160 scholars, and 10,524 communicants in connection with the Society. The annual contributions of native Christians amount already to more than £2,000. "The China mission was commenced in 1845, at Shanghai, and the Society has now in China six principal stations, with a staff of 14 European and one native ordained missionaries; and 24 native catechists and teachers. "The New Zealand mission was commenced in 1814; there are now 18 European and 12 native ordained missionaries, occupying 18 stations in the Northern Island. "For the year ending 31st of March, 1867, there were in England, Scotland, Ireland, Wales, and on the Continent, about 1,000 auxiliaries and associations connected with the Society.” MISCELLANIES. THE WOMAN'S BOARD OF MISSIONS. THE first meeting of the Woman's Board of Missions, held in connection with the annual meeting of the A. B. C. F. M., was convened in the Second Congregational Church, Norwich, Conn., on Thursday forenoon, October 8th. The church was filled (women only being present), numbers occupying the aisles. After introductory devotional services, and some remarks by the President, it was stated that the object of the meeting was to enlist the sympathies of Christian women in behalf of their perishing sisters in heathen lands, and to secure cooperation in the plans of the "Woman's Board of have done precious pioneer work, but how Missions," to this end. A report was presented by the Recording Secretary, Mrs. J. A. Copp, noticing the formation of the Society in Boston, in January, 1868, under the name, at first, of "New England Women's Foreign Missionary Society," its object being to "develop a deeper interest in behalf of missions among the women of our land; to afford to those who are waiting to know and to do their Master's will, a convenient and efficient way of promoting the cause they already love"; and "by extra funds, efforts, and prayers, to cooperate with existing Boards, in their several departments of labor for the benefit of the degraded women in heathen lands." The Report states: "The work of raising funds in the churches of Boston and vicinity was immediately commenced, and from time to time since, auxiliaries have been formed in some more distant places, bringing up the receipts, for the first nine months of the Society's existence, to more than $4,000, which have been appropriated to the support of seven female missionaries and eleven native Bible-readers, the most of whom are already engaged in their work." inadequate are all their efforts for the evangelization of 300,000,000 of our sex in pagan lands, now waiting to receive the bread of life. Everywhere, agencies and laborers must be multiplied for this sublime and stupendous work. The day for which our mothers wrestled and prayed has dawned, and we are the favored generation to whom the Saviour is emphatically repeating his dying command; for he has come to claim the heathen for his inheritance, and the uttermost parts of the earth for his possession.' "The aim of this Board is to secure auxiliary organizations in every religious society in our land, in sympathy with the American Board, and who approve of this work.... We hope to find a Persis' in every church, who will initiate such a movement, and raise an annual subscription, which shall secure the future support of our missionaries already in the field, and enable us greatly to increase their number." The meeting was closed with the doxology, after which donations were received, and numerous pledges were given to form auxiliaries. The address of the Corresponding Secretary of the Woman's Board of Missions is, Mrs. D. C. Scudder, Corresponding Secretary, read letters from missionaries, and several female missionaries who were present addressed the audience, adding greatly Mrs. D. C. Scudder, Auburndale, Mass. to the interest of the occasion. "The exercises continued with unabated interest for more than two hours, when it was remarked that the tearful eye, the perfect quiet and earnest attention, evinced that the sympathies of the audience had been enlisted, and it now remained to secure coöperation in the work." It was stated that "our English sisters, in their Society for Promoting Female Education in the East,' and the Woman's Union Missionary Society of America' (having their Zenana work in India and their Bible-women located at various mission stations), with other kindred associations, have labored long years, with commendable zeal, to elevate and Christianize heathen women, and God has abundantly blessed their labors." "These all, together with honored female missionaries of the American Board, A LITTLE LEAVEN AND HOW IT WORKS. MR. WILLIAMS, of Harpoot, in a letter written some months since, gives the following account of a case at Kulaat, one of the Mardin out-stations : 66 Perhaps it will pay to give one little incident, which greatly interested Mr. Barnum, as illustrating how the lump leavens, until the whole is leavened. We hired a house [at Kulaat] and put our helper in it. There the poor lame cripple, who for so long has been the only male Protestant in this village of the Patriarch, with two gospel-women, met for prayer and instruction. Adjoining this house was another, the woman of which entered her storeroom and made a hole in the wall, so as to hear what was going on. She became 6 so interested that she joined them. The priest told her husband, 'Your wife has become a Prote.' He forbade her attendance. She still went. He beat her as much as he dared, and threatened to kill her. So she ceased to go, if anybody was watching her, but went into her store-room and listened again at the hole in the wall. He beat her again and again, till finally, worn out with his opposition, she one day, when he was storming at her, quietly got up, and going to the wall took down his sword and brought it to him, saying, 'You may as well kill me at once, as they did "the seven," for do what you will, I will not give up this religion; and if you want me to quit it there is no way but to kill me.' He took the sword, saying, 'They did well to kill "the seven," and ought to have chopped them into minced-meat.' Our helper had overheard this, and called out, through the wall,—'Why do you so speak of those whom your own church honors as martyrs, and for whom it observes a saint's day?' 'Is that so,' he asked. 'I thought they were some of you Protes'; and unable to intimidate his wife, he called her brother. and said, 'I can do nothing with this sis ter of yours; she is bent on being a Prote, I want you to help me kill her, for besides you there is no one who can claim the blood money.' He replied, 'Leave her to me and I will bring her around.' After arguing with her for a long time, the brother came to the husband and said, 'We ought ourselves to give heed to these things and look after our own salvation, for she says these Protes teach nothing but what is in the gospels.' So the poor man, despairing of keeping her from the truth, moved every thing out of his house to another part of the village. But it was all of no use. Hear she would, and hear she did; and just before we were at Mardin, she had publicly passed over to her husband the ownership of one half of a vineyard which she held in her own right, worth about 1,000 piasters, on the express condition that he was to molest her no more about her religion. Meanwhile her father, her brother's wife, her sister, and her sister's husband, have all joined the Protestants, and are learning to read. Money answereth all things,' more, if pos sible, among this people than elsewhere, and when love to the truth is manifestly stronger than love to money, then men begin to consider.” A PHASE OF CHINESE CHARACTER. MR. GOODRICH, one of the missionaries of the Board, in a letter from Peking, dated May 6, 1868, relates the following incidents : "Would you like to see a new phase of Chinese character? A few weeks since a Buddhist priest was introduced to my house. After conversing with him a few minutes upon ordinary topics, I took up the Gospel by Luke, and opening at the 15th chapter asked him to read. He read correctly and fluently, and I endeavored to explain the parables, and invited him, as he left, to come in a few days and talk again. Four or five days afterwards he came again, and appeared somewhat interested in the truth, though his manner was rather listless. Suddenly I noticed that one hand was bound up, and asked him if it had been injured. He leisurely drew off the bandage and exhibited a band pierced through the centre of the palm with a spike, about ten inches in length and half an inch in thickness. I turned to him in horror, and asked why he had done that. He replied, composedly, that he had no other means of support, and that when men saw that, they would pity him and give him money. At this point my teacher, who had been listening to the conversation and caught the idea, came out and hastily drove the man from the house. Coming back, he said to me, that in a few minutes more the priest would have nailed himself to my table and deliberately waited for money. He added, that they sometimes nail themselves by the lips to the doors and counters of shops. "The next morning I walked out and found a boy lying by the side of the road, begging, with all his toes freshly cut off, and crying bitterly with the pain. This was no farce. Then I remembered that I met a beggar in Kalgan, last year, carrying his withered hand, and showing the handless stump from which it had been severed. I |