The Lutheran Pioneer St. Louis — 1925, Page 59

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THE LUTHERAN PIONEER.

59

mother-in-law rules over her. Gradually the women
of the household acquaint her with all the caste
rules and with the idolatrous regulations obtaining
in her new home. She receives no education. Her
one and only thought must be to observe these rules
so religiously that not a single one is violated. Her
husband is now her god. His welfare must be her
one and only delight. As a rule, she is not per-
mitted to meet other men as long as she lives.
Formerly her husband’s death meant death to her
by suttee, that is, by self-immolation on the funeral
pyre of her husband. ‘This act was the sign of
highest faithfulness. The British Government no
longer tolerates it, although repeated instances have
- occurred in very recent times.

Poor women in India, I pity you! No ray of
real light enters your life. Irom early childhood
to death you are in physical and spiritual bondage.

But there is relief and salvation for you. Christ
came to redeem you and to bring you real life, to
make you free, not free from marriage ties, but
from all idolatrous and social superstition, and to
bring you the real freedom of the children of God.”

St. Louis, Mo. Freperick Branp.

Cobra-Worship in India.

One of the most venomous serpents of India is
the cobra. As a rule, it is yellowish to dark-brown,
with a white-spectacle mark on the back-of the
hood. Its.length is frequently six feet. It glides
along, holding part of the body erect, with the hood
distended, ready to strike any prey that may come
its way. The bite proves fatal in a few minutes.

A Snake Charmer.

The Hindus consider the cobra sacred, a divinity,
and only few very low-caste natives will kill it.

The cobra is the companion of the snake-
charmer. Itinerant jugglers will frequently carry”
two or three with them on their trips‘and exhibit

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them in the bazaars and at crossroads, in fact,
wherever they are able to obtain an audience and
a few pennies. The mongoos will be permitted to
engage the cobra in battle and frequently, by its
dexterity and tenacity, is the victor.

Snake Worship.

At a certain village in India I saw a snake-
charmer keep five or six cobras in active dance, a
kind of swaying movement, with the plaintive tunes
of his flute. The charmer appeared to handle the
serpents with impunity, insisting that the deadly
fangs had not been removed.

The cobra is the symbol of Vishnu, one of the
outstanding idol-gods of India. It is said that once
upon a time in the dim past this god adopted the
form of a thousand-headed cobra. Krishna is said
to have overcome the great snake Kaliya and is
frequently shown in sculpture and in carving stand-

- ing on a cobra of many heads.

Belief in the divinity of serpents and especially
of the cobra still persists in many parts of India.
Southern India has quite a number of temples ded-
icated to the service of this reptile-god. Nagercoil,
the city in Travancore where we have one of our
chief mission-stations, is named for its large snake
temple. The snake temples contain living, squirm-
ing serpents, to whom the priests bring the daily
offerings of the people, and they are worshiped in

~the full sense of the term. Throughout.Southern

India the image of the cobra may be found carved
on stone slabs, and frequently it is decorated with
garlands, a tribute to the god.

While traveling in Travancore, I saw a Hindu,
dressed only in his beads and in his loin cloth, _
bowing to a small mound, in which a cobra was »
supposed to dwell. At a small round opening into
the mound a dish with what seemed to be rice had ~
been placed. Milk was set out in a pan. With