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poor as he was,-to be content with little, like the Lord Christ,- that is what we feel to be insufferable, and that is what condemns the Saviour Jesus.

But do you, whose treasure is sincerely in heaven, do you learn to love the poverty of your Lord? Who indeed is not poor in the world? One in health, another in gold; one in honours, another in talent; one in friends, another in reputation; one in the disposition to enjoy, another in the faith that enjoyment will be eternal; all the world is poor. It is poor in every thing but hopes. And hence all are coveting and all who covet are poor. But if they would learn to love the poverty of Christ in his first triumph, they would be more meet to enter with him into his second glory. They would covet less: and, like him, though poor, they would make many rich.

Be therefore content with the station, which it has pleased Providence to allot you. Look not with so much disdain on

that lowliness and humility, which gives a resemblance to your Lord. Of that wealth which you possess, give to those who need. And the treasure which you covet, let it be such as you may share with the King of kings. That when with what you have in this world you have done all which can be done to promote his peace on earth, in the full ovation of your heart you may enter with him into his joy in heaven.

NOTE.

THE KONDS.

THE following account of savage tribes, with whom intercourse has of late years been opened in the East Indies, is collected from the notes of an officer, who was employed in the territory they occupy.

In 1835 and 1836, when British forces advanced into Goomsur, and pursued the Rajah into the hill-fastnesses of his tributaries, a region hitherto unexplored was opened to investigation on the confines of the Presidencies of Madras and Bengal, about the lat. of 20° N. and long. of 84° E., on the western boundary of South Cuttack and Ganjam. Although the whole line of coast has been occupied for more than half a century by British garrisons and large civil and judicial establishments, the ad

jacent interior was little known before this invasion, and years must yet elapse before it can be thoroughly examined. A people generally designated Konds are scattered over a tract of country covered with dense forests and jungle, and intersected by ranges of mountain. The state of their language at once marks their barbarous condition; for like that of the North American Indian, it has no written character. They are said to have been the original occupants of the fertile plains between the hills of Ganjam and the sea, before the coming of the Hindoos; but it is impossible to trace to an authentic source the claims upon remote antiquity which barbarous tribes usually prefer.

Their superstitions, and enormities which have obtained the sanction of common practice among them, convey a frightful idea of the condition, to which human beings and human society may be reduced, when they have lost all knowledge of the true God, and have no revelation of his will to guide their conduct. The sense of morality which prevails, if sense of morality it may be called, permits parents to put their children to death, without compunction, without any motive of superstition, or observance of religious ceremony, as a mere matter of worldly prudence and expediency.

The destruction of female infants prevails to an extent that has nowhere been surpassed, if it has been ever equalled, throughout the world. Sir John Malcolm in his Central India1 says: "Infanticide is not known among the lower classes. This shocking custom appears limited to some Rajpoot chiefs of high rank and small fortunes, who, from despair of obtaining a suitable marriage for their daughters, are led by an infatuated pride to become the destroyers of their own offspring." In a tone equally sedative, and consolatory to the excited feelings of humanity, he repeats in the political History of India: "Infanticide is held in as great horror by all, but a few families of Hindoos, as by us." And these remarks probably coincide with the former circumstances of the practice in the neighbourhood of Benares; but are utterly inapplicable to the savage tribes in the province of Orissa. Of the Konds all ranks and conditions were in the habit of putting their female children to death. When their villages were first visited, the natives ran out to gaze at the strangers, and often formed groups of fifteen, twenty, or more male, with but one or two female children; and on

1 Vol. ii. p. 208.

2 Vol. ii. p. 285.

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