MY FIRST YEAR IN BENARES.
A stranger passing hurriedly through a country may carry away
impressions about its climate, products, and people, which residence for
a considerable time would not merely modify but reverse. There are some
things of which he can speak with some confidence. The great natural
features of a country, its mountains and plains and rivers, do not
undergo any marked change, and these may be truly described by the
casual visitor. The general aspect of a people, their houses, dress, and
look, remain much the same, and of these an accurate observer may give a
trustworthy account; but if from what he himself has seen and heard he
attempts to give a general estimate of the character of the people and
of the state of the country, he is almost sure to fall into great
mistakes.
Within the last few years India has become a favourite field for
travellers who can without inconvenience spend a few hundred pounds, and
be absent from home three or four months. Swift steamers take them
quickly to and from Bombay, and railways carry them in a short time from
one end of India to the other. They travel at the season when travelling
is delightful, and thus see the different countries of that great region
in their most attractive form. If they infer what they do not see from
what they see, they are sure to make statements utterly discordant with
fact. Mr. Wilson, who was sent out to India to put its finances into
order after the Mutiny, travelled through the North-Western Provinces in
the cold weather, when the country was covered with abundant crops, and
was delighted with all he saw. He declared it was the finest country he
had ever seen. He returned to Calcutta as the hot weather was setting
in, and died in the succeeding rainy season. It is said that some time
before his death he pronounced the climate to be the most detestable on
the face of the globe. Dr. Norman McLeod was our guest for a very short
time in Benares, as he was prosecuting his Indian journey. When driving
about on a fine balmy morning, he said, in his genial fashion, "You
missionaries often complain of your climate; I only wish we in Scotland
had a climate like this." To which I replied, "Ah, doctor, kindly stop
with us through our coming seasons; prolong your stay till next
November, and then you will be able to speak with authority." The worthy
doctor did not take my counsel. His death some time afterwards was
attributed to his Indian tour; but if it left in him the seed of
disease, the blame rests not on the climate, but on the excessive
fatigue caused by overmuch travelling and work.
The case of a person who has lived through a whole year in a country,
and has during that period moved among the people, is very different
from that of the passing stranger. He knows the climate as a traveller
for a few weeks or even months cannot. The seasons during that year may
have been more or less abnormal, and yet the resident cannot fail to
have obtained that knowledge which enables him to form a notion of what
he has in the main to expect every year. He gets a glimpse into the
character and peculiarities of the different classes of the population,
both native and foreign. He may know little of the language of the
country; but if he has an observing mind, and moves freely about, he is
constantly receiving information about the people in a degree which he
himself does not always realize. If his residence be prolonged for many
years, as he looks back to his first year, and remembers its experience,
he finds that his views have been greatly enlarged, on many points
greatly modified; he is sure that his knowledge is much more accurate
and mature; but there is scarcely any subject on which he finds his
views entirely reversed.
[Sidenote: THE EXPERIENCE OF THE FIRST YEAR.]
This, at least, has been my experience. I have a vivid remembrance of my
first year in Benares--a much more vivid remembrance than I have of
subsequent years, and it would be strange if I did not find that my
views on many Indian subjects have been greatly modified, and on all
much enlarged; but I do not discover that on any subject there has been
a complete reversal.
I have already mentioned that on my voyage from Calcutta to Benares I
spent much of my time in the study of the Hindustanee language, commonly
called Urdu. Within a week of my arrival I gave myself to it with all
the application of which I was capable. I had as my teacher a munshee,
who had been long employed by the missionaries of our Society, but who
could not speak a sentence in English, though he knew the Roman
character well. I was told that his ignorance of English would prove an
advantage, as I should on this account be obliged to speak to him, in
however broken and limping a fashion, in the language which it was
indispensable for me to acquire. We had before us an English and
Hindustanee Dictionary, a Hindustanee and English Dictionary, a
Hindustanee Grammar, and a book of easy sentences in both languages in
the Roman character. At first my teacher and myself had to put things
into many forms before reaching mutual intelligibility; but gradually
our work became easier, and when two or three months had passed we
fairly understood each other--I trying to express myself in Hindustanee,
and he performing the much-needed work of correcting my words and idiom.
I commenced with a portion of the New Testament, and soon got into some
of the classics of the language. The use of the Roman character in the
writing of Indian languages had been strongly advocated by Sir Charles
Trevelyan, by Dr. Duff, and other men of mark, and was accepted by the
majority of the missionaries. Portions of the Scriptures and other books
were printed in it. Like all young missionaries, I learned the Persian
and Nagree characters, in which the languages of Northern India had
always previously been written; but the Roman character was very
convenient, and I regretted afterwards I used it so much.
This study of the language was felt to be a foremost duty, and was
prosecuted from day to day. This went on for months with little
interruption, except what was caused by the serious and continued
illness of Mrs. Lyon, which, to the great regret of all their friends,
led before the end of the year to the departure of Mr. and Mrs. L. for
Europe.
In the seventh or eighth month of my residence at Benares I wrote a
short sermon in Hindustanee on John i. 29, and read it at the native
service. Within a year I took my part regularly at that service, first
using my manuscript, and then extemporizing as I best could.
I must confess I regarded my new linguistic acquisition with much more
complacency at the end of my first year than at the end of my fifth or
sixth. On my way to Benares, as I have already mentioned, I spent a few
hours very pleasantly with Mr. Leslie, the Baptist missionary at
Monghyr. I mentioned to him that my friend Mr. Lyon had learned the
language, and was preaching in it. Looking me full in the face, he said,
to my surprise and chagrin, "Depend on it, Mr. Lyon may use the words of
the language, but no one can be said to acquire it in a year." I thought
this a hard saying, but years afterwards I was forced to feel its truth.
I had in a year got such a glimpse into the Hindustanee and Hindee
languages as to have some conceptions of their nature, to know their
tone, and to bring them into partial use; but I had a very limited
notion of their nice distinctions, their peculiar idioms, and their vast
vocabulary. I cannot say that the opinion on this subject I formed in my
first year was entirely reversed by my after experience, but it was
largely modified.
[Sidenote: STUDY OF NATIVE LANGUAGE AND CHARACTER.]
While studying the native language, I felt myself studying the native
character as well. My teacher was very patient, correcting my
mistakes--mistakes, I must confess, often repeated--without allowing
even the slightest surprise to appear in his countenance. He did not
smile at blunders at which, when I knew better, I myself heartily
laughed. When I showed the slightest impatience at being checked he at
once allowed me to go on as I liked, though, as I afterwards knew, I
needed to be corrected. He was loud in praise of my progress, declaring
that I would soon surpass all my predecessors. In my intercourse with
him I had illustrations of the patience, the courtesy, and also the
flattering, cozening character of the people, when dealing with those
by whom they think they can be benefited. The impressions of native
character thus obtained were amply affirmed by the experience of after
years.
This munshee was well acquainted with our Scriptures. He belonged to the
Writer caste, and had from his early years been in contact with
Europeans. He was ready for conversation on religious subjects, and had
much to say in favour of the philosophical notions which underlie
Hinduism. Three or four years afterwards he seemed to awake all at once
to the claims of Christ as the Saviour of the world, and under this
impulse he openly appeared in a native newspaper as the assailant of
Hinduism and the advocate of Christianity, which led to the hope that he
was to avow himself, by baptism, a follower of the Lord. But he became
alarmed at what he had done; he could not bear the reproaches of his
friends, and he fell back into the ranks of his people. Though he had
ceased to be my teacher I had opportunities of seeing him, and I tried
to speak to his conscience, to his conviction of the Divine origin of
the gospel. The last time I spoke to him he said, with marked emphasis,
"There is no use in speaking to me. Let Hinduism be false or true, I am
determined to live and die in it as my fathers have done!" His case was
that of many with whom every Indian missionary is brought into contact.
During this year I was introduced into the methods in which evangelistic
work was conducted. In addition to attending the services of the Lord's
Day, I went now and then with my brethren to the city. We had at that
time two little chapels in good positions, at the doors of which the
people were first addressed, and were then invited to enter that they
might hear the new teaching more fully expounded. There was, of course,
nothing of the staidness or quietness of a Christian congregation. The
speaker was often interrupted; questions, sometimes very irrelevant
questions, were asked; and the people came and went, so that those who
were present at the commencement were seldom present at the close.
During the year I saw the principal places in Benares--its main streets
and markets, its temples and mosques; and thus formed some idea of the
great city, where for many years afterwards it was my privilege to
labour in the gospel of Christ.
[Sidenote: THE LANGUAGES OF NORTHERN INDIA.]
The work of the missionary in Northern India would be greatly simplified
if he had to learn only one language. He has to learn the two I have
named, the Hindustanee and the Hindee. The Hindustanee arose from
intercourse between the Muhammadan invaders and the people they had
subdued. It is written in the Persian or Arabic character, and draws its
vocabulary mainly from the Persian and Arabic languages. It is the
language of law, of commerce, and of ordinary life to many millions. The
Hindee in its various dialects, some of which almost rise to the dignity
of languages, is the vernacular of the vast Hindu population of
North-Western India. It rests mainly on the Sanscrit, and is written in
the Sanscrit or Deonagree character. In some of the most popular books
the languages are so strangely combined that it is impossible to give
any definite name to the language used. An acquaintance with these
languages is indispensable to missionary efficiency in Northern India,
but it is very difficult to attain marked excellence in both.