late them with the virus of Christianity. To avoid this danger of innoculation with a new faith, they seized him, beat him, and cast him out of their borders. Smallpox, as well as cholera, they look upon as an infliction from the hands of the cruel Mari-ammah; hence they seek for deliverance from its ravages, not so much by medical aid as by the soothing power of offerings, with the music of tomtoms horns and guns, upon the mind of the angry goddess.
Conjeveram.
Our homeward route now brought us to Conjeveram, not merely, like Trivatoor, a place of resort and of celebrity, but one of the seven holy cities of India. Few places are more famous for temples and festivals than Conjeveram, “the golden-beaded city.” Nor is it without note in modern oriental history; during the last half of the eighteenth century, its neighbourhood was the scene of many a bloody struggle between the armies of England and France, while contending, ten thousand miles
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