xxviii
EDITOR ' S INTRODUCTION
have been met with, which continue undisturbed in the rites and usages which had guided them in their pre-conversion existence. They still pay worship to the Kalasam at marriages and festivals, call in the Brahmin astrologer and purohita, use the Hindu religious marks, and conform to various other amenities, which have the advantage of minimizing friction in their daily intercourse with their
Hindu fellow-caste brethren.'
And yet the Christian native is nowadays but in the ratio of seven in a thousand of the whole population. The remark accordingly made by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Agra to Jacquemont is as applicable now as it was when
'
it was uttered in 1828: La caldalja e molto grande, ma la carne e molto poca.'
The last years of the Abbe ' s life were spent at the headquarters of the Missions Etrangeres at Paris. He left
India, never to return, on January 15, 1823, his passage having been paid by the East India Company and a special pension settled upon him for life in recognition of the many services which he had rendered in India. On his return to Paris he was at once made Director of the Missions Etrangeres, and from 1836 to 1839 he filled the post of Superior. During his leisure he found time to translate into
French the whole of the Pancha-tantra, the famous book of
Hindu fables, a " hd also a work which he entitled The Exploits of the Guru Paramarta. He lived for no less than a quarter of a century after returning to Europe, and died in 1848 at the patriarchal age of eighty- three.
In conclusion I desire to acknowledge the kind assistance and advice which I have received from many Hindu friends and others while editing the Abbe ' s work r especially do I desire to acknowledge the help rendered to me by Mr. C. V. Munisawmy Iyer, a Brahmin gentleman, who associated himself with me in the revision of the proofs.
MADRAS, / September, 1897.
H. K. B.