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 .