Gave Her A Begging Bowl

Gave Her a Begging Bowl.

Mme Antoinette Sterling, the contralto singer and evangelist, had an experience in the Bombay presidency, India. which is as quaint as any of Kipling's tales of the hills. She was campaigning with Pundita Ramabai, and through her magnificent voice was drawing thousands of natives to her meetings. They had never seen that kind of a missionary before and had never heard a voice like hers. They were so pleased with her work that they said to themselves"

"This is a foreign woman guru, and for fear of giving offense to us she has omitted to put her begging bowl outside of her door for us to put in the customary contributions.

In India every guru, or holy person carries a brass, wood or clay begging bol, into which the devout put some small sum of money. Mme. Sterling walked out upon the veranda of her bungalow one morning, and there, to her amazement, found two begging bowls-one, a little one, with a few annas in it, intended for the pundita and one, an enormous affair, containing a handsome sum of annas and rupees for herself.

The only explanation she could ever extract from the servant was this: "Little bowl, little money for the little pundita with little voice; big bowl, big money, for big missahib with big voice." - Saturday Evening Post.