SOME time since, you asked for the portrait of a Sindhi girl or woman. I have now much pleasure in sending you one. The original of this is a Mohammedan, and was first connected with the Mission ten years ago. She was then a child, and attended the school got up by Mrs. Isenberg, and for which your Society made a grant. She continued to attend our school till her marriage, when she removed to her husband's house. I heard of her little, and saw her less, after this event, for her new home was a good distance away, and her husband was not favourably disposed towards our religion. About a

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year after her marriage she sent for me to her father's house; she was in great trouble, her husband had turned out to be a lazy, intemperate, and licentious man; of late his conduct had been so cruel and shameless, that she thought she could bear it no longer, and had run away to her father for protection. The grand question she had sent for me to consult me upon was how to get rid of her husband. He himself was not willing that the marriage should be dissolved, and had been to the kazi, the Mohammedan judge, and had talked him over to his side, and made it worth the kazi's while to decide in his favour. So the divorce was not granted. I could not tell her what other course was open to her; so we arranged to consult Mr. ———, a native lawyer, whom I knew well. This gentleman told her that she must give to her husband all her property, and he would have no further hold upon her. This expedient was of no avail, for she had no property. Her parents had just about enough to keep themselves upon, that is all. "Well," Mr. said, "there is then only one other course left, you will have to go to jail (civil) for six weeks." I expected that she would not agree to this; but she was so determined to be free, that she seemed overjoyed to find she could accomplish her object so easily. Mr. very kindly watched the case in court, and would take no fee for his trouble; she was condemned to six weeks' imprisonment, her husband having to pay four annas (6d.) for her food. I spent an hour with her every day, so long as she remained in the jail, giving her a daily task of reading and needlework. At the end of three weeks the husband was tired of paying the money, so, of course, she was set free. She knows her Bible well, and has a knowledge of salvation, but has not become one of us, nor have I the slightest ground for hope that she is dissatisfied with her own religion.

An Afternoon in our Mission Room, Hong Kong.

BY MISS OXLAD.

THIS Mission Room, or "Gospel Hall," as its Chinese appellation should be more exactly translated, is in a very poor neighbourhood, a village beyond the western extremities of our city, where a great many of the people are engaged in rearing pigs. All the more, however, from its very poverty, is it practicable to proclaim the "good tidings" of salvation to the female portion of its community. Open such a room. in a quarter of the town where the richer people reside, and they would be "too respectable" to attend it. Personally invite them to come, and they will have any number of excuses, they have too much work to do, or there is nobody to mind the door; they have not dressed their hair, or it is too far off, and they must not walk. If some do come, it will be after a long hesitation, and on some occasion when they can go to the trouble and expense of doing their hair properly, putting on their best clothes, and probably bringing some small present of cake or fruit in their hands; and with all this ceremony to go through it will be long before they come a second time. In fact, the higher class of women go out so little, and the idea of going in for an hour to listen to a reading, which involves their walking in the street to reach the place, is so foreign to their own and their husbands' ideas of propriety, that not many would attend such a meeting if it were as near as the next street. Here, however, in the midst of their poorer sisters, there is not so much of the hindrances of social custom, and not the least punctiliousness as to dressing and hair dressing. Just as they are in their own places, or feeding their pigs, or working out of doors, in they come, when they see the door open, or hear the Biblewoman's voice calling to them, or see by my chair outside that I have come to "talk the doctrine."

We are never in want of a congregation, though they go