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Show 106 BY PATH AND TRAIL. which they built with the help of their newly made con verts were not only temples where the holy sacrifice was offered and prayers said, but they became consecrated kindergartens where the altar, the crucifix, the way of the cross and the painting of the Last Judgment taught their own lessons. By pictures, by music, by art and song, and symbolic representations, by patience and af fection they developed the stupid minds and won over the callous hearts of these benighted children of the desert. The fathers in time choose from their converts assistants known as Temastranes, who taught catechism to the children, acted as sacristans and explained from time to time the rudiments of religion to the pagan In dians. They appointed for every congregation a choir master, known as the maestro, who could read and write, was comissioned to lead the singers, male and female, and teach others to play on musical instruments. In time they became enamored with their work and the progress they were making, so much so indeed that one of the fathers writes: " It is wonderful how these Indians, who can neither read nor write, learn and retain two, three or four different masses, psalms, chants of the of fice of the dead, chants for Holy Week, vespers for festi vals, etc." Then when the fathers succeeded in gather ing then} into communities and the children, under their fostering care, had grown into young men and women, they taught them different mechanical trades and many of the Indians became tailors, carpenters, tillers of the soil, blacksmiths, butchers, stone cutters and masons. " I know," writes the author of the " Budo Ensayo," " sev eral Opates and Eudebes who can work at all these trades and who now play on musical instruments with no little skill." It has always taken centuries to graft |