"TH

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HE little bird, called Baya in Hindu, Berbera in Sanferit, Babui in the dialect of Bengal, Cibu in Perfian, and Tenawwit in Arabick, from his remarkably pendent neft, is rather larger than a fparrow, with yellow-brown plumage, a yellowifh head and feet, a light-coloured breaft, and a conic beak very thick in proportion to his body. This bird is exceedingly common in Hinduftan he is aftonishingly fenfible, faithful, and docile, never volunta. rily deferting the place where his young were hatched, but not averfe, like moft other birds, to the fociety of mankind, and eafily taught to perch on the hand of his mafter. In a state of nature he generally builds his neft on the highest tree, that he can find, efpecially on the palmyra, or on the Indian fig-tree, and he prefers that, which happens to overhang a well or a rivulet: he makes it of grafs, which he weaves like cloth, and fhapes like a large bottle, fufpending it firmly on the branches, but fo as to rock with the wind, and placing it with its entrance downwards to fecure it from birds of prey. His neft ufually confifts of two or three chambers; and it is the popular belief, that he lights them with fire flies, which he catches alive at night and confines with moift clay, or with cow-dung: that fuch flies are often found in his neft, where pieces of cow-dung are alfo ftuck, is indubitable; but, as their light could be of little ufe to him, it feems probable that he only feeds on them. He may be taught with eafe to fetch a piece of paper, or any fmall thing, that his mafter points out to him; it

is an attefted fact, that, if a ring be dropped into a deep well, and a fignal given to him, he will fly down with amazing celerity, catch the ring before it touches the water, and bring it up to his master with apparent exultation; and it is confidently afferted, that, if a house or any other place be shown to him once or twice, he will carry a note thither immediately on a proper fignal being made. One inftance of his docility I can myself mention with confi dence, having often been an eye witness of it: the young Hindu women at Benares and in other places wear very thin plates of gold, called tica's, flightly fixed by way of ornament between their eye brows; and, when they pafs through the streets, it is not uncommon for the youthful libertines, who amuse themselves with training Baya's, to give them a fign which they understand, and fend them to pluck the pieces of gold from the foreheads of their mistresses, which they bring in triumph to the lovers. The Baya feeds natu rally on grafs-hoppers and other infects, but will fubfift, when taine, on pulfe macerated in water: his flesh is warm and drying, of easy. digeftion, and recommended, in me, dical books, as a folvent of ftone in the bladder or kidneys; but of that virtue there is no fumcient proof. The female lays many beautiful eggs réfembling large pearls: the white of them, when they are boiled, is tranfparent, and the flavour of them is exquifitely delicate. When many Baya's are affembled on a high tree, they make a lively din, but it is rather chirping than finging; their

An ungent made of it with oils of any fort is an effectual remedy for fome cutaneous diforders, and, mixed with rofe-water, it is good for cold tumours and for the dropfy; but it must never be adminiftered without the greatest caution; for fuch is its power, that the smallest quantity of it in powder, drawn, like alcohol, between the eyelashes, would in a fingle day entirely corrode the coats and humours of the eye; and fourteen reti's of it would in the fame time deftroy life. The best antidote against its effects are the fcrapings of leather reduced to afhes if the quantity of arfenick taken be accurately known. four times as much of those afhes, mixed with water and drunk by the patient, will sheath and counteract the poifon. "The writer, conformably to the directions of his learned friend, prepared the medicine; and, in the fame year, gave it to numbers, who were reduced by the difeafes abovementioned to the point of death: God is his witnefs, that they grew better from day to day, were at last completely cured, and are now living (except one or two, who died of other diforders) to attest the truth of this affertion. One of his fift patients was a Pársì, named Menuchehr, who had come from Surat to this city, and had fixed his abo e near the writer's house he was fo cruelly afflicted with a confirmed lues, here called the Perfian fire, that his hands and feet were entirely ulcerated, and almost corroded, fo that he became an object of disgust and ab-, 1 horrence. This man confulted the writer on his cafe, the state of which he disclosed without referve. Some blood was taken from him on the fame day, and a cathartick administered on the next. On the third day he began to take the arfenick-pills, and, by the blefling of God, the virulence

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of his diforder abated by degrees, until figns of returning health appeared; in a fortnight his recovery was complete, and he was bathed, according to the practice of our phyficians: he feemed to have no virus left in his blood, and none has been fince perceived by him.

The

"But the power of this medicine has chiefly been tried in the cure of the juzam, as the word is pronounced in India; a diforder infecting the whole mafs of blood, and thence called by fome for krun. former name is derived from an Arabic root fignifying in general, amputation, maiming, excifion, and, particularly, the truncation or erofion of the fingers, which happens in the last stage of the difeafe. It is extremely contagious, and, for that reafon, the Prophet faid: jarri minaʼimejarum.

cum icferri mina'l fad, or, "Flee from a perfon af"flicted with the jucham, as you "would flee from a lion." The author of the Bahhru'ljawahir, or Sea of Pearls, ranks it as an infectious malady with the measles, the fmall-pox, and the plague. It is alfo hereditary, and, in that refpect, claffed by medical writers with the gout, the confumption, and the white leprofy,

"A common caufe of this diftem, per is the unwhole fome diet of the natives, many of whom are accuftomed, after eating a quantity of fifh, to fwallow copious draughts of milk, which fail not to caufe an accumulation of yellow and black bile, which ming,es itfelf with the blood and corrupts it: but it has or er causes; for a Brahman, who hd never tafted fifh in his life, apli d lately to the compofer of this ely, and app ared in the high degree affe ed by a couruption of b'ooa ; which he might ave inherited, or acquired by other means. 1 hele,

whofe religion permits them to eat beef, are often expofed to the danger of heating their blood intenfely through the knavery of the butchers in the Bazar, who fatten their calves with Balawer: and thofe, who are fo ill-advised as to take provocatives, a folly extremely common in India, at first are infenfible of the mischief, but as foon as the increased moifture is difperfed, find their whole mafs of blood inflamed, and, as it were, a duft; whence arifes the diforder, of hich we now are treating. The Perfian, or venereal fire generally ends in this malady as one Devi Prafad, lately in the fervice of Mr. Vanfittart, and fome others, have convinced me by an unreferv. ed account of their feveral cafes.

"It may here be worth while to report a remarkable cafe, which was related to me by a man, who had been afflicted with the juzam near four years; before which time he had been difordered with the Perfian fire, and, having clofed an ulcer by the means of a ftrong healing plaifter, was attacked by a violent pain in his joints: on this he applied to a Cabiraja, or Hindu phycian, who gave him fome pills, with a pofitive affurance, that the ufe of them would remove his pain in a few days; and in a few days it was, in fact, wholly removed; but, a very fhort time after, the fymptoms of the juzam appeared, which continually encreafed to fuch a degree, that his fingers and toes were on the point of dropping off. It was afterwards difcovered, that the pills, which he had taken, were made of cinnabar, a common preparation of the Hindus; the heat of which had first tired the humours, which, on ftopping the external difcharge, had fallen on the joints, and then had

occafioned a quantity of aduft bile to mix itfelf with the blood and infect the whole mass.

"Of this dreadful complaint, however aufed, the firft fymptoms are a numbness and redness of the whole body, and principally of the face, an impeded hoarfe voice, thin hair and even baldness, offenfive perspiration and breath, and whitlows on the nails. The cure is beft begun with copious bleeding, and cooling drink, fuch as a decoction of the nilüfer or Nymphea, and of violets, with fome dofes of manna: after which ftronger catharticks must be administered. But no remedy has proved fo effica cious as the pills compofed of arse nick and pepper: one inftance of their effect may here be mentioned, and many more may be added, if required.

In the month of February in the year juft mentioned, one Shaikh Kamazani, who then was an upperfervant to the Board of Revenue, had fo corrupt a mass of blood, that a black leprofy of his joints was approaching; and moft of his limbs began to be ulcerated: in this condition he applied to the writer, and requefted immediate affiftance. Though the difordered state of his blood was evident on inspection, and required no particular declaration of it, yet many queftions were put to him, and it was clear from his anfwers, that he had a confirmed juzam: he then loft a great deal of blood, and, after due preparation, took the arfenick pills. After the first week his malady feemed alleviated; in the fecond it was confiderably diminished, and, in the third, fo entirely removed, that the patient went into the bath of health, as a token that he no longer needed a physician."

ANTIQUITES.

"THE

HE ancients, from their flender acquaintance with the interior state of India, have been able to communicate litle information with refpect to the arts cultivated there; and though the moderns, during their continued intercourse with India for three centuries, have had access to obferve them with greater attention, it is of late only, that by ftudying the languages now and formerly fpoken in India, and by confulting and tranflating their moft eminent authors, they have begun to enter into that path of enquiry which leads with certainty to a thorough knowledge of the state of arts cultivated in that country.

"One of the firft arts which human ingenuity aimed at improving, beyond what mere neceffity requires, was that of building. In the brief remarks which the fubject of my inquiries leads me to make on the progrefs of this art in India, I fhall confine my attention wholly to those of higheft antiquity. The

moft durable monuments of human induftry are public buildings. The productions of art, formed for the common purposes of life, waste and perifh in ufing them; but works deftined for the benefit of pofterity fubfift through ages, and it is according to the manner in which these are executed, that we form a judgment with respect to the degree of power, fkill, and improvement to which the people by whom they were erected had attained. In every part of India monuments of high antiquity are found. Thefe are of two kinds, fuch as were confecrated to the offices of religion, or fortreffes built for the fecurity of the country. In the former of these, to which Europeans, whatever their ftructure may be, give the general name of Pagodas, we may obferve a diverfity of ftile, which both marks the gradual progress of architecture, and throws light on the general ftate of arts and manners in differrent periods. The moft early Pagodas appear to have been nothing

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