are themselves objects of worship. The book to be read," says Mr Ward, is always addressed as an idol. '-' At the festival in honour of the goddess Suruswutee, any one of the Shastrus is adopted and worshipped, joined with the pen and inkstand. The followers of Vishnoo, and especially the men'dicant voiragees, pay a still greater reverence than the regular Hindoos to the books they esteem sacred. Their books • relate to the amours of Krishnu, or to the mendicants Choitunyu and Nityanundu.'

The last of the objects described by Mr Ward are, literally, stocks and stones.

We shall pass over the other heads, under which the authors before us give an account of the Hindu religion, and shall come to the ceremonies, which form a subject of inconceivable extent and complexity. On this part, however, we must content ourselves almost wholly with general expressions. The reader who would have an idea of the Hindu ceremonies, in almost any degree corresponding with the reality, must go into the details, and must follow, step by step, the succession of unmeaning, childish, disgusting, or mischievous acts, in which almost every hour of the life of the Hindu, if he observed the precepts of his religion, ought to be engaged.

There are weekly ceremonies, monthly ceremonies, annual festivals; and there are daily ceremonies, sufficient in number to leave but a small portion of the day unemployed. It would require many pages to set down so much as the names of these several ceremonies, many of which consist of a prodigious number of operations. Merely as a specimen, we shall select the account which is given by Mr Ward of the morning ceremonies, or those which relate to one seventh part of the day.

Agreeably to the directions of the Anhiku-tultwŭ, the daily duties of a bramhun, walking in strict conformity to the rules of his religion, are as follow

He must divide the day, from five o'clock in the morning till seven at night, into several equal parts. The duties of the first part are thus described.-First, awaking from sleep, and rising up in his bed, he must repeat the names of different gods and sages, and pray that they would make the day prosperous. He must then repeat the name of Urjaonu, and pray to him, that whatever he may lose during the day may be restored to him; and then the names of any persons celebrated for their religious merit. Next, the names of Uhuly-a, Dropůdée, Seeta, Tara, and Mundodŭree. After this, he must meditate, with his eyes closed, on the form of his spiritual guide, and worship him in his mind, repeating two incantations. He now descends from his bed, placing first his right foot on the ground. On going out, if he see a Shrokiyŭ bramhun, a beloved and excellent wife, a cow, an Ugnihotree bramhun, or any other bramhun, the day will be

auspicious. If he see a wicked or naked person, a wretched woman, distilled spirits, or a man with a great nose, the day will be inauspicious. By repeating the names of Kurkotŭků, Důmůyŭntée, Nŭlů, and Retoopůrnů, no quarrel will arise during the day. He must then, after discharging wind, washing his mouth, &c. go at least a hundred and ten yards from his house into the field; and taking water, choosing a clean place, scattering some grass to the S. W., tying a turban round his head, remaining silent, with his face to the north, refraining from spitting, and holding his breath, perform the offices of nature. His poita must remain on his right ear till he has washed his hands. It is unlawful to attend to the offices of nature on a road, in the shade, where cattle graze, in the fire or water, in a ploughed field, where dead bodies are burnt, upon a mountain, on the ruins of a temple, on an ant-hill, in a ditch, or by the side of a river. After this, he must go to a more clean spot, and taking some good earth, cleanse the left hand ten times, then both hands seven times, and the back of the left hand six times; then his nails; then wash his hands; each foot three times; and then rinse both feet. If he perceive any evil smell remaining on his hands or feet, he must wash them again. If the bramhun have no water-pot, he must wash himself in this manner in a common pool or river, and take care that he come out of the water clean. His water-pot must neither be of mixed metal, copper, nor gold; an earthen pot must be thrown away as soon as used. If the pot be of brass or silver, he must scour it well after he returns, If a bramhŭn attend not to these modes of cleansing, all his other religious actions will be void of merit,

The bramhŭn must next attend to his morning ablutions. Taking a dry towel, he must go to a pool or river, and placing the cloth on the ground, wet his feet and hands; then perform achŭmůnů, by taking up water in the palin of his right hand three times, and drinking it as it runs towards his wrist; then with his right hand touch his lips, nose, eyes, ears, navel, breast, forehead, and shoulders, repeating an incantation; wash his hands again, and perform achŭmůnu, repeating an incantation; then sitting to the N. or E. before sunrise, cleanse his teeth with the end of a green stick, about six or seven inches long. If he clean his teeth after sunrise, in the next birth he will be born an insect, feeding on ordure, He must now wash from his face the mark on his forehead made the day before; then scrape and wash his tongue, taking care that the blood does not flow. If in cleansing his teeth he should make them bleed, he becomes unclean, and is disqualified for performing any religious ceremony on that day. If, however, he make his teeth bleed by the side of the Ganges, he does not become unclean.

He must next gather flowers for worship on the banks of a pool or river. If any one forbid him, he must willingly desist; if any are given him by a bramhun, he must receive them; but not if a shōōdrů offer them: if a person have them to sell, he must give him what he asks. If, in carrying these flowers to the side of the water, a

person of mean caste touch them, or he touch any unclean thing, he must throw them away. If a person of any caste make a bow to him while the flowers are in his hand, he must also throw them away.

Returning to the river, and sitting in silence, he must rub himself all over with mud; then descending into the river as high as his breast, with his face towards the east or north, he must repeat certain incantations, by which (in his imagination) all other sacred rivers will flow into that in which he stands, as well as all other holy places. He must afterwards repeat many incantations, and perform moodra, viz. certain motions, by twisting his fingers into several curious shapes; then, dividing his hair behind, and bringing it into his hands before, with his thumbs he must stop his ears; with the three first fingers of each hand cover his eyes, and with his two little fingers his nostrils, and then immerse himself three or four times; then, with his hands joined, throw up water to his head; then repeat other incantations; then, taking up water with his joined hands, he must offer it three times to the sun; then washing his body, and repeating certain prayers, that he may ascend to some heaven, or receive some temporal good, he must again immerse himself in the water. After this, he must ascend to the side of the river, and wipe his body with a towel ; then repeat certain forms of praise to Gunga, Sōōryŭ, Vishnoo, and other gods; then put dry, and newly washed cloth, round his loins, and, sitting down, cleanse his poita, by rinsing it in the water; then taking up some earth in his hand, and diluting it with water, put the middle finger of his right hand in the earth, and making a line betwixt his eyes up to the top of his forehead; then draw his three first fingers across his forehead; make a round dot with his little finger in the centre at the top of his head, another on the upper part of his nose, and another on his throat; then with his three first fingers make marks across his breast and arms; then make dots on his sides, and another on the lower part of his back. After this he must take up water in his right hand three times, and drink it.

To this succeeds the morning sundhya, in which the person must offer many prayers, pour out water to different gods, repeat certain forms of praise in honour of the sun, which he must worship, and repeat the gayutree; then take up water with his korha, and pour it out to his deceased ancestors; after which he must return home, and read some part of the védů.'

The reader may now have some general conception of two of the distinguishing characteristics of the Hindu religion, its quantity, and its absurdity; in which there is nothing to match it, that is or ever was, upon the surface of the globe.

We shall mention but two more of its most prominent qualities; and these are, its cruelty and its sensuality.

The self-inflicted torments of its votaries, which are so extraordinary as to constitute one of the most wonderful phenomena in the history of human nature, are too celebrated, and too commonly known, to render it necessary for us to employ in the

description of them any portion of our very limited space. Let the tormenting postures, then; the cutting and piercing of different parts of the body; the swinging by hooks thrust through the muscles of the back; the lying upon iron spikes; falling from a height upon naked knives; walking on fire; and various other modes of torment, as well as the different species of selfsacrifice, by throwing themselves to be crushed under the wheels of an immense sacred machine; by throwing themselves from precipices, by throwing themselves into rivers, burying themselves alive, and various other contrivances, be conceived by the reader as accurately as he can from the descriptions with which he must already be acquainted. It is not so generally known, that a worse species of cruelty, forced involuntary torments, and death itself, are a part, and a remarkable part, of the Hindu religion.

It is now well known, that human sacrifices make an important part of the Hindu ceremonies. Mr Ward presents us with some translations from the sanguinary chapter of the Kalika poorana. It is here said that the blood of a tyger pleases the god⚫ dess for one hundred years; and the blood of a lion, a reindeer, or a man, a thousand. But by the sacrifice of three men, she is pleased 100,000 years.' Among other directions for the due performance of this sacrifice, attended with a profusion of rites, one is, that the victim must be a person of good appearance..... The blind, the crippled, the aged, the sick, the afflicted with ulcers, the hermaphrodite, the imperfectly formed, the scarred, the timid, the leprous, the dwarf⚫ish, and the perpetrator of heinous offences; one under twelve years of age, one who is impure from the death of a kinsman, &c.; these severally are unfit subjects for immolation, even though rendered pure by sacred texts. '

It is a practice in some parts of India to sacrifice their children to the Ganges, by drowning them in the stream. A child is often sacrificed, by hanging it up in a basket upon a tree, where it dies in two or three days, being generally destroyed by ants or birds of prey. The late Mr Thomas, a missionary,' says Mr Ward, once saved one of these poor infants in one of the northern districts of Bengal, which had fallen out of the basket, and when a jackall was running away with it. It was afterwards claimed by and restored to the mother. As he and Mr Carey were afterwards passing under the same tree, they found a basket hanging up, containing the skeleton of another infant which had perished in the same manner. ' Other modes of immolating the children are, by burying them alive, and by throwing them to the alligators. The sick and the aged are offered up, by dragging them to a sacred river,

stuffing their mouths, their eyes and ears, with the mud, and leaving them to perish.

On the horrid sacrifice of the widow, by burning her alive on the funeral pile of her husband, it is unnecessary to dwell, because the general circumstances of it are commonly known. All that is necessary to be added is, that the two missionaries whose works are before us, very satisfactorily expose the false pretence which is artfully set up by the Bramhuns, as if this sacrifice were altogether voluntary on the part of the victim, and courted by her as the most desirable of all events. The case appears to be exceedingly different. The victim is dragged to the fatal scene, how full soever of horror and dismay, by a compulsion altogether irresistible; while everything which human artifice can devise is employed to prevent the appearances of that agony which is too frequently endured.

We shall now pass from these distinguishing characteristics of the Hindu religion, and come to another which appears to be held forth by both the missionaries from whom we have de rived our present lot of information, as the most prominent and remarkable feature of the whole; we mean the abominable sensuality of which it is the cause and the apology. Without an acquaintance with the particulars, it would be very difficult to conceive the degree in which their religious ceremonies are rendered subservient to the gratification of the sexual desires. The first and overruling end of all religious contrivances to which the people have submitted, is, of course, the power of the priests. The next appears to have been, the gratification of the priests in the particular way to which we have just alluded.

The worship of the lingam (lingu, as it is spelt by Mr Ward) is well known to be one of the most distinguished parts of the worship of the Hindus. Mr Ward says,

The worship of the lingu strongly resembles the worship of the phallus in honour of Bacchus. The Sunyasee festival, in honour of Shiva, appears to resemble much the orgies of Bacchus. In the months Voishakhoo and Kastiku, the lingu is worshipped daily in the numerous temples dedicated to this abomination throughout Bengal. It is difficult to restrain one's indignation at the shocking violation of every thing decent in this image; nor can it be ground of wonder, that a chaste woman, faithful to her husband, is scarcely to be found among all the millions of Hindoos, when their very temples are polluted with filthy images, and their acts of worship tend to inflame the mind with obscene ideas.'

Another celebrated, and important part of the religion of the Hindus, shall be given in the words of the Abbé Dubois.

Next to the sacrificers (the priests), the most important persons about the temples are the dancing girls, who call themselves Devadasi, servants or slaves of the god; but they are known to the public