crawl upon their hands and knees to the market place; lie down again upon their backs; and cry out for alms or assistance. They were shunned, their cries were disregarded, and they were considered as losing their cast for having refused the blessing of dying in the Ganges according to the custom and faith of their religion. The power of the clergy over the popular faith is so great, that it is extremely difficult to regain one's standing in a cast, after it is lost by any of the higher forms of impiety. The penance for such an one is so severe that an outcast is seldom restored to favour. The nearest friends will never show them affection or regard while they continue under disgrace. Outcasts are often punished in the following manner. Two hooks are put into the back; these are fastened to the end of a pole which is suspended in the middle about fifteen feet high; a rope is attached to the other end of the pole; drawing this rope raises the victim, who has a basket of flowers in his hands; these he is obliged to scatter upon the heads of the people below, as he is carried round upon the end of the pole, which is fixed upon a pivot, and makes a full circle. They perform some prescribed service by a chant during the punishment. The same custom prevails on the coast of Coromandel. Such is the power of this religion over the faith and feelings of the people. It would be gratifying to us, if no tortures in the persecutions carried on by Christians could be found to compare with this in cruelty. But while the excesses of the dominicans, the barbarities of the inquisition, and the mutual destruction too often effected between opposing sects of protestants, make us ashamed of many nominal Christians, we still remember the purity and benevolence of the religion whose laws are violated whenever its disciples indulge such passions and cruelties.

This

I have seen one woman burnt with her deceased husband. practice, which is constantly diminishing, seems to have arisen from several causes. The most natural one is that of attachment to the husband, and of grief at the loss which may easily seem at first to be inconsolable. Another reason is the assurance,, given by their religion, that the wife, who proves her fidelity by this extreme suffering, shall live with her husband in paradise forever. It is also an idea, handed down by tradition, that as the ashes of the parties are mingled, when their bodies are burned together, so their souls shall be united in affection and happiness for eternity.

Wives in India, and under the laws and religion of the Gentoos, are considered as entirely at the command of the hushands, and as included in them, in the same manner that the term mankind includes all women as well as all men. On this principle, the wife is to die when the husband does. Some have supposed that the jealousy of the husband extends beyond the grave, and that the wife is to be burnt to gratify this passion. But such a reason is not consistent with the general character of the Hindoos, and is too vile to be admitted without far stronger evidence than has been offered to support it.

When the husband dies, it is common to inquire of the oldest wife, if she wishes to burn herself with his body. If she refuses, the next is asked; and so through the whole number. Whatever might once be thought of a refusal, it is not now considered as a crime, although to make the sacrifice is an honour, and a great distinction. The laws both of the Christians and the Mahometans have tended powerfully to diminish the custom, and a preminm must be paid in order to gain permission to be burnt. This premium is high, and often cannot be paid. When a widow is about to offer herself with the body of her deceased husband, the funeral pile is prepared; the wood is split very fine, and I believe is wet with spirits of some kind to make it burn easily and rapidly; a bed of this is raised six feet square, and two feet thick; the corpse is brought and laid upon it; a priest leads the widow, who steps upon the pile, and lays herself down by her husband, putting her arms about his neck; and his arms are laid so as to embrace her. Two bamboo poles are then fastened into the ground, and are bent over the bodies, crossing each other, the ends being held by two priests. The pile is kindled in several places at once, the fire burns rapidly, and the poles are pressed down upon the bodies till the widow is suffocated and ceases to move. During this ceremony, the priests chant hymns and prayers; and sometimes the voice of the victim is heard for a moment mingling its tones of faith and triumph with the notes of the priests. The bodies are burnt to ashes, and these are preserved; a preservation however which must be temporary, and which is every year of less and less importance.

The cast of bramins once consisted of the most harmless beings in the world. According to their ancient rules, they take the life

of no creature; they eat no animal food; they are very superstitious; they worship idols, and particularly some kinds of cattle; a white cow is perfectly sacred in their eyes. A bramin will brush the earth before he sits down, and pray that as he has been merciful to the ant, the Deity may be merciful to him.

The Hindoos have always been divided into four casts, which never intermarry. The soodra is the lowest cast, and includes menial servants. The next is the byse, consisting of the merchants of all ranks. The third is the ketri, or the military tribe. The kings and rulers belong to this cast. The last and highest is the cast of the bramins. The sooddras are from the feet; the byses from the belly; the ketris from the heart; and the bramins from the head of Brama. Notwithstanding the ancient purity and benevolence of the bramins, they are now often immoral, ignorant, and cruel. Many of them do honour to their cast, but like all other classes of privileged men, there are many also extremely corrupt. The learning of India is confined to them, and they have the same divisions and theories, on subjects of literature and science, which prevail among Europeans. I bave been told by learned men that the Greeks borrowed much of their philosophy from the Bramins. Although I dislike to quote from any book much, yet this is a subject with which I have no acquaintance, and must therefore use the language of others. In the article brachmans, the Endinburg Encyclopedia says, "It is now pretty well ascertained. that the arithmetical characters now employed in Europe are of Indian, and not of Arabian origin as was long supposed." "We find regular systems of logic and metaphysics with all the niceties, distinctions, and classifications, which are to be found among the Grecian dialecticians; and it is doubtful whether Aristotle, the father of logic, did not derive both his materials and arrangement from India. A Mahometan historian, as quoted by Sir William Jones, records a curious anecdote corroborative of this conjecture. He mentions that Callisthenes procured a regular treatise on logic in the Panjab, and transmitted it to Aristotle; and perhaps curiosity may yet be gratified by discovering, that the Grecian philosopher did not invent, but translate and compile a system of dialectics. One thing is certain, that there is scarcely a notion, which has been advanced by metaphysicians, in ancient or modern times, but may be found asserted and illustrated in some of the

braminical writings. We meet with materialists, atomists, pantheists, and intellectualists, if we may so denominate the followers of the subtle and ingenious system of Berkeley. There can be little doubt that Pythagoras borrowed most of his mystical phylosophy, his notions respecting the transmigration of the soul, and the unlawfulness of eating animal food, from the ancient Bramins; for we find all these things particularly explained and enforced by the modern Bramins. They still abstain from all kinds of animal food, except that in some provinces they eat a little fish, but so disguised with rice and condiments, as scarcely to be discerned. The most sacred of all their animals is the cow, and to touch its flesh in the way of food is regarded as the highest pollution, and involves a forfeiture of cast, even in the case of those who have been involutarily guilty of this offence. Hence the tyrant Tippoo forcibly converted a great many of his Hindoo subjects to the Mussulman religion by sprinkling them with cow broth. By these means they were forever rendered unclean in the eyes of their countrymen and were glad to seek an asylum from reproach by embracing Mehometanism."

The casts regard their laws so much that it is difficult to get there to do any thing out of their order. No man will do any kind of labour, which does not belong to his cast. A military man considers himself as disgraced by any other employment. When the sepoys, who are of the military cast, were with us on the coast of New Guinea, I could not get a musket from them, although on any other occasion they would have trembled at my frown, and would have done any thing sooner than disobey a regular order. I have seen one seized, and flogged at the gang-way for stealing a ball of twine from the sail maker, and when he was asked what he had to say in his own defence, he said with a boast that he was of the thief-cast.

Those, who go amongst them to convert them to Christianity, err when they begin with the outcasts. This is sure to disgust all the natives, who have not forfeited their casts, and whose prin. ciples and hopes are identified with a religion which makes them sacred. If the higher casts could be affected, the lower ones would follow. But all plans for this object must be extremely slow in their operation.

The river Hoogly is of the first importance to this country, although its navigation is considerably difficult and dangerous. A pilot must be obtained soon after you pass Point Palmiras. Many vessels are built for this service, and are called pilot schooners and snows, although they are often rigged as ships and brigs. They are of two hundred tons, and upwards. They are excellent vessels, and well found with cables and anchors. The branches of the Hoogly are numerous. One crosses into the Ganges eastward, and one runs westward many leagues below Calcutta, called the old Ganges. The mouth of it is one of the mouths of the Ganges, which are numerous. It is filled with reefs of sand, with banks and shoals, and cannot be entered without a pilot. At the junction also of the Hoogly and the Ganges there are dangerous banks, and ships are lost upon them. Formerly there was no quay at Calcutta for the use of ships in loading or unloading their cargoes; but now one is built, and a great extension of it is designed. Ships of all nations lie in the harbour.

Calcutta stands upon low, marshy, and unhealthy land. Its latitude is 22° 23′ north, and its longitude 88° 28′ east. It was extremely fatal to European constitutions; but now the tanks or ponds in and near the city are filled up; many woods are cleared away; and many of the causes of disease are removed. Still however a rosy face marks a stranger among the sallow and bilious countenances of the inhabitants.

The market of Calcutta is good. The vegetables are exceedingly cheap. Cowries are the only kind of coin used in the market, and they are very convenient.

The cattle of this country are all with humps upon their backs, are small, but the beef of a good flavor.

There is here a kind of hemp called jute, eight or ten feet long after it is dressed. It is excellent in all respects, but will not bear tar, and therefore is not suitable for the use of ships.

Benevolent institutions are frequent in Calcutta, and are well patronized. The college of Fort William, founded by Marquis Wellesly, since the date of this chapter and my first visit, has been too much neglected, and an erroneous theory has prevailed in England in regard to the best mode of educating young men destined for India. The Asiatic Society, founded by Sir William Jones, is said to be extremely flourishing.