INDIA AND ITS INHABITANTS, BY CALEB WRIGHT, A. M. THE AUTHOR VISITED INDIA AND TRAVELED EXTENSIVELY THERE, FOR THE EXPRESS PURPOSE OF COLLECTING THE INFORMATION CONTAINED IN THIS VOLUME. THIRTY-THIRD THOUSAND. ILLUSTRATED BY NUMEROUS ENGRAVINGS. CINCINNATI, OHIO: PUBLISHED BY J. A. BRAINERD. 1858. Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1854, BY CALEB WRIGHT, In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of Massachusetts. PRINTED BY GEORGE C. RAND & AVERY. TESTIMONIALS. From Rev. Rufus Anderson, D.D., of Boston. "Mr. Caleb Wright visited India a few years since, to qualify himself for lecturing on the manners and customs of the people in that country; and the Lectures he has since published give evidence of the carefulness of his observations, and of his faithfulness in description. The volume entitled L I F E I N I N D I A is valuable for its subject-matter, even beyond any other similar collection of the size within my knowledge." From Rev. Jeremiah Day, D.D., LL.D., formerly President of Yale College. "' Mr. Wright has recently lectured in seven of the churches in this city (New Haven), to large and highly gratified audiences. I believe his Lectures are doing much good, and hope they will continue to receive the patronage they deserve." While Mr. Wright was lecturing in the principal cities and towns in the United States, testimonials, similar to the above, were received from a great number of persons in eminent stations, among whom were twenty Presidents of Colleges and Theological Seminaries, viz.: Rev. E. Nott, D.D.,. President of Union College. L. Beecher, D.D.,... President of Lane Seminary. J. Edwards, D.D., -... President (formerly) of Theol. Sem. Andover. Jere. Day, LL.D., ~ ~ ~ President (formerly) of Yale College. H. Humphrey, D.D., President (formerly) of Amherst College. Mark Hopkins, D.D.,. President of Williams College. S. North, LL.D.,... President of Hamilton College. Joel Parker, D.D.,.. President of Union Theol. Seminary, N. Y. B. Tyler, D.D., ~ ~ ~ President of Theol. Seminary at E. Windsor B. Sears, D.D.,..... President of Theol. Seminary at Newton. R. Babcock, D.D., ~ ~President (formerly) of Waterville College. J. Bates, D.D.,.. e President (formerly) of Middlebury College. N. Bangs, D.D.,. President (formerly) of Wesleyan University H. J. Clark, A.M.,... President of Alleghany College. J. Carnahan, D.D.,... President of Princeton College. Asa Mahan, A.M.,... President of Oberlin Institute. E. W. Gilbert, D.D, ~ President of Delaware College. Benjamin Hale, D.D., President of Geneva College. Silas Totten, D.D.,. ~ ~ President of Trinity College. Ion. A. Hasbrouck, LL.D., President of Rutgers College. ENGRAVINGS. LECTURES ON INDIA. O0. 2AG3B. 1. A Devotee, who had been standing eight years,...... 9 2. A Devotee, whose finger-nails were eight inches long,..... 11 8. A Devotee, whose arms were constantly elevated, 13 4. Hindu of Bengal, of high rank, in full dress,... 15 5. Mohammedan of Bengal, of high rank, in full dress,..... 17 3. Byragee playing on a Timbrel,..... 19 7. Mohman Khaun, Nabob of Cambay,........... 21 8. Culi Chief,............ 23 9. Cull Soldier of the Forests of Pajputana,....... 25 10. Minaret at Delhi,................. 27 11. Columns of a Temple at Benares,.......... 29 12. Columns from the ruins of a Temple at Barolli,...... 31 13. Temple of Vishnu, at Mahabalipooram, South India,... 88 14. Entrance to the Cave Temple of Elephanta,...... 35 15. A Mosque at Delhi,........ 35 16. Hindu College at Calcutta,........ 37 17. Fort of Haje Ka, on the Indus,... 39 18. Town and Fort of Roree, on the Indus,......... 41 19. Fort of Burkhur, on the Indus,.........43 20. Hindu Family and Dwelling,............ 47 21. Travelling in a Palankeen,............. 47 22. Specimens of Hindu Jewelry,........ 49 23. Celebrating the Hull Festival,.... 53 24. A Brahmin Reading the Shaste:,........ 53 25. A Volume of the Shasters, written on Palm Leaf,..... 55 26. Vishnu reposing on his Serpent Couch,. 59 27. Interior of a House in the City of Benare...... 59 28. Temple of Kali near Calcutta,...... 63 29. The Goddess Kali,...... 68 VI ENGRAVINGS. NO, PAGE 30. Temple at Tanjore,............ 67 31. Images found among Ancient Ruins at Gaya,...... 71 32. Temple near Allahabad,........ 71 33. Two Portraits,..... 75 34. A View in the City of Benares,.. 75 35. Presenting Offerings to a Mendicant Priest,...... 79 36. An Infant Victim of Superstition,....... 83 37. Interior of a Chapel at Cuttack......... 83 38. Baber, the founder of the Mogul Empire,....... 87 39. Ruins in the City of Delhi,.. 91 40. Interior of a Choultry,........ 91 41. Union of the Ganges and Jumna,....... 95 42. The Sick, brought to the Ganges,........ 95 43. A Pilgrim at his Devotions,........... 99 44. The God of Wisdom, Dancing Girl, and Musicians,..... 99 45. The Great Temple of Juggernaut at Puri,..... 103 46. Portrait of Juggernaut,............... 103 47. Car and Procession of Juggernaut,........... 1G7 48. The Goddess Luckshme, copied from an Ancient Sculpture,.. 107 49. Ceremony of the Swinging of Krishna.......... 111 50. A Tank and Temple near Benares........... 115 51. The India Ox,................. 115 52. A Devotee leaping from a Precipice,.......... 119 53. Transforming a Woman into an Evil Spirit by burning her alive,.. 119 54. A Group of Women,................ 123 55. Interior of a Dwelling,.............. 123 56. Saugor Island,.......... 127 57. Bannian Tree,........ 127 LECTURE ON WOMEN. Cozmnencinlg at Page 129. 58. Three Hindu Girls, educated at Burdwan,........ 131 59. Women of Calcutta,.............. 135 60. Hindu Woman of Bengal, of high rank, in full dress,....19 61. Mohammedan Woman of Bengal, of high rank, in full dress,... 143 62. Parsee Woman of Bombay, of high rank, in full dress,..... 147 63. Hindu Dancing Girl,........... 11 64. Kyan Woman,............. 5 ENGRAVINGS. Vii NO. PAGE. 65. Hindu Womaw the Brahmin Caste,...... 159 66. Hindu Mother lamenting the Death of her Child,..... 168 DESCRIPTION OF THE THUGS. Commencing at Page 169. 6 7. A Thug disguised as a Merchant,...... 167 68. Carrier of Ganges Water,........... 176 69. Interior of a Cave Temple at Ellora,.... 185 70. A Thug going to a Feast,.,.. 190 71. A Mohammedan at Prayer,............. 191 72. Indru, King of the Minor Deities,........... 193 73. Cottage in the Forest,... 197 DESCRIPTION OF FESTIVALS. Commencing at Page 201. 74. Procession at a Hindu Festival,...... 199 75. Image of the Goddess Durga............. 202 76. A Hindu Family carrying Offerings to an Idol,. 209 77. Returning from a Sacrifice of Animals,. 215 78. Dancing in Celebration of the Durga Festival,....... 219 79. Consigning an Image of Kali to the Ganges,........ 223 SPECIMIENS OF THE SHASTERS. Commencing at Page 237. 80. Gautama, or Budh,... 249 81. Chinese Budh,....... 251 82. Brahma,................... 251 83. Another Form of Brahma,... 251 84. Huneman,.............. 255 85. Another Form of Huneman,.. 255 86. Vishnu,...... 255 87 Ganesa, the God of Wisdom,.... 258 88. Serpent God,............259 89. Colossal Bust of Shiva, from the Temple of Elephanta,.... 259 90. Shiva,................... 259 91. Temple of Nandi, at Tanjore,............. 269 92. Kartika, the God of War,.... 271 ENGRAVING, NO. 1. Portrait of a Devotee who had been standing eight years, day and night. See description at page 73. i?~ No. 2. Portrait of a Devotee who had kept the left arm elevated:n the position represented until it had become stif, and the finger-nailskad grown six or eight inches in lenjth. See page 70. No. 8. Portrait of a Devotee who had kept both arms elevakd until they had become stiff and immovable. See page 70. i~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~;. iI i& l\ i i i No. 4. A Hindu of Bengal, of hiylh rank~, in full dreas, -'BB[r i i - I! Pc!II ii IILLC g ilp'I'i i 11111111!i i r i lrlllllllii~!' " Ir1 i y it i:iiiii'ff;li --,, =-, 5li icI --- r=; -c-"ssrlll/mn//n///a; -rrunuy(UI1IUIYI;II\h6E~-:,-u--;- s~,, ~ -. —— = —No. 5 B;IlbFLccmmedan of Bengal, oJigs ran5 %izfzlll Eres* 1-ull -T:,i No.6.A yrge. eepiqe69 /~ ~ ~ \ ~z~li I~~~~~~~~~~ \\ \ ~No. 7. Afoman K~auna abob of Cambay:No. 7. il-o~man ]fhaun, 2~tbob of Cambag. No. 8. A COuli Chief. The Culis are a tribe of Robbers and Pirates in he north-west part of Rindustan. !\:x ~\ S,; i o ~~~~~~~~~~-= /l ~'~~~~-~~ — 1%. 9. A qucli Sotdiet of the PIiorests of Ratjtutacru ----- -~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i - - - ~~~~~~~~~~ —----— ~_ K >_ —---— ~- _ _, No. 10. TILEE GREAT MINARE1'T AT DTELHI. This beautifl and magnificent tower is 242 feet inl height. In the interior is a spiral staircase, leading to the different balconies, and to the to]). It wats built in the thirteenth century, but for what purpose is now unknown. No. 11. SPECIMEN OF ARCHITECTURE AT BENARES. Two of the eight columns which support the vestibule of a Temple, represented by engraving, No. 34, page 75. i fil I 1l Ji,, /!! 7l li No. 12. SPECIMEN OF HINDU ARCHITECTURE AT BAROLLI. These Columns are zln the immediate vicinityof a very large and beautiful tempte, nor:n trins. They probably supported a snnng: for the recreation of the god. See eng aving, representing the swinging of Krishna, page 111. No. 13. A TEMIPLE AT MIAIABALIPOI'(AAL. Each of the four columns is composed of a single stone. During cer. tain Festivals an image of Vishnu is broughtfrom a larger temple and placed in this edifice to receive the homaye of his votaries. I y;'V V -4~ IA~~~~~~~~~~r S9. Te [~ I./ lihna Ne~~ 1.) 2atI R I W1a, A iiwiir they'll~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ i'doi-~I~ -Bilateral~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~rI/i\i~"~'T~ No. I.). A Jj'(,sq,1c (it D, i_ i.~~Qa - —------- -------------------— - -- — ----- —--------— —-- — _ _;- - —--- ---— --- _-. -r::.___ _ —---— __- __________= —--r____ — _ _.__ -_ --- ------— m_ -L —- --— ~ —__ —--— Z-__ —-_===T1=-_- —____-= —-= —=====_==3 —= —— ==-= —— _ ---— -. —----— -------— —- --— —-— — -— -T7=Z-_I_=;-__: = —-----------—: —— —-:i lj";h""i"l"li:~~"'; i::.l":i~i- i ii''i lili ui I —.'I —~ "i —- -'sSi- ~:8111'IliliiiiifWBI, 1 i g s -i-li (yliluw I1Silliliiii! ILUi"J Llllilll iY11111 U!YI! rjj ,Am,-;- -issrrsraabp~Mar~.ur: nc;: r —~ — -S8%6i: hniWli i _____-,=_;L=_._r ---------— __ __ __ _ ___ r;; ai:,~i; : e=::' -ii:= — - c No. IG.?'ile Ili,?cEu CYolEe-e at alcutta _fz-E-~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ~,~,~ ~ ~~ ~ ~11!!~!i~I~ 1,1'~~'~!~~~~~ - —'i l No. 17..Fort of H/aje &~, on th~e Indu *_~~~~~~ —- _,fiA _ m v 4 r — _ _1At —,,, ---- No. 18. Sown and Sort of Roree, on the Indu~s ',pv, f 97/1 no?.ml,7.q'~.,,'o\7 T — iC~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i -- ~ —--— P —-—.~ —; — -r~..~ ~~~ ~i~,.~!~ I'~..... ~~:ld ttl; Ji~' LECTURES ON INDIA. LECTURE I. IT is the opinion of some eminent geographers, that India, t nder the name of Tarshish, was known in the days of Solomon, and celebrated as the land of spices, gold, and precious stones; but, whether it be the Tarshish of the ancients or not, it has for a long time been justly regarded with great interest. Here, vast and powerful empires have successively sprung up and flourished, while Europe -was in a state of barbarism. Long before Christianity shed its light upon the world, India was the land of science and the arts. At the present time, however, its;,romnlinent characteristics are ignorance, poverty, and superstition. It is not my purpose to direct your atteltion to the whole of India, but only to that portion of it usually denomillanted Hintdustan, or India within the Ganges. This is a large peniitlsula, projecting into the Indian Ocean, south-west of- the Chintcse Empire, from which it is separated by the Himalaya Mountains. Withl a territory about as large as Mexico, it is supposed to contain a population of one hundred and thirty millions, or more ilhlial)itants than England, Scotland, Ireland, Russia, and the continent of America. The Hindus are of various dissimilar races, differing materially in stature, complexion, manners, language, and general character The Rajpoots and mountaineers of the north are large and of great muscular strength, while the inhabitants farther south are generally of small stature and of slender form. In complexion, they vary from a darlk olive approaching to black, to a light, transparent, beautiful brown, resembling that of the natives of Northern Italy. 46 LECTURES ON INDIA. They are very fond of ornaments, such as rings in the ears and nose, with bracelets on the arms and ankles; yet their dress is exzeedingly simple. See Engravings, Nos. 20 and 22. The dress of the male consists of two pieces of cotton cloth, each; containing about two yards. The one, called the dhotee, is gir-t about the loins and extends to the ankles. The other, called tile chadder, is worn over the shoulders.'The dress of the female is called a saree, and consists of a single, piece of' cloth of from fouer to seven yards. One end of this:jiece is wrapped around tl-e loins, the width reaching to tile -feet; the other is gracefully-I thrown around the shoulgers. In some parts of the c'eiiltrIV it also covers the head. the children wear Uno clothing until thle are from five to eight years of age; but they are frequcenl!ii decorated wTith ornaments and jewels of considerable value. The food of this people, with but few exceptions, is vegetalble The use of animal'fbod is denied them by their religion, ullcleso the animals be first sacrificed to some idol. At their meals, they use neither tables, chairs, knives, forks, nor spoons. They sit uponl the floor, and put the food into the mouth with the fingers of the right hand. They take their drink from a brass cup, which they never touch with the lips, but pour the liquid into the mouth. Fermented and distilled liquors are used:;ly by the lowest castes; but the use of tobacco is almcn-:t'loiver Sal. arid he're., s 1 elsewlhe re nas a most pernicious influence. MDvany (of both sexes chew betel a drug more filthy, if possible, than tobacco itself. M.Iost of the Hindu dwellings are rude hilts, See Ecgr:ji. til Number 20. The usual size is about eighteen feet long and twelve wide. The walls are built of mud, a:nd the roef is tha:-tcield T with straw or with the leaves of the palni. IL cities, howevevr, al;d ill large villages, to prevent damage by fire, tiles are used irist.tead of thiatc-h. The cost of suchl d-welinls varies. fi'll f i ve to t\tcy t dollars, according to the size anild 1manlecr of finish. et I o hiouse in a thousand is built of durable mateTr' is, scl. a s brick Or stone. In cities they may be found from two to folur stories high. Thlese have flat roofs, and are built around a court or opeLn space in the centre. In some houses, the court is very! arge, antd is decorated with fountains, trees, and flowering Slljh:s.!Lict of tihe windows open into the court. As Hindu dwellings have few or no windows towards the street, they appear very n-much like prisons; and, in some respects, they are prisons;,for within their walls the females are incarcerated for life. Such is the jealousy of their'husbands, that they are never to be seen in the streets or in any No 2. T —--- du -amily and!- wellin..? mXa ~=__-___==-....,-~== No. 2 —-1. — ~'- -i z- Pcllar...'.n',;two~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~i No. 21, Travellin in a Pala:'~~e I \\.......... No. 22. JEWELRY —FROM SPECIMENS COLLECTED BY THE AUTHOR These engravings are of the size of the objects?vhich they represent. No. 1 zs an ornament for the ear; the lobe of the ear is pierced, and the aperture gradually stretched u7ntd it becomes sufficiently large to admit the ornament. No. 2 is a nose jewel. INo. 3 is a bracelet; it is made of brass, and weighs one pound and nine ounces. Some of the?vouew deck the arms wvith from ten to twenty brass rings, 7weighing more than half a pound each. LECTURES ON INDIA. 51 public assembly. It is only the higher class of females, however, who are kept thus secluded; among the common people, women are to be seen at work in the fields, or going to market with large lbundles of wood, or other heavy burdens, borne upon the head. In engraving, No. 21 you have a representation of the usual method of travelling. With but few exceptions, there are no roads; consequently, wheel carriages are seldom usfd. This vehicle is called a palankeen. On the sides are sliding doors or venetians. Its construction in other respects will be readily understood. The usual number of bearers is eight. Four of these carry the paankeen thirty or forty rods; then the others take it upon their shoulders; thus, alternately, they relieve each other. Beside the bearers, several other men are employed to carry the baggage and to bear lighted torches by night. The bearers and other assistants are changed once in about ten miles, or as often as stage-drivers change their horses. The traveller proceeds on his Journey from seventy to ninety miles in twenty-four hours, at an expense of about twenty-five cents per mile. No. 24 is a Brahmin engaged in reading and explaining a poem containing some hundred thousand stanzas written on palm-leaf. It is one of many other~ equally voluminous, and has been handed down from generation to generation for more than three thousand years; it is written in Sanscrit, a dead language of a " wonderful construction -more perfect than the Greek, more copious than the ILatin, and more exquisitely refined than either." It is a portion of the HIoly Vedas. In a peculiar tone of voice, he chants the sacred text, stopping at the end of each stanza to translate and explain. His hearers listen attentively to the exciting narrative, now convulsed with laughter at some dexterous exploit, and then thrilled with horror at some dreadful calamity. All the religious books of the Hindus, including the four Vedas, are called Shasters.* They are so numerous that an entire human life would not be sufficient for an attentive perusal of them. No. 23 is a celebration of the Huli festival. On this occasion, the people of all classes use the most obscene and abusive language, and, by means of large syringes, bespatter each other with * See " Specimens of the Shasters or Sacred Books of the Brahmins, consisting of Songs, Legendary Tales, &c.," page 247 of this volume. 52 LECTURES ON INDIA. colored water; they also pelt each other with red and yellow powder, and with the mud and filth of the streets. Should a Hindu be asked why he conducts in this manner at the time of the Huli, he would say, " It is our custom, and it can be proved from the Shasters that it has been the custom of our forefathers for millions of generations." To the mind of a Hindu, whatever is customary is proper; for he believes that the customs of his forefathers, civil, social, and religious, were instituted by the gods, and are therefore incapable of improvement. The effect of this belief is to keep every thing stationary. There is no progress in knowledge -no change for the better in any department in life. The fashion of dress, the form of agricultural and mechanical instruments, the manner of erecting habitations, and the performance of various kinds of labor, are the same as they were thousands of years ago. This fact may be illustrated by an anecdote. An English gentleman devised various plans of introducing improvements; among others, he wished to substitute wheelbarrows for the baskets in which the natives carry burdens on their heads. He caused several of these useful articles to be constructed, and labored with much assiduity to introduce them among his workmen. In his presence, they used them with apparent cheerfulness, and even admitted that they were far preferable to the baskets. The gentleman was delighted with his success. On one occasion, however, having been absent a few hours, on returning somewhat unexpectedly,,he was surprised to find all his laborers carrying the wheelbarrows filled with earth on their heads. Their unyielding attachment to ancient customs is the natural result of their religious belief. Any change, however slight, in the mode of labor or business, is a violation of religious duty. It is evident, therefore, that the comforts and improvements of civilized life can never be introduced among the Hindus until they b)ecome convinced of the falsity of their Shasters and the foolishness of their traditions. The first step in the process of reform and improvement is to renounce that system of religion which for thousands of years has held them in the most cruel bondage. The subject of engraving, No. 26 is beautifully sculptured on the surface of a large rock in the Ganges, and is also frequently represented by the Hindus in their paintings. An enormous serpent, having many heads, is coiled up in such a manner as to form a couch, upon which a Hindu divinity is sleeping. It illustrates a familiar legend in their Shasters. After the destruction of a @~~~~~~~~ No. 23. CGel~ebra/ting thl Webi Tyestival. 1Vo. 24. A Brahmnin read~inl tide Sbazlsters. 1 tAP No. 25. A BOOK AND AN IRON STYLE USED IN \''l' i lIa thc mZidj(:!(1 and to.s5ern parts of Ilindustan, boo s are written on panm ieaJ A volume of ordi;nary sze is about erahteen inches in tength, tiro. vz idth end (foutr in /h,:,1.x. / i d oTh e rtpeyresented by the engravinzg is onlV six inzches, length. It is in the Or-a lan n uage, and zs open at the first pa e, exiibiting a Sa^-iv~~~~w f~~~f tr ^Z.Z!' >ug,;- __ ~ LECTURES ON INDIA. 57 former world by a deluge, this divinity, whose name is Vishnu, composed himself to sleep on a thousand-headed serpent, which floated upon the surface of the waters; during a nap of some millions of years, a water-lily grew from his body; from this flower issued Brahma, the Creator. Having formed the world anew and created many of the gods, he proceeded to create man, when the four classes or castes into which the Hindus are divided issued from different parts of his body: the Brahmins from his head, the Kshutryus from his arms, the Voishnus from his breast, while the Shudras had their ignoble origin in his feet; agreeably to which legend, the Brahmins are supposed to be entitled to a very high rank, while the Shudras are hardly regarded as human beings. These four classes have, from various causes, been divided into more than two hundred distinct castes. If one of high caste violate the rules of his community, he cannot receive an honorable dismission, and enter a lower caste, but is forever excluded from all respectable society; repentance and reformation have no ten.dency to restore him. One of low caste, though ever so learned, wise, or virtuous, can make no approximation to a higher caste. The distance between the Shudra, the lowest caste, and the Brahmin, is immeasurably great; the Brahmin cannot even instruct the Shudra, but with the greatest precaution, lest he should be defiled. But, low as the Shudra is, he has an honorable standing in society when compared with the Parriahs, a race who are not regarded as having any caste. They, when walking in the street, must keep on the side opposite the sun, lest their filthy shadows should fall upon the consecrated Brahmin. It is not uncommon to see the lower castes prostrating themselves as worshippers at the feet of the Brahmin, and greedily drinking the water which he has condescended to sanctify by the immersion of his great toe. The pernicious influence of caste is strikingly illustrated by ar. incident related to me by Rev. Mr. Day, a missionary at Madras. As he was riding through a native village, he saw a woman.ying by the side of the street, apparently in the agonies of death; she had lain there about twenty-four hours, and, during all this time, the villagers had been constantly passing and repassing, without manifesting the least interest or sympathy. When Mr. Day asked them why they thus neglected this woman, and suffered her to lie there and die, they replied, "Why should we take care of her? She does not belong to our caste." A little rice-water, it appears, Ihad been offered her, but she would not drink it, simply because the person offering it belonged to a lower caste. Had she tasted the rice 58 LECTURES ON INDIA. water, or eaten any food cooked by these villagers, or even drank pure water from their vessels, she would have lcst caste. And what then? Her own children would have fled from her as from one infected with the plague; her husband would not have permitted her to enter his house; even the parental roof would not have afforded her an asylum for a single moment; had any friends or relatives dared to associate with her, they too would have lost caste and been involved in the same disgrace. Thus she would necessarily become an outcast and a vagabond. In most of the large houses in India, there is an apartment which serves as a family chapel. Engraving, No. 27 represents such an apartment in a very elegantly-finished house in the city of Benares. In the farther part of the chapel is the altar or shrine on which the idols are placed. Each member of the family is expected to offer up his devotions to these idols every morning and evening. According to their own standard, the Hindus are preeminently a religious people. The number of their gods, as stated in their Shasters, is three hundred and thirty millions. These fabled gods are not represented as acting in concert; they fight and quarrel with each other, and with their wives and children, murder the innocent for the sake of plunder, and commit crimes, the bare recital of which to a Christian audience would excite the utmost horror and disgust. It is generally admitted, that neither nations nor individuals aim at greater purity of morals than their religion requires. We may expect to find any community below, rather than above this standard. This is true in regard to the Hindus. Their gods and goddesses being extremely vicious, the manner in which they are worshipped must correspond with their character; it cannot be expected that the moral character of the people should be other than it is, a compound of every thing that is debasing. Gross and polluted as their divinities are, they are yet too refined and elevated, in their estimation, to be worshipped without imagery. Images are made in forms as various, unnatural, and horrid, as the imagination can conceive. When one of them is consecrated by the Brahmin, the divinity for whom it is designed is supposed to take up his abode in it, and is propitious or unpropitious according to the manner in which it is worshipped. The goddess Kali, (See Number 29) is represented as a woman of a dark blue color, with four arms, in the act of trampling under her feet her prostrate and supplicating husband. In one hand No. 26. Vishnu, reposing on his Serpent Couch,.'. ~i, _ ~i' iI -o.27 Ineror f Ho heC o ~nares. Illilll,0., _ ~C~ll _) No. 27. Interzio of a Hous6 uz the CUtty of Benares. LECTURES ON INDIA. 61 she holds the bloody head of a giant, and in another an exterminating sword. Her long, dishevelled hair reaches to her feet; her tongue protrudes from her distorted mouth; and her lips, eyebrows, and breast, are stained with the blood of the victims of her fury, whom she is supposed to devour by thousands. Her ear ornaments are composed of human carcasses. The girdle about her waist consists of the bloody hands of giants slain by her in single combat, and her necklace is composed of their skulls. This monster divinity is one of the most popular objects of Hindu worship. She calls forth the shouts, the acclamations, and the free-will offerings of myriads of infatuated worshippers. Her temples are continually drenched with the blood of victims; even human victims are occasionally sacrificed to her. In 1S28, the Rajah of the Goands sacrificed twenty men at one time, as the promised reward of her supposed assistance'in'a single enterprise. The Hindus, like the inhabitants of more civilized countries. have secret societies. The most remarkable of these is the society of the Thugs, which boasts of great antiquity. In some respects, it is a religious society; for its members believe that they are under the immediate guidance and protection of Kali, and that she permits them to obtain their livelihood by murdering travellers on the highway and then taking their property. It would be quite inconsistent with their religious principles, to rob any person until he is first deprived of life by strangulation. They affirm that this system was instituted by Kali, and is consequently of divine origin; that, for many thousands of years, she assisted them in escaping detection, by devouring the dead bodies of their victims; but, on a certain occasion, a Thug, contrary to her command, looked back to see how she disposed of the corpses, and saw her feasting on them. This circumstance so offended her, that she declared she would no longer devour those whom they murdered. They believe, however, that she still continues to assist them, and that she directs their movements by certain omens. When, therefore, they are about to commence their excursions, in order to pro. pitiate the favor of Kali, they sacrifice a sheep, by cutting off its nead, upon which the priest pours water and repeats the following prayer: "Great Goddess! Universal Mother! If this our meditated expedition is fitting in thy sight, vouchsafe us thine help and the signs of thy approbation." While repeating this invocation, they watch the head of the victim; if they observe tremulous or convulsive motions in the mouth and nostrils, it is to them the sign that Kali approves their expedition. When about to 62 LECTURES ON INDIA. murder a traveller, if they hear or see any thing which, according to their superstitious notions, indicates evil, they allow him to pass on unmolested; but if the omen is esteemed good, they regard it as a positive command to murder him. In 1826, the East India Company adopted measures to suppress this system of wholesale murder. Since that time, between:wo and three thousand Thugs have been arrested, tried, and convicted. Two hundred and six were convicted at a single session of the court. It appeared) in the course of the evidence, that these prisoners, at different times, had murdered four hundred and forty persons.!in view of these facts, who is prepared to carry out the doctrine, theat it matters not what a man believes, if he is only sincere? Engraving, No. 28 is a view of one of the most celebrated temples in India. It is devoted to the worship of Kali, and is situated at Kali Ghat, three miles from Calcutta. The small building on the left, and the other on the right, are temples of Shiva. In Calcutta, the missionaries have established several schools, which are in a flourishing condition. The one under the superintendence of Rev. Dr. Duff is attended by more than a thousand young men, belonging to the most respectable families in the city. Kali Prasanna Mukarje, one of the young men educated at the mission schools, is a " Kulin Brahmin of the highest caste, and, on his mother's side, is a Holdar Brahmin. The Holdars are the original proprietors of Kali Ghat, and the hereditary officiating priests of the temple, to whom all the offerings at tl:is shrine of idolatry belong. Kali Prasanna is heir to his mother's property, being her only son; he is also heir to his uncle, who is a Zemindar, and one of the proprietors of the temple of Kali; and, Ey marriage, he is heir to his father-in-law's property. He is thus the only male representative of three ancient and highlyrespectable families, and, by inheritance, would have been the principal proprietor of Kall Ghat and the high priest of the temple.'" Besides what he was to inherit, he possessed property to the amount of about one hundred thousand dollars. He was fully aware that, should he become a Christian, he would, by the laws of his country, not only be deprived of his property, but would be despised by hia countrymen, forsaken by his relatives, and regarded as an outcast. Yet he gave up all, was baptized, and became a member of one of the mission churches. At various missionary stations which I visited were several other Brahmins, who had forfeited their title to large estates by becoming Christians. No. 28. A Temple of Kali, near Calcutta. No. 29. The Goddess KalHI No. 29. Ame Goddess Ktali LECTURES ON INDIA. 65 The figure on the left of engraving, No. 31 was found among some ruins in Behar. It is an image of Shiva, who, according to Hindu mythology, is the husband of Kali. He has eight arms and three eyes, one of which is in the centre of his forehead. The serpent with which he is decorated is rearing its head over his right shoulder. With one foot he is crushing an enemy in the act of drawing a sword; with two of his hands he is tossing a human victim on the points of a trident; in a third he holds a drum, in a fourth an axe, in a fifth a sword, in a sixth a portion of the Vedas, and in a seventh a club, on the end of which is a human head. The figure on the right was copied from a sculpture on the wall of a temple at Gaya. It has four legs, sixteen arms, and seven heads. Its girdle and crown are ornamented with heads. In each hand it has an animal on a plate, as if dressed for food. It is dancing on four men's bodies, two prostrated and two ready to be crushed. Above, beneath, and on each side, were armed female furies dancing on human carcasses; but these are not copied into the engraving. By the inhabitants of Gaya, this image is called Mahamaya, another name for Kali; but it is a male, and, perhaps, was originally intended to represent her husband, Shiva. In the month of April, a festival in honor of Shiva is celebrated in almost every town and village. One of these festivals I witnessed in Calcutta. On the first day, at sunset, the worshippers assembled at different places, and danced, to the sound of drums and other rude and noisy music, before an image of Shiva. Then, one after another, they were suspended from a beam, with the head downward, over a fire. The next day, about five o'clock in the afternoon, each company reassembled and erected a stage about ten feet in height, from which they threw themselves upon large knives. The knives being placed in a sloping position, the greater part of the thousands that fall upon them escape unhurt; but occasionally an individual is cruelly mangled. About forty persons threw themselves from one stage. None but the last appeared to receive much injury. He pretended to be killed, and was carried off with great shouting. During the whole of the night, Calcutta resounded with the sound of gongs, drums, trumpets, and the boisterous shouts of the worshippers. Early the next morning, forty or fifty thousand persons were assembled 5 66 LECTURES ON INDIA. on the adjoining plain. Processions, accompanied by music, were passing and repassing in every direction. In the processions many persons were daubed over with the sacred ashes of cows' ordure. Hundreds of these were inflicting self-torture. In one procession, I saw ten persons, each with more than a hundred iron pins inserted in the flesh. In another, each devotee had a cluster of artificial serpents fastened with iron pins to his naked back. In other processions, many had the left arm perforated, for the insertion of rods from five to fifteen feet in length. These rods were kept in constant and quick motion through the flesh, to increase the pain. Some had their tongues pierced, for the insertion of similar rods, which were occasionally drawn rapidly up and down through the tongue. One man, having a rod fifteen feet long, and, at the largest end, nearly one inch in diameter, commencing with the smaller end, drew the whole rod through his tongue. After wiping the blood from it upon his garment, he thrust it again into his tongue. Others were drawing living serpents through their tongues and dancing around like maniacs. In the streets through which the processions passed were devotees, with their sides pierced; a rope passed through each incision, and the ends of the two ropes were fastened to four stakes driven into the earth. In this condition, the infatuated creatures dance backward and forward, drawing the ropes, at each movement, through their lacerated flesh. On the afternoon of the next day, swinging machines were erected at the places of concourse. They consisted of a perpendicular post, about twenty-five feet high, upon the top of which was a transverse beam, balanced on its centre, and turning on a pivot. A rope was attached to one end of this beam, by which the other couA. be elevated or depressed at pleasure. From this end, many of the worshippers were suspended by iron hooks inserted into the muscular parts of their backs. I have in my possession a pair of hooks which have been used for that purpose. These hooks I saw thrust into a man's naked back. The rope attached to them was made fast to the beam of the machine, by which he was lifted up twenty-five or thirty feet from the earth. It was then put in a circular motion on its pivot, and the poor sufferer made to swing with great rapidity for some minutes. Thousands and tens of thousands, annually, are thus cruelly tortured on these machines. ~~~~ "-' — f~' =_ 30, A Tem-~k at Tanjore, LECTTRES ON iDIA. 69 No. 32 is a temp'e of Shiva, which I saw near Allahabad. It is surrounded by a high mound, composed wholly of the fragments of earthen bottles. On one of the last days of February, from twenty to forty thousand pilgrims assemble, each being provided with two or three earthen bottles, containing water from the Ganges, and a few copper coins. Such is the offering they make to Shiva; and, believing him to be greatly pleased with the act, they dash and break the bottles against the temple. The next day, the Brahmins, faithful and true to Shiva, do not forget to pick up the money, and, as the trustees of the idol, keep it for him. That the temple may not be buried beneath the fragments of this novel offering, and that no coin may escape their vigilance, they also have the broken bottles removed to a short distance, where they had accumulated to the extent here represented. It cannot be difficult to understand why this peculiar mode of worship was invented by the Brahmins. It may also serve as an illustration of the manner in which they take advantage of the credulity of the people and secure a large amount of property. The two figures in engraving 33 are portraits of individuals whom I had the opportunity of frequently seeing. The one on the left is the portrait of a religious mendicant. The number of mendicants in India amounts to many hundreds of thousands. As a religious duty, they forsake their families and friends, renounce every useful occupation, and wander from place to place, begging their food. They are literally clothed with filth and rags; the latter, in many instances, being less in quantity than the former. Some of them are decorated with large quantities of false hair, strings of human bones, and artificial snakes. Others carry a human skull containing a most filthy mixture. If no money or food be given them by those persons of whom they solicit alms, they profess to eat the filth out of the skull, as an act of revenge. One sect of them, professing to be extremely anxious to avoid destroying animal life, carry a broom, composed of soft cotton threads, gently to sweep the insects from their path. They also erect hospitals for the reception of aged, sick, and lame animals. There is an institution of this kind in the vicinity of Bombay, which, in 1840, contained from fifty to one hundred horses, one hundred and seventy-five oxen and cows, and two hundred dogs, beside cats, monkeys, and repRiles. It has been said 70 LECTURES ON INDIA. that paganism never erected a hospital; but this is not quite true. I believe, however, that these are the only hospitals that have been erected by the worshippers of idols. There is another sect of mendicants, who are worshippers of Krishna. Though men, they put on the dress and ornaments, and assume the manners, of milkmaids. This is supposed to be very pleasing to the object of their worship; for, when he was on earth, he is said to have been very partial to the milkmaids, and to have married no fewer than sixteen thousand of them. The other figure on the same engraving is a portrait of PuriSuttema, an individual with whom I was well acquainted. For seven years he had been a religious mendicant. At length he read a Christian tract entitled " A Precept to the Inhabitants of this Part of the World, by the Missionaries.";" By studying it," said he, " I found there was a great difference between the notions I had imbibed and the virtuous precepts contained in that book; I plainly saw that my former way was all deception, and that this book pointed out a better." He embraced that better way, and is now a preacher of the gospel. Many religious mendicants subject themselves to various modes of self-torture. En]gravings, Nos. 1, 2 and 3 are portraits of individuals, selected as specimens of this class of persons. The devotee represented by engraving, No. 2 I saw at a festival on the banks of the Ganges. He had kept his left arm thus elevated until it had become stiff and permanently fixed, the muscles and sinews had lost all power of producing motion, and the flesh had become withered. The finger-nails, as you perceive, had grown to the enormous length of six or eight inches. During my residence in Hindustan, I saw as many as nine persons with their arms elevated in the position here delineated. The devotee represented by engraving, No. 3 has both arms elevated. This man I saw frequently in the city of Benares. In answer to my inquiries relative to his history, I was told that, in the earlier part of his life, he served as a soldier; but, having lost his right leg, he became unfit for the duties of the army. In order to secure a livelihood, as well as a large stock of religious merit, he turned devotee. Having substituted a wooden leg in the place of the one lost, he took a small idol in each hand, and elevated them above his head until his arms became perfectly stiff and immovable. No. 31 Shiva lamayc No. 32. L Temple of AShivst. j,~~~~~~~~~~~~~j LECTURES ON INDIA. 73 It may, perhaps, seem impossible, that a man, should be able, by his own voluntary act, to keep his arms in this unnatiral position. One would suppose that in sleep, at least, the limbs would resume their proper posture. In the first part of the process, it becomes necessary to fasten the arms to poles lashed to the body; but it requires no great length of time so to paralyze the muscles and sinews that they are no longer under the control of the mind. The devotee representedby engravingNo. I also frequently saw at Benares. Under a wretched shed on the bank of the Ganges, he had been standing, day and night, for eight years. He had nothing to lean against but a piece of bamboo suspended by cords from the roof of his shed. His dress was a ragged woollen blanket saturated with filth. His face was smeared with the sacred ashes, his body greatly emaciated, while his feet and legs were so dropsical and swollen as to require bandages to prevent their bursting. Sometimes he slept as he stood, but generally he was awake and busily employed in his devotions. In his right hand he held a string of wooden beads contained in a red bag. Hour after hour he repeated the names of the gods, and at each repetition passed a bead between his thumb and finger. Occasionally he laid aside his beads, and with his finger wrote, on a board covered with ashes, the names of the idol gods upon whom he depended for happiness in a future life, as the reward of his self-inflicted miseries. In this manner he had spent the last eight years of his life. I asked him how long he intended to stand there. His reply was, "Until Gunga calls for me," — meaning until death, when his body would be thrown into the River Gunga or Ganges. On one occasion, I saw a devotee performing a pilgrimage to the Ganges in a manner somewhat peculiar. He prostrated himself at full length upon the ground, and, stretching forward his hands, laid down a small stone; he then struck his head three times against the earth, arose, walked to the stone, and, picking it up, again prostrated himself, as before; and thus continued to measure the road with his body. I was told by a missionary at Benares, that he had recently seen a devotee prostrating himself every six feet of the way towards the temple of Juggernaut, from which he was then four hundred miles distant, and that he waq accompanied on his pilgrimage by a poor cripple, who, unable to walk, was crawling along on his hands and knees. Another devotee has been rolling upon the earth for the last nine years. He has undertaken to roll from Benares to Cape Comorin, a distance of one thousand five hundred miles, and more than half of the journey he has accomplished. 74 LECTURES ON INDIA. It is universally believed by the Hindus, that, if a man perform a pilgrimage, or swing upon hooks, or torture himself in ally other manner, he will be rewarded for it, either in this life or in a future state of existence. No matter what the motive of the devotee may be; if he perform the service, he must receive the reward. As an illustration of this delusive theory, permit me to relate an anecdote from their sacred books. Narayan is the name of a Hindu god. A certain man, notoriously wicked, having a son of that name, was laid upon a sickbed. In the hour of death, being parched with a fever, he called upon his son to give him water. The son being disobedient, the father called again in anger, and expired. The messengers of Yumu, the god of the infernal regions, immediately seized him, and would have dragged him to the place of torment, but they were prevented by the servants of Narayan, who took him by force and carried him to heaven. The messengers of Ynumu, in great rage, hastened to their master and told him what had transpired. Yumu ordered his recorder to examine his books. He did so, and found that the mall in question was a great sinner. Yumu then repaired n person to Narayan and demanded an explanation. Narayan made this reply:' However sinful the man has been, in his last moments, and with his last breath, he repeated my name; and you, Yumu, ought to know that, if any man, either by design or accident, either in anger or derision, repeats my name with his last breath, he must go to heaven." The doctrine of this fable is literally and universally believed by the people. Hence, when a person is in the agonies of death, his friends exhort him to repeat the names of the gods; and, if he is so fortunate as to die with one of these names upon his lips, they consider it a sure passport to heaven. Many spend a large portion of their time in repeating the names of gods. Parrots are taught to do the same; and such a spokesman commands a great price, especially among business menl, who imagine that, by owning such a parrot, their spiritual treasures are accumulating - while they attend to their usual occupations. The opposite enraving, No. 34, is a viurw in Benares, the holy city of the Hindus. It is situated upon t'he l River Ganges, about eight hunored miles from its mouth, anda, wit[h a population of two hundred thousand, is estimated to contain one thousand temples. Benares is not only celebrated for the number of its temples, and the benefits they are supposed to confer, but for the learning and sanctity of its Brahmins, for its schools of science and the arts No. 33. Two Portraits. __ —.. - -;~!~ ~' -, as~~~~~s lio. 34. A V'ew in the (City of ~Benares. LECTURES ON INDIA. 77 and, more especially, for its great antiquity. It is fabled to have been built by Shiva, of pure gold, but has long since degenerated into stone, brick, and clay, in consequence of the sins of the people. It is visited by more pilgrims than any other place in India. When travelling from Benares to Allahabad, a distance of only eighty miles, I estimated the number I saw by the way at twelve thousand, or one hundred and fifty to every mile. The large building on the right, a part of which is to be seen, is a Mohammedan mosque. It stands upon the place once occupied by a very large and splendid Hindu temple, which contained an image of Shiva, said to have fallen on this spot from heaven. Soon after the commencement of the eighteenth century, Aurungzebe, a celebrated Mohammedan conqueror, demolished the temple and built this mosque. The Hindus say that the indignant idol, to escape the impious hands of the Mohammedans, while tearing down the temple, threw itself into a neighboring well. This circumstance rendered the water very holy and purifying. The well is in a spacious and beautiful pavilion, as represented near the centre of the engraving. It is built of stone, and consists of a roof supported by four rows of columns. On the left of the pavilion are three temples of a pyramidical form. The one in the centre is esteemed the most holy temple in Benares, because it contains the celebrated idol which concealed itself in the well. The Brahmins who officiate at this temple are also esteemed very holy. I will relate a few incidents illustrative of their character. They discovered that an aged pilgrim, who came there to worship, had a large sum of money'about him. They told him that, if he would give them his money, and then, in the presence of the idol, cut his throat, the idol would immediately restore him to the vigor and freshness of youth. The deluded man believed them. He gave up all his money, entered the temple, called on the name of Shiva, and then cut his throat from ear to ear. Rev. Mr. Smith, who described to me this horrid transaction, saw him weltering in his blood. Mr. Smith also stated that, soon after he commenced his missionary labors in Benares, the Brahmins murdered a celebrated dancing girl in this temple, for the sake of the jewels which decorated her person. To prevent discovery, they cut off her head and threw it into the Ghnges. They then cut her body into small pieces and strewed them about the streets, to be eaten by the dogs and vultures. There are more than eight thousand religious mendicants in this city who lis e on charity. Those who belong to the sect called 78 LECTURES ON INDIA. Purumhunse have professedly attained to a state of perfection, and axe worshipped as gods. They are readily distinguished by their long hair and beards, which are never trimmed or cleansed, and also by their dress, which is neither more comely nor substantial than that which was in fashion before garments were made by sewing together fig-leaves. These reputed gods sometimes come in contact with men who have not attained to their state of perfection. Some years since, Mr. Bird, an English magist ate of Benares, seeing a Purumhunse in his yard, ordered him to be gone, and threatened to horsewhip hir. if he ever saw him there agailn. A few days afterwards he came again, and found that Mr. Bird was faithful to his promise. The natives, who came running from every direction, were greatly enraged that an unholy foreigner should chastise one of their gods. Whatever power the whip may have had in exciting the wrath of this human god, still he did not dare to manifest it; for, had he uttered a single angry word, he would have lost all claim to perfection and divinity. He therefore said, with much apparent coolness and unconcern,' It is all right, it is perfectly right; for I recollect that, in a former birth, this magistrate was my donkey. I used to ride him beyond his strength, whip and abuse him, and now I am justly sufferinl for the sins thus committed." Engraving, No. 36 illustrates a custom which prevails in the northern part of Bengal. I allude to a species of infanticide. When an infant declines in health, the mother imagines that it is under the influence of an evil spirit, to appease whose wrath, she places her child in a basket and suspends it from the branch of a tree in which evil spirits are supposed to reside. The infant is generally visited and fed by its mother for three days. If it be not devoured by ants nor birds of prey, nor die through exposure to the cold and the rain, it is afterwards taken home. In the vicinity of Malda, an infant thus exposed fell from its basket and wass immediately seized by a prowling jackal. Fortunately, the Rev. Mr. Thomas happened to pass that way just in time to prevent the child from being devoured. He had the satisfaction of presenting it alive to its mother. On another occasion, as he was passing under the same tree, he found a basket suspended from its branches containing the skeleton of an infant, the flesh having been devoured by the white ants. Among the Jerejas, a fierce and warlike tribe, who live in the north-west part of Hindustan, great numbers of female infants are IN 11 -ZZ —- -- t~~~-~-~-I~-~~~~ —-j:I — ~~~~~~~-~~~, —, -— ~~~~~~~~~ _1~~~~ —------- rl:~~~~~~~~~~77 )1 = L~~~~~~~~~~~~ —= —~~~~~~~~~~~~~ _~~~~ —-— ~~~~~~~~~~~;3=~~ra Il~~lfTWEL-L~ Presentiig 0 -ingsto a Mendcant Prws LECTURES ON INDIA. 81 put to death immediately after birth. In one village, in which were twenty-two boys, not one girl was to be found. The villagers confessed that they had all been murdered. In another village were found fifty-eight boys and only four girls; in another, forty-four boys and four girls; and, in many other villages, the number of boys exceeded that of the girls in nearly the same proportion. The Jerejas have a tradition, that a curse was once pronounced by a holy Brahmin upon all of their tribe who should suffer their female children to live. To escape the effects of this curse, and to avoid the trouble and expense of bringing up their daughters, whom they regard as worthless, they are induced to imbrue them hands in their innocent blood. Mothers are the executioners of their own children. They either strangle them or poison them with opium. That they should be the agents in sustaining so horrid a custom is the more extraordinary when the fact is known that they were born and brought up among other tribes, where female infants are reared with comparative kindness. But such is the debasing influence of heathenism, that natural affection is extinguished, and all the kind sympathies of the maternal heart give place to the most savage ferocity. The infant, after it is destroyed, is placed naked in a small basket, and carried out and interred by one of the female attendants. The subject of engraving, number 87 is the interior of the mission chapel in the city of Cuttack, in the province of Orissa. It is an interesting fact, that this chapel stands upon the very spot where once stood a temple devoted to Shiva. About one hundred miles south-west of Cuttack is the country of the Kunds. They worship a goddess called Bhuenee. To- secure her blessing upon the soil they cultivate, they deem it important at certain times to offer human sacrifices upon her altars. The victims, who must be in the freshness and bloom of youth, are procured by stealing children from distant villages and rearing them until they become large enough to be acceptable to the goddess. At the time of sacrifice, the victim is tied to a post; the sacrificer, with an axe in his hand, slowly advances towards him, chanting to the goddess and her train the following hymn, which has been translated for me by Rev. Charles Lacy, one of the missionaries at Cuttack: 6 82 LECTURES ON INDIA. "Hail, mother, hail! Hail, goddess Bhuenee! Lo! we present a sacrifice to thee. Partake thereof, and let it pleasure give, And, in return, let us thy grace receive. With various music on this festive day, Lo! thee we honor, and thy rites obey. Hail, all ye gods who in the mountain dwell, In the wild jungle, or the lonely dell! Come all together, come with one accord. And eat the sacrifice we have prepared. In all the fields and all the plots we sow, 0 let a rich and plenteous harvest grow! Ho, all ye gods and goddesses! give ear, And be propitious to our earnest prayer. Behold a youth for sacrifice decreed, Bl3ooming with tender flesh and flushed with blood! No sire, no matron, rears him as a son; His flesh, and blood, his life, and all, are thine. Without the pale of sacred wedlock born, We caught and reared him for thy rite alone. Now, too, with rites from all pollution free, We offer him, 0 Bhuenee! to thee." As soon as this hymn is finished, with one blow of the axe the chest of the devoted youth is laid open. The sacrificer instantly thrusts in his hand and tears out the heart. Then, while the victim is writhing in the agonies of death, the multitude rush upon him, each one tearing out a part of his vitals or cutting off a piece of flesh from the bones; for, according to their superstitions, the pieces have no virtue unless they are secured before life is extinct. Immediately they hasten with their bloody treasure and bury it in their fields, expecting in this way to render theml fi1'itful. Please notice those boys sitting on the floor, according to native c;istorn. There are ten of them, and they are Kunds. They had. once been stolen from their parents, and were kept for the purDp:se of being sacrificed; and, had they not been rescued by the a,;ents of the East India Company, they would have been destraoyed in the manner just described. But now they attend the nuission school during the week, and on the Sabbath they meet ill this chapel to worship that God whose kind providence saved themt from an early and cruel death. Turn now to the young woman seated at the extreme left of the audience. She, also, when a child, was stolen from her .,~~~~~~~~~. i allrNO. ~~, — 3a,e@'ro /X{1(IOJ(//t LECTURES ON INDIA. 85 parents and reserved for the slaughter. She was kept Inti! she had attained her sixteenth year, and was rescued only four days before she was to have been offered in sacrifice. I heard the account of her sufferings from her own lips, and saw the scars made by the fetters with which she had been confined. But now she is a member of the mission church, and is exerting a happy influence in teaching others the way of life. In the course of a few months, the agents of the East India Company rescued one hundred and eight children, whom the Kunds were preparing for sacrifice. It may with propriety be said, they were fattening them like beasts for the slaughter; for they believe that the goddess will not be pleased with the sacrifice of young men and women, unless they are healthy and blooming. How different this from the blessed training of our children in the Sabbath school, that they may present their bodies a living sacrifice to God! What a contrast between Paganism and Christianity! Here a Christian chapel has literally been built upon the ruins of a heathen temple. It has also been rebuilt and enlarged, to accommodate the increasing number of worshippers, more than one hundred of whom are communicants. What has produced this change? Why are not the cruel rites of Shiva still performed upon this spot? The humble and unobtrusive missionary has proclaimed the simple doctrines of the cross, and the Divine Spirit has blessed his labors. _ ~. L-.... 's llL~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ii!i!ii~l I1i! iii!' Ii.... iiii ~ ~~~~~~ Ii iti~l l i- ~c~iii I i I Ba, ber the l~u.~der of thle (ire~ti,1Ltottd J'Jm~ire, LECTURES ON INDIA LECTURE II. THE attention of the traveller, in the south-western part of Asia, is frequently arrested by splendid edifices, and occasionally by large cities, long since deserted by their inhabitants. They were built by the Mohammedans, who, about the year one thousand, invaded India, and, by a long series of the most ferocious and cruel wars, established the great Mogul empire. This vast empire, and other extensive countries in Asia, have, within the last hundred years, been annexed to the British dominions. Delhi, the residence of the Mogul emperors, is supposed to have been founded about three hundred years before the Christian era. In the course of a few centuries, it became the largest and most magnificent city in India. In 1398, Tamerlane, having slaughtered great numbers of the unoffending Hindus in battle, and murdered one hundred thousand who had surrendered as prisoners of war, besieged Delhi. The city surrendered, was pillaged and almost destroyed. Delhi, howQver, not only recovered from this calamity, but attained to still greater splendor and magnificence than at any former period. In 1739, in the height of its prosperity, and when its population was estimated at two millions, it was taken by Nadir Shah. He extorted one hundred and thirty millions of dollars, as a ransom for the city, collected, in jewels and other valuable property, to the amount of two hundred and seventy-five millions, and massacred one hundred and twenty thousand of the inhabitants. Since that time, Delhi has been pillaged and laid waste by other rapacious conquerors, until it has become almost depopulated. The part inow inhabited is only seven miles in circuit, while the ruins cover a space much larger than the city of London 90 LECTURES ON INDIA. For the purpose of procuring the praise of men and the favoi of the gods, Rajahs, and other opulent natives, have, in many of the'large towns, built choultries, or inns, for the gratuitous accommgdation of travellers. The choultry of Rajah Trimal Naig, at Madura, (see engraving, number 40) consists of one vast hall, three hundred and twelve feet long and one hundred and twentyfive wide. The ceiling is supported by six rows of columns twenty-five feet high. The entire edifice is composed of a hard, gray granite, and every part of its surface is elaborately carved into representations of cows, monkeys, tigers, lions, elephants, men, women, giants, gods, and monsters. Choultries generally have but one apartment, and are entirely destitute of furniture of every kind. The ground, beaten hard, and covered with lime cement, serves as a floor, which, at night, is strewed with travellers of all classes and of both sexes, wrapped separately in their various-colored cotton cloths, and lying side by side like so many bales of merchandise in a warehouse. As choultries are much of the time unoccupied, they become the favorite resort of bats, monkeys, rats, and serpents. Of these troublesome creatures, the rats are the most annoying, for, while the travellers are asleep, they eat the skin from the soles of their feet, so as often to make it difficult for them to walk for some days afterwards. "I was awoke, and astonished, one night," says a missionary, " by something tugging at my ear. It was a rat. The moment I stirred, my visitant made good his retreat; had my sleep been more sound, I should probably have suffered severely." At another time, as he was sleeping in a choultry, he was awoke by the cry of "q Pambu! pambu! "-"A serpent! a serpent! " His bearers were on the alert; — the serpent had passed between them and himself without biting any one. Having ascertained that it was not the cobra, which their superstitious reverence will not allow them to destroy, they killed it, and found it was a species of viper whose bite is fatal. The cobra, and various other reptiles, receive religious homage. Inanimate objects are also deified. Of this numerous class of divinities is the Ganges. The Shasters, which are regarded with as much reverence by the Hindu as the Bible is by the Christian, contain these passages: -.'"If a person has been guilty of killing cows* or Brahmins, only le- him touch the water of the Ganges, desiring the rermis * See page 247. I~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~... -...:.................. —:~~.No. 40. i~terior of the Great Choultry at Madura. LECTURES ON INDIA. 93 sion of these sins, and they will immediately be forgiven." And "bathing in the Ganges, accompanied by prayer, will remove all sin." Millions of the Hindus, at a great expense of time, health, and morals, perform pilgrimages to the Ganges. Multitudes travel from five hundred to a thousand miles, and are absent from their home and business five or six months at a time. The Rev. Mr. Thompson, a Baptist missionary, informed me that, on one occasion, he saw more than three hundred thousand pilgrims assembled at Hurdwar, to bathe at the place where Brahma, the creator of the world, is said to have performed his ablutions. At two o'clock in the morning, when it was announced by the Brahmins that the propitious time for the ceremony had arrived, the immense multitude rushed down a flight of steps into the Ganges. Those who first entered the water and bathed, attempted to return, but the passage continued to be wedged up with the dense mass of those who were still descending. There were, indeed, other passages by which they might have returned, but that would not do; it was not the custom. To return by another way would diminish the merit of the bathing. They endeavored, therefore, to force their way upward. Consequently a scene of great violence took place, which resulted in the death of six hundred persons. Engraving, No. 41 is a view of the junction of the Ganges and.umna. It is believed that every person, of either sex, who, immediately after being shaved, bathes at the point of land where those two rivers unite, will be permitted to dwell in heaven as many years as the number of hairs removed by the razor. To obtain immediate admission there, many thousands of the pilgrims have drowned themselves here. The strip of land extending from the point at the junction of the rivers to the Fort of Allahabad, on the light of the engraving, is a desolate waste; but during an annual festival, which I witnessed here, it was crowded with tents, and huts, and more than one hundred thousand pilgrims. On entering this vast encampment, I saw several missionaries, who, in a small shed by the wayside, were preaching the gospel and distributing tracts. A little beyond was the bazaar, or market, where food and various kinds of merchandise were exposed for-sale. In a conspicuous place, near the bazaar, was a man seated upon a mat, and surrounded by roots, herbs, lizard-skins, and dried snakes; professing the ability, li. the empirics of more enlightened lands, to 94 LECTURES ON INDIA. cure incurable diseases, and set death at defiance. In another part of the encampment were about three hundred religious mendicants. In the engraving, a barrier or fence is to be seen extending from the Ganges to the Jumna. Soldiers were stationed there, to prevent the pilgrims from passing it, until they had purchased of the East India Company tickets granting permission to bathe. Near the barrier, I saw three devotees, who had held the left arm elevated above the head until it had become immovable, and the finger nails had grown to the length of six or eight inches. A portrait of one of them is to be seen on page 11, of the first lecture. As I approached the point, I saw two or three hundred barbers employed in shaving the heads and bodies of the pilgrims preparatory to bathing. I also witnessed a very shrewd method of getting rid of sin. The person who wished to become perfect took in his right hand some money and a few blades of a particular grass, esteemed sacred. Then, with the same hand, he grasped the tail of a cow, while a Brahmin poured on it some water from the Ganges and repeated an incantation. The money. as a matter of course, was given to the Brahmin, the sins were reputed to pass along the tail of the animal, the grass and the deception remained to the pilgrim. Cows were stationed at six or eight places for the convenience of performing this ceremony. I next visited the point, and found the water, for a considerable distance, crowded with the pilgrims. To bathe at this particular spot was the great object of the pilgrimage. No. 42 is a sick man, brought to the Ganges to die. His friends have carried him into the sacred stream, and are performing the last fatal rite. It consists in pouring a large quantity of -water down his throat; filling his mouth and nostrils with mudl; repeating the names of the gods, and shouting, " 0 mother Ganges, receive his soul!" Thus the sick, instead of receiving medical treatment, kind nursing, and appropriate nourishment, are, in many cases, hurried away to the Ganges, to be purified from their sins, by dying on its banks or in its raters. In Calcutta alone, nineteen hundred sick persons have, in the course of one month, been brought to the Ganges to die. Some are suffocated by filling the mouth and nostrils with mud; others are left where the rising tide will sweep them away. It is a remarkable fact, that when the sick are.brought to the river-side to die, they cannot legally be restorea to health. They are regarded by the Hindu law as already dead. Their prop ~lP ----- ~ ~~~~ ~ ~~~~~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ ---.. 5 r-- --. — _ —~ —2- -_ -~ ~. ~ _ ~_....~: __, _~~~~~~~~~~~~:.~:~-.-& —~~~~~TfI~~~~~~~~~~~~~=_5 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~;-=~y- _~ —~=c-S- ~ s ~ ~ ~~~~~~~~~. ~,.. LECTURES ON INDIA. 97 erty passes to their heirs, and in the event of recovery, which sometimes happens, they become outcasts. Their nearest relatives will neither eat with them nor shuw them the smallest favor. They are held in utter abhorrence, and are allowed to associate only with persons in similar circumstances. I have seen a large village, inhabited entirely by these wretched beings. Great numbers of the dead are thrown into the Ganges, that their souls may be purified. It has been officially stated that, in the course of one month, more than a thousand human bodies have been seen floating on the surface of the Ganges, in the immediate vicinity of Calcutta. At that place, and as far as its waters are agitated by the tide, it contains so much earthy matter and other impurities, that no object can be seen at the distance of two inches below its surface. Yet the inhabitants of the city use the water of this river for drinking and culinary purposes, and the numerous merchant vessels trading there are supplied with it for the homeward voyage. Pilgrims carry water from the Ganges into every part of India, to be used for religious and medicinal purposes. It is put up in glass bottles. These are packed in baskets, and suspended from the ends of a bamboo which rests upon the pilgrim's shoulder. I have frequently seen the roads thronged with pilgrims thus accoutred. They resembled an immense army on the march. You will see one of them by turning to the next page of engravings. He has stopped by the wayside, near Balasore, to worship certain stones, an accurate representation of which you see in the engraving. There are his baskets filled with bottles of Ganges water. Having made his salam, he mutters a few words in a careless manner, and then takes a bottle of water from one of his baskets, and pours a small: 4uantity of it upon the stones. To appease the wrath, or to procure the favor of divinities like these, splendid festivals are instituted. About ten o'clock at night, the worshippers assemble. By the glare of flaming torches, and amid the shouts and loud peals of barbarous music, great numbers of swine, sheep, goats, and buffaloes, are sacrificed Many of the worshippers throw themselves upon the ground, and wallow in the pools of warm blood flowing from the slaughtered animals. Then, leaping upon their feet, reeking with gore and filth, they jump and frolic, and twist themselves into the most wanton attitudes, and vociferate the most indecent songs, for the gratification of the image, or the rough stone before which these acts of worship are performed. 98 LECTURES ON INDIA. Number 44 is a scene in the house of a wealthy native, at the celebration of a festival in honor of Ganesa, the god of wisdom. Ganesa is represented as a very corpulent man, of a red color, with four arms, and the head of a white elephant. In front of him is a rat, upon the back of which he is said to perform his journeys. The men on the right are musicians. For the gratification of the idol, and the multitude of assembled worshippers, a dancing girl is performing. She is clad in garments of the finest texture, and of the most brilliant colors, and is decorated with a profusion of costly ornaments. Her movements are slow and monotonous, and occasionally very indecent, and her songs are plentifully spiced with amorous allusions. After singing and dancing for some hours, her place is supplied, either by others of the same class, or by playactors, jugglers, or mountebanks; and the performance is thus continued from ten o'clock till sunrise. Many of the dancing girls belong to the temples, and are called the wives of the. gods. At an early age they are united in wedlock to the images worshipped in the temples. This strange matrimonial connection is formed in compliance with the wishes of the parents, who believe it to be a highly meritorious act to present a beautiful daughter, in marriage, to a senseless idol, and thus doom her to a life of vice and infamy. Dancing is deemed so disreputable by the Hindus that none engage in it hbut the most dissolute and abandoned. Here, as in other countries. there appears to be an intimate connection between dancing and licentiousness. The following is one of the songs, which, at religious festivals, are sung for the amusement of the idols and their worshippers. The boy mentioned in the first line is Krishna, the favorite divinity, who married sixteen thousand wives. He is believed to have been born of human parents, at Brindabun, on the Ganges, where he spent his youthful days in playing oil the flute, and frolicking with the milkmaids. " The pipe is heard of Nundh's sweet boy - The milkmaids' hearts beat high with joy; To the cool woods in crowds they speed; No danger fear, nor toil, they heed; And, if by chance the youth they spy, Away go prudence, modesty. They gaze, by his bright beauties burned, And soon their pails are overturned! " They then go to Jasooda, (Krishna's mother,) and make the following complaint: — I - No. 43. A Pilgrim at his Devoteds. ill~~~~~~~~~~~~F 7o. 4't. Ganesa, Dancing r _ Musicians. No. 4~1. Ganesa, Dancinqg Girl, nnd Alusicicans. LECTURES ON INDIA. 101 " Jasooda! listen to our prayer; Thy son's audacious frolics hear! To Brindabun we bent our way; He seized our arms and bade us stay. Lady! our cheeks with shame were red; Like modest girls, away we fled. In vain we've milked, in vain we've churned, For he our pails has overturned! " Jasooda replies, - "Go, bold and forward milkmaids, go! No one your wily ways can know; Often in laughing groups you're seen Bending your steps to covers green; There in the cool retreats you rove, And pass the hours in mirth and love; Then tell me, from your pranks returned, Forsooth, your pails are overturned! " Extract from one of the Plays performed at Religious Festivals. KRISHNA. Again, my fair one! - hast thou purchased me? MILKMAID. Think'st thou uncalled I boldly come? Ah, see! The gathering clouds, dear youth, invite to love. KRISHNA. How could a frame so soft such dangers brave? While e'en thy pretty self was lost in night How see thy way? MILKMAID. The lightning gleamed so bright. KRISHNA. O'er broken roads, through mire and tangling thornThy tender limbs must ache, thy feet be torn. MILKMAID. Steps light and firm will weariest way o'ercome. KRISHNA. Yet dark's the night, and thou wert all alone. MILKMAID. No, my soul's lord! for Love was with me still, Pointed my path and warded every ill. 102 LECTURES ON INDIA. No. 45 is the great temple of Juggernaut. The principal edifice rises to the elevation of two hundred feet. In the two adjacent buildings, morning and evening, the dancing girls display their professional skill, for the amusement of the idols enthroned in the large edifice. There, also, three times a day, large quantities of the choicest food are presented to these wooden images. The people are taught that the appetite of these gods is perfectly satisfied by smelling and seeing the food at a distance. This is a remarkably fortunate circumstance, since the Brahmins always take what the idols leave. The wall which surrounds the temple is about twenty feet high, and forms an enclosure six hundred and fifty feet square. On each side of the square is a gateway. The gateway in the engraving is through the base of a highly-ornamented tower. rhe small buildings, in front of the wall, are the shops of merchants, where clothing and ornaments are exposed for sale. The column on the right is a very beautiful specimen of architecture. The shaft, which is thirty feet high, is composed of a single stone. The figure on the top is an image of Huneman, a deified monkey. The only foreigner who ever saw the inside of this temple was an English officer, who, about thirty years since, succeeded in gaining admission, by painting and dressing himself like a native. When the Brahmins discovered that their holy place had been thus defiled, they became so enraged that all the English residing at the station were obliged to flee for their lives. Suspecting their pursuers to be more desirous of gratifying their avarice than their revenge, they strewed silver money by the way, and, while the natives stopped to pick it up, they gained time, and succeeded in reaching a place of safety. Twelve festivals are annually celebrated here in honor of Juggernaut. The most important of these are the bathing and the car festivals. These I witnessed, and there were present more than one hundred and fifty thousand pilgri'ms. Nearly half were females. There is not only great suffering among the multitude of pilgrims who, from distant places, attend these festivals, but many of them die in consequence of excessive fatigue, exposure to the annual rains, and the want of suitable and sufficient food. The plains, in many. places, are literally whitened with the bones of the pilgrims, while dogs and vultures are continually devouring the bodies of the dead. Rev. Mr. Lacy informed me that, in 1825, he counted ninety dead bodies in one No. 45. The Temple oj',]t~cjernatut. EE!= t!/ m] t 1 I JI [a No. 46. Portrait aj' d~qgernaut z.1'Jitygernaut - LECTURES ON INDIA. 105 place, and that his colleague, at the same time, countcL Dne hundred and forty more in another place. Great numbers perish on their way home. The pilgrim, on leaving Purl, has a long journey before him, and his means of support are often almost, if not entirely, exhausted. The rainy season has now commenced, and at every step his naked feet sink deep in the mud. At length, exhausted by hunger and fatigue, he sits down by the side of the road, unable to proceed any farther. His companions, regarding only their own safety, leave him to his fate. Dogs, jackals, and vultures, gather around him, watching his dying struggles; and in a few hours his flesh has disappeared, and his bones F:e bleaching on the plain. Since the erection of this temple, in the twelfth century, such has been the fate of millions. "The old man, faint, just turns aside to rest, Bethinking he will rise again, refreshed:He rises not. Nature can bear no more, — Exhausted. Ere the setting sun, his bones Are left to whiten, where the pilgrim died. Crowds press still onward, heedless of the plaints From the way-side. No pity from his fellow (Who soon will drop and groan, as he now groans) The dying man receives. Forsaken quite, He gasping lies, far from the holy stream. The vulture, with raw neck, and fulsome croak, Claps her smeared wing; she smells, as soaring high, The riotous feast, and hastens to the spoil. Hinnom! thou slaughter valley, here behold Thy counterpart. Not Moloch's self e'er saw Such carnival of death; drunk with the wine Of overflowing vintage, lo! he riots Wantonly; and to mortal view it seems He throws in random rage the fatal dart That needs must hit." No.46is a portrait of Juggernaut. I have taken his portrait as I saw him in the morning, while the Brahmins were making his toilet. He appeared to be well supplied with fine Cashmere shawls and valuable jewels, and the Brahmins were so arranging them as to display the beauties of his person to the best advantage. In the evening he is entirely disrobed, and his shawls and jewels, and also his hands and feet, which are made of gold, are carefully locked up in a strong box. This precaution is not through fear that the idol will convey himself away in the night, but to secure these treasures from thieves. Nor is the strong box 106 LECTURES ON INDIA. always a sufficient security, for on one occasion, upon opening it in the morning, jewels to the value of some thousands of dollars had disappeared. To some, perhaps, it may seem impossible for the human mind to become so debased as to worship an object having no higher claims to homage than this; but, strange as it may seem, this monstrous form has received, and still receives, the adoration of a large portion of the human race. At one of the annual festivals, Juggernaut and two other images: said t.o be his brother and sister, are drawn out upon huge cars. " Here rolls the hated car, Grinding the crashing bones, and hearts, and brains Of men and women. Down they fling themselves In the deep gash, and wait the heavy wheel Slow rolling on its thunder bellowingr axle, Sunk in the wounded earth. Tlhe sighll, the breath, The blood, and life, and soul, witl spitrting rush, Beneath the horrid load, forsake the heap Of pounded flesh, and the big roar continues As though no soul had passed the bounds of time, Nor orphans'gan their wail, no kindly bonds Had been dissolved; but the mad living throng, Trampling by thousands o'er the dead and dying, All nerve and sinew, swelter as they tug, And howling, shouting, pulling, hear no groan, Nor feel the throes of beings, crushed beneath them. The welkin wide is troubled with long peals, As though dark demons strode the sultry beams, Helping the discord with strange screech or laugh." No.47isthe car of Juggernaut. The plattfErm on whirlch tlio image is placed is thirty-four feet square, alnd is supported by sixteen wheels, six and a half feet in diameter. The upper part is covered with English broadcloths in alternate stripes of red and yellow. Near the idol is the strong box in which his hands, feet, jewels, and clothing are deposited at night. Six ropes, or cables, are attached to the car, six inches in diameter and three hundred feet in length, by means of which the people draw it from place to place. A devotee has cast himself under the wheels to be crushed to death. As a reward for this act of devo tion, he expects to enjoy health, riches, and honors in the next life. The car festival, which I witnessed at Puri, commenced on the Sabbath. I went to the temple, about two o'&:lok in the after ----- - No. 47. Car of Jl]ggernaut. 8-'-. 0.48. Luckshme, copied J-rom an Ancient Sculpture. LECTURES DN INDIA. 109 noon, just as the pilgrims, who had encamped in great numbers in the vicinity, were beginning to assemble. From an elevated position, on an elephant, I saw them pouring in from every direction, until four o'clock, when the concourse became immense. Every street and avenue leading to the temple was thronged, and the flat roofs of the houses were also densely crowded with anxious spectators. About five o'clock, a company of men proceeded from the temple, making a horrid din with drums, gongs, and trumpets. Next came the idols, shaded by umbrellas of state and attended by various emblems of royalty. The vast multitude greeted them with loud and long-continued shouts. Juggernaut, and his brother and sister, were now to mount their cars; but from the infirmities of age, or some more obvious cause, they submitted to the awkward expedient of being dragged through the mud to their elevated seats, by the aid of ropes and Brahmins. A variety of ceremonies followed, but, as it was growing late, I returned to my lodgings. At sunrise the next morning, the gates of the town were thrown open, to admit the beggars. As they passed, I was informed by the English magistrate, by whose order they were admitted, that their number probably exceeded fifty thousand. They were the most weary, ragged, filthy, wretched-looking objects I ever saw. They had been prevented from entering the town at an earlier period, because of their inability to pay the tax which the Honorable East India Company demanded of their heathen subjects for the privilege of seeing their idols. The Company, I ascertained, had, in the preceding thirty-four days, received fifty-five thousand dollars as admission fees. Having already extorted so large a sum from the richer pilgrims, they could well afford, now that a part of the festival was over, to admit gratuitously those from whom no money could be extorted. It affords me much pleasure to say that this unrighteous source of gain has recently been abolished. The multitude of beggar pilgrims hastened onward to the cars, and appeared to be lost in the much larger multitude there assembled. Hearing the tumultuous sound of many voices at a distance, I looked towards the place from which it came, when I saw about a thousand men advancing, with green branches elevated in their hands. They rushed forward, leaping through the crowd, and, with mighty shoutings, seized the ropes of one of the cars, and dragged it forth in triumph. Soon other companies, in a similar manner, dashed forward and put the two remaining cars in motion. 110 LECTURES ON INDIA. The pilgrims are taught to believe that the cars are not movea and guided by the strength of the men who pull at the ropes, but by the will and pleasure of the idols. This being admitted, it must be that Juggernaut made a grand mistake, for he ran his car against a house, and was not able to extricate himself until the afternoon of the next day. But perhaps he was merely in a surly mood, for they believe that the cars move only when the idols are pleased with tLe worship. So, if for any reason a car stops, they suppose that the idol thus expresses his disapprobation. One of the priests then steps forward to the front of the platform, as here represented, rehearses the deeds and extols the character of the idol, in a manner the most obscene. No person, educated in a Christian country, can possibly conceive expressions so debasing and abominable as are used on such occasions. Should the speaker quote from the Shasters, or invent an expression more than usually lascivious, the multitude give a shout, or rather a sensual yell. The men again pull, with renewed energy, at the ropes, the idol is supposed to be delighted, and the car is permitted to move on. When dragged a short distance farther, it is stopped again by a priest, who slyly clogs one of the wheels. Then another scene of pollution is acted out with all its debasing influence upon the mind and morals of the people. In this manner, eight days are spent in drawing the car about two miles. In one of the apartments of.fuggernaut's temple, there is a golden image of Luckshme, the wife of Juggernaut. Near midnight, on the fourth day of the car festival, it was brought out of the temple, on a splendid litter, borne on the shoulders of men. Preceded by a band of rude music, and men bearing flaming torches, they soon approached the cars:, when Luckshme was presented directly in front of Juggernaut, her husband. Immediately the whole multitude appeared to be in a perfect rage, and rent the air with the most violent and cla'morous yells. The women, who at this time were unusually numerous, appeared to be by far the most excited. In the midst of these dreadful yells, which had now continued several minutes, one of the priests took a garland of flowers from Juggernaut, and placed it around the neck of his wife. She was then borne off towards the temple, and the clamor ceased. I inquired the meaning of this strange and terrific ceremony. The reply was, that on the first day of the festival, Juggernaut had eloped with his sister. That, on the fourth, his wife heard of a-:NC —--- - --- m -W No. 49. A CEREMONY AT THE TEMPLE OF JUGGERNAUT. Krshna, accompanied by two other images, is brought out of the temple and suspended from a lofty stone arch, very curiously wrought. He is then swung by the Brahmins for his gratificatlon, and the amusement of the worshippers. See paye 98. LECTURES ON INDIA. 113 it, and, being stung with jealousy, determined on revenge. Accordingly, she set out in hot pursuit of her unfaithful spouse; and, having overtaken him at this place, she had given him a sound scolding. The shouting and yelling of the multitude was merely the effect of sympathy, they joining in the chorus with the scolding wife. This accounts for the active part which the women took in this ceremony. Juggernaut, like other penitent husbands who have scolding wives, promises to do better in future, and Luckshme is persuaded to be reconciled and to return home. You will readily perceive that this festival exerts a most pernicious influence upon the community. The ceremonies are not only foolish, but most polluting in their tendencies and effects. Here. crimes of the foulest character are sanctioned by the conduct of their supreme god. It is not, therefore, a matter of sur prise that impurity, and all its kindred abominations, pervade the land. Let us, who live in this Christian country, thank God for the revelation of his own glorious character; and while we bless him for the Bible, and for all those spiritual influences which have made us to differ from the heathen, shall we not strive to send them the gospel? Freely we have received; freely let us give. Engraving, No. 50 is a view -near the city of Benares. The building at the right of the ghat, or flight of steps, is a temple of Shiva. The one on the left is a resting-place for pilgrims. The water is in a tank about two hundred feet square. In November, about one hundred thousand persons assemble around this tank, to perform a variety of ceremonies for the benefit of the souls of deceased relatives. The pepul-trees, in the engraving, are supposed to be the favorite resort of such departed spirits as, from various causes, have not yet been clothed with new bodies. While I was engaged in taking a drawing of this place, several of the natives came and put lighted lamps in the earthen pots which you see suspended from the branches of the trees. On inquiring of one why he did so, he replied, " That the soul of my relative may be in light." I asked him how he knew whether the soul of his relative was in darkness or light. He said, "It is impossible for me to know that. But it is our custom, when one of the family dies, to suspend an earthen pot from a pepul-tree, and for ten successive days to bring offerings of water and rice, with a lighted lamp, for the benefit of the departed. On the tenth day, we break the pot, and make a feast for the Brahmins." In Calcutta, I witnessed a 8 114 LECTURES ON INDIA. feast of this character, made by a wealthy merchant for the benefit of his deceased mother. The-number of guests was estimated at two hundred thousand, and the expense of the feast, together with the presents made, was estimated at seventy-five thousand dollars. The efficacy of one of the numerous ceremonies for the benefit ot deceased relatives is supposed to depend very much upon the place where it is performed. If performed at a certain temple in the town of Guyah, it is supposed that inconceivable benefits will be conferred upon the deceased. The East India Company,. seizing upon this superstitious feeling, have until recently made it a source of revenue by imposing a tax upon all who perform, this ceremony at Guyah. The tax collected at that temple amounted to about one hundred and twelve thousand dollars annually. Ceremonies for the repose of the soul are exceedingly numerous; but I will mention only one more. The son of the deceased procures one male and four female calves. These are tied to five posts, near an altar, constructed' for the occasion. Four learned Brahmins sit on the four sides of the altar, and offer a burnt sacrifice. A fifth Brahmin reads certain passages in the Shasters, to drive away evil spirits. The son washes the tail of the male calf, and with the same water presents a drink-offering to his deceased ancestors. The male and the four female calves are then gravely united in wedlock. During the marriage ceremony, many formulas ate repeated, in which the parties are recommended to cultivate love and mutual sympathy. The Brahmins, having performed the duties of their sacred office, are dismissed with presents, including the four brides; but the bridegroom is dedicated to Shiva, and allowed to run at large until old age carries him off. These vagrant calves may almost be said to constitute one of the numerous orders of religious mendicants, or holy beggars. As no provision is made for their daily wants, and as they are under the necessity of securing their living, they become very cunning, and are scarcely less impudent than the bipeds constituting the other orders of that fraternity. It is not uncommon for them to walk up, unbidden, to the stalls where vegetables are for sale, and help themselves. Being esteemed sacred, the poor deluded inhabitants dare to use only the most gentle means of ridding themselves of their unprofitable customers. During the first year or two, these cattle fare rather scantily; but, after having learned their sacred functions, they live well, and are the fattest and best-looking of all the anirmals to be seen in Hindustan. No. 50. View in Benares. =- ==- L0 — = _ L~~~~~~~~~~~~~~=-?-== IRS~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~I No. 5.1. The Inhdta Ox. LECTURES ON INDIA. 117 The Shasters teach that the souls of the departed are divided into five classes. Those of the first class reunite with Brahm, the Eternal Spirit, and thus lose their individuality. The second are admitted to the various heavens of the gods. The third are punished in places of torment. The fourth again become the offspring of human parents. The fifth become beasts, birds, and insects. Hence, should a Hindu inhale an insect with his breath, he knows not but, in so doing, he has swallowed some departed relative - possibly his own father. There is one sect, who, to prevent so horrid a catastrophe, wear a strainer over the mouth. Hinduism leads its votaries into the wildest and most absurd vagaries in regard to omens, dreams, visions, evil spirits, and witches. In the vicinity of Puna, a person dreamed that the cholera, then raging in his village, was inflicted by a certain woman commissioned by Zurremurre, the goddess of the cholera. The villagers, on hearing this, immediately assembled and put her to death. In Orissa, a woman was told by her priest that Kali, the goddess whom she worshipped, had appeared to him in a vision, and had commanded him to inform her that she must sacrifice her only child. In the night, while he slept, she cut off his head, and gave it to the priest as an offering to the idol. In Nagpore, several persons died suddenly, which led many to believe that they had been destroyed by witchcraft. They therefore employed a man, who professed to be skilled in the art of magic, to discover the authors of their death. He put some oil and rice into a leaf, and began to repeat the name of each person belonging to the village. When he called the name of a certain woman, the oil, as he said, ran through.the leaf. This circumstance was regarded as sufficient proof of her guilt. She was immediately seized, and whipped until death ended her sufferings. The death of the favorite wife of Rajah Zelim Singh, of Kotah, being attributed to witchcraft, he sentenced four hundred women to be put into sacks and thrown into a tank. It is stated by General Malcolm, in an official report, that, in the province of Malwa alone, in the course of thirty years, between two and three thousand females had been put to dbath for the imputed crime of witchcraft. Many of the Hindus believe that those persons who commit suicide become malignant spirits delighting in every kind of mischief. 118 LECTURES ON INDIA. The scene represented by engraving No.53 occurred in Ghazepore. A man persuaded his wife to permit him to burn her alive, that her soul might be transformed into an evil spirit, for the purpose of haunting and tormenting one of their neighbors, who had offended them. In Calcutta, a servant, having quarrelled with his master, hung himself, in the night, in front of the street door, that he might become a devil and haunt the premises. The house was immediately forsaken by its occupants, and, though a large and beautiful edifice, suffered to go to ruin. In Mirzapoor, a Brahmin took his own child, an infant about fifteen months old, from the arms of its mother, and, holding it by the legs, dashed its head against the ground, that it might become an evil spirit and torment a certain person by whom he imagined himself injured. Another little girl was, by her own father, beheaded with an axe. Another was stabbed to the heart, with a dagger, and her bleeding body thrown at the door of the person upon whom the murderer sought to be revenged. I could give the particulars of many other murders which have been committed for similar purposes. " Among the customs of the Hindus, there is one which is called Dherna. If a man demands satisfaction from his neighbor for some grievous offence, — if a creditor determines to pursue extreme measures with his debtor, to obtain what is due to him, - if a relative has been cheated by another out of his patrimony or his rights, and wishes to exact them from him, - they respectively take the poniard or a cup of poison in their hand, and, knowing that the offending party is at home, they sit down at his door, in dherna. That moment the defendant within is considered as under arrest. IIe cannot touch food, so long as his accuser continues to fast; and, should he not come to terms, but drive, by his obstinacy, the plaintiff to despair, and allow him to use the dagger or dring the poison, his blood rests upon his head. This may be termed their ordeal- their mode of demanding satisfaction - their system of duelling - their dernier resort. " At the village of Pannabaka, in the presidency of Madras, there was a priestly Brahmin, who had lately come from Bellary, and had undertaken to attend upon the idol of the place. His was the privilege to levy contributions on the inhabitants for his sup No. 52. A Devotee leaping from a precipice. No. 53. A man burning his wife alive. LECTURES ON INDIA. 121 port. A householder, who had for a time given him a halfpenny a day, refused to continue his allowance; and, though the priest insisted upon the payment, he remained inflexible. The priest then threatened that, unless he received the amount, he would cut out his own tongue, and the householder would have to answer for giving him such a provocation. Incensed at the obstinacy of his opponent, he whetted his knife and cut off the tip of his tongue. He bled profusely, and his tongue swelled to a prodigious size. The pains which he endured only served to render him more desperate, and he declared he would bring his whole family and sit in dherna, till he should obtain a sum sufficient to make a feast to his god. The householder was not to be intimidated, and remained as obstinate as the Brahmin. The priest, his wife, and his four sons, sat down, and kept their pos;'ion at the door of the defendant; but, during the second night, the female was bit by a snake, and died in the morning. This event exasperated the priest; he increased his demand; and, as the village had remained neutral in the affair, he now laid a tax upon all its inhabitants. As he had not only sustained a personal injury, but had lost his wife while standing up for the rights of his order, and for the honor of his god, nothing less would satisfy him now, than a sum adequate to meet the expenses of the funeral and to make a feast to propitiate the deity who was offended by such daring sacrilege. Till these demands were met, he resolved to keep his station, and to retain the corpse of his wife unburied at the door of the house. As the people of the village rejected his claim, he then threatened that, in order to be avenged upon them, he would first kill his four children, and then put an end to his own existence. It was the act of a Brahmin; it might be viewed by Hindus as a pardonable offence; it was done in honor of his god; it was occasioned by the obstinacy of the people; it was a sacrifice that, according to a monstrous mythology, would meet with a future and a bountiful reward; its helpless victims were to be raised to life again by the divinity whose honor it was done to vindicate. But it is not ours to make apologies; we have only to record the fact, that this priest - this worshipper of Shiva - this monster - - this raging fury- took his knife, laid hold of three of his children, and severed their heads from their bodies. It was not enough! His eldest son tried to make his escape; but this murderous father allured him back, and promised that, prior to his own selfdestruction, he c- ly wished to embrace him and bid him farewell. Thus invited back by the soft whispers of love, he returned; but, 122 LECTURES ON INDIA. the moment that he came within the grasp of the murderer, he laid him prostrate, as another victim at the shrine of superstition and reve: Ige. His attempt to despatch himself ended in making a dreadful wound in the back of his neck. " Such, it may be said, are only solitary instances. It would not be right to quote such deeds to bring opprobrium upon a whole people, any more than it would be just to appeal to the horrid murders in Christian countries as a specimen of our own customs. But the cases are utterly dissimilar. The inhabitants of Panna. baka stood by and saw the horrid deed performed; they seemed. afterwards, to be amused and highly delighted at the bravery of the act; they expressed their resentment at one individual, and at the police-officer, who called upon them to interfere to prevent it; and there can be no question that, if this priest had been restored to his liberty and his horrid altar again, they would have received him with enthusiasm; and revered him as a saint of superior sanctity. In a village some miles distant from the spot, the people no sooner heard of this murder, than they left their employment and proceeded to Pannabaka with every demonstration of joy; and, after a few days, they returned, saying,'The children are not indeed restored to life; but why are they not? It is entirely owing to the inhabitants, who have not made a feast,' which would cost two thousand rupees, to propitiate the favor of the god- a feast which the priest had declared to be necessu:ry." - On a certain occasion, the Bhats of Marwar demanded a favo of Umra I., and, being refused, determined to sit in dherna. They assembled, with their women and childr,n, in the court of the royal palace, and, with their daggers, com:menced a horrid butchery. Eighty of their number lay welte:ilng in their blood. No.54is a group of women engaged in various occupations. One is smoking tobacco. Another is spinning cotton. A third is preparing the thread for the weavers by winding it on a spool. A fourth is preparing the cotton for spinning. A fifth is grinding, upon a flat stone, cayenne pepper, garlic, ginger, and turmeric. These, when stewed with a cucumber or melon, serve as a seasoning for their boiled rice, which, in many parts of India, constitutes more than seven eighths of the entire food of the inhabitants. The worhan with the large brass pot is carrying home water for household use. The next is returning from her morning ablution mu the Ganges, with her hair spread upon her shoulders to dry No. 54. A Group of Women. No 55. Interior. a Dwelling. LECTURES ON INDIA, 125 In her left hand are two brass pots, which she has scoured b) rubbing them with the mud of the river. Children are never carried in the arms; they sit astride on the hip. The womai carrying the child is going to market with a bundle of wood borne upon the head. Perhaps there is no one point in which Christianity has a more direct influence upon the state of the community than in respect to the character and standing of the female. To a Hindu the birth of a daughter is an occasion of sorrow. At the early age of twelve or thirteen years, she is required to leave the parental roof, and to become the wife of a man whom she has had no voice in choosing as her companion. Her duties to him are thus prescribed in the Shasters: " When in the presence of her husband, a woman must keep her eyes upon her master, and be ready to receive his commands. When he speaks, she must be quiet, and listen to nothing beside. When he calls, she must leave every thing else, and attend upon him alone. A woman has no other god on earth than her husband. The most excellent of all good works she can perform is, to gratify him with the strictest obedience. This should be her only devotion. Though he be aged, infirm, dissipated, a drunkard, or a debauchee, she must still regard him as her god. She must serve him with all her might, obeying him in all things, spying no defects in his character, and giving him no cause for disquiet. If he laughs, she must also laugh; if he weeps, she must also weep; if he sings, she must be in an ecstasy. She must never eat until her husband is satisfied. If he abstains, she must also fast; and she must abstain from whatever food her husband dislikes." Inengraving, No. 55 you will see the interior of a Hindu dwelling at meal time. The husband, according to custom, is seated upon a mat, eating his boiled rice with his fingers, while his wife is standing by him ready to obey his commands. She is never permitted to eat with her husband, but waits upon him in the capacity of a servant, and afterwards partakes of the fragments in retirement. Schools are not uncommon in India, but there are none for the'nstruction of the female. Her mind is entirely uncultivated, and she has no fixed principles to regulate her conduct. She is therefore an easy prey to vice, and the devoted slave of supersti. tion. When her husband dies, she must either burn herself upon his funeral pile, or, if she determines to live, it must be a life of 126 LECTURES ON INDIA. reproach and servitude. She may never marry again, however young she may be. She must cast off all her ornaments, shave her head, and either become a servant in the house of her hais band's friends, or adopt a mode of life which will bring disgrace not only upon herself, but upon the whole family. Hence it is, that death upon the funeral pile is so often preferred to surviving widowhood. This cruel custom was, in 1827, prohibited by the East India Company in their own dominions; but in some of the independent provinces the practice is still continued. A large proportion of the persons who undertake long and hazardous pilgrimages, and who subject themselves to painful modes of self-torture, are females. " At a certain time," says a missionary of my acquaintance, "' as I was walking in a retired village, mly attention was arrested by seeing two objects, at some distance before me, rolling in the mud.' As I approached the spot, I found two females, almost exhausted by fatigue. I learnt that they had vowed to their goddess to roll, in this manner, from one temple to another. They had spent nearly the whole day, and had not accomplished one half their journey. But no arguments, no remonstrances, on my part, could induce them to relinquish their undertaking; for they feared that, unless they performed their vow, the goddess would be angry with them. On leaving these deluded votaries of superstition," continued he, "with my feelings aroused almost to indignation, I expostulated with a learned Brahmin who stood not far distant, and pointed to ti:e miserable objects I had just left.'O,' said he,' this is woiship exactly suited to the capacity of females. Let them alone They are sincere: of course their worship will be accepted.'" I might relate many other facts to show the wretched condition of -women in pagan lands, but these must suffice. The respected ladies of this audience will permit me to say, iII conclusion, every, thing in life, in death, and eternity, that catn inspire you with the love of existence, you derive from the gospel. To you, then, in a special manner, is the gospel "glao tidings of great joy." No. 56. Saugor IslarLd. This island is inhabited only by wild beasts. Here thousands of Hindu mothers have thrown their children into the Gangas to be devoured by alligators. No. 57. The Bannian Tree. "Branchingo so broad and long, that in the ground The bending twigs take root; and daughters grow About the mother tree; a pillared shade, High overarched, with echoing walks between." LECTURE ON THE CONDITION OF WOMEN IN INDIA, AND OTHER PAGAN AND MOHAMMEDAN COUNTRIES. Woman, in her original state, (to use the language of another,) " was all that is lovely in form, all that is graceful in manner, all that is exalted in mind, all that is pure in thought, all that is delicate in sentiment, all that is enchanting in conversation." She was God's most finished workmanship. Has she lost her original purity and loveliness? But man has fallen too; and relatively they are to each other still what they were before they took and ate of the forbidden fruit. It is now, as ever, Heaven's will that woman receive all "due benevolence" from man, —that he regard her as his equal, and entitled to his warmest love: that he throw his arm around her for protection, and combine with the gentlest care the most respectful deference to her h6nor and her happiness. "At man shall leave his father and his mother and cleave unto his wife, and they shall be one flesh." "Husbands, love your wives," is God's command and nature's law, for they are bone of each other's bone and flesh of each other's flesh. SUCH IS THE GENIUS OF CHRISTIANITY. And the result of obedience to this eternal law of God and nature, is the lofty elevation of the female character, the thorough cultivation of her mind, the rich endowment of her heart, and the augmented strength of all her capabilities of usefulness and enjoyment; while the result of disobedience is fraught with all that is degrading to intellect, vitiating to social principle, corrupting to moral habits, and hostile to every upward movement of the immortal powers. And what is the spirit of heathenism, and of false religion in its varied forms, let the impartial pen of history tell. Times, 9 130 LECTURE ON WOMEN. ancient and modern,-witnesses, Pagan, Mahometan, and Christian, may be indiscriminately cited on this point. Their testimony is one, —truthful, melancholy, and decisive. A daughter is born.'T is a grievous calamity. The Hindu father becomes dejected, and his neighbors gather around him to mingle their grief with his. The Chinese parent thus afflicted denominates the little innocent a woo, a hated thing. Even the Moorish mother repines, and though she had rejoiced greatly at the birth of her son, and blackened her face forty days inr token of her joy, yet when a daughter comes into the world, she ill conceals her mortification, by blackening half her face, for half the period only. It was not long since, that the lady of a missionary in the East, having become the mother of a lovely daughter, a native friend of the husband called on him the following day with a countenance unusually sad. The missionary kindly inquired the cause of his sadness. His friend, with most lugubrious face, replied, "I have heard that your new-born infant is a daughter, and I have come to condole with you, on your hard fate." So little valued is the life of female infants, within the domains of Paganism, that great numbers are put to death, solely to avoid the trouble and expense of feeding and clothing them. The singular custom formerly prevailed in the northern part of Hindustan, whenever a female child was born, of carrying her to the market-place, and there, holding up the child in one hand, and a knife in the other, proclaiming, that if any person wanted to rear her for a wife, they might then take her; if none appeared to accept of her, she was immediately destroyed. The consequence of this course, was, that the men of the tribe became much more numerous than the women; and hence arose the custom of appropriating several husbands to one wife,-a custom that still prevails in some of the southern as well as the northern tribes of Hindustan. Among the Rajpoot tribes in the north-west part of that country nearly all the female children are put to death immediately after birth; consequently the men are obliged to procure their wives from other tribes. And among some, at least, of the Indian tribes of our own land, the case is no better. Said a Chippewa Indian, (in a recent address before a missionary society in London,)-" When a boy is born in the tribe it is a day of rejoicing, because it is considered that he will make a fine warrior; but when a female is born, it is a time of sorrow and it is said,'a good-for-nothing girl is born.' The poor mother, knowing that the news is not good, kisses the poor child, and - = -. = S Fi- __ =e PZ~~~ee ~~ 1?zz Gil Anna, -Rajee and -Rabee. Yliey were educated at the Orphan Girls School at Burdwan. LECTURE ON WOMEN. 133 says, I Father does not love you, but I do;' and then, taking the infant by the legs, dashes out its brains, exclaiming,' Would to God, my mother had done so with me when I was born,-I should not then have been such a slave.' On one occasion the helpless babe was rescued from its mother, by her sisters, who said,'It is better that your child should be a slave than to kill it in this way.' That babe is now grown up; when fourteen years of age, she was converted, and has now become a Sabbath school teacher and a useful member of society." THE EDUCATION OF HEATHEN FEMALES IS ENTIRELY NEGLECTED. Whl.e, throughout the Eastern world, schools are maintained for the instruction of boys, and they are sufficiently taught to qualify them for the common business of life, girls are left to utter ignorance of letters, and systematically refused all intellectual culture, as useless to themselves and injurious to society. To a European gentleman, (who endeavored to persuade the natives of a Hindu village that the education of their females in reading, writing, and arithmetic, would be of advantage to their husbands, and would render them their equals and companions, as well as helpers,) it was replied,-" All this, Sahib, may be very true with your people, but it will never do for us. It would be impossible for Hindus to keep their wives in subjection, if they were educated." Shrewd reasoning this!-based on the preposterous assumption, that man is created to be a master, and woman a slave. In vain were these villagers assured that women of the most refined education and extensive knowledge are the most affectionate and faithful wives in the world, because governed by reason, judgment, and common sense, they regard the interest of their husbands as their own, and yield a systematic and cheerful obedience in those things in which the husband's will ought to have the preference, while, at the same time, he might enjoy the advantages of her better judgment in matters which pertain to her own sphere. Their only reply to such arguments is, "Our women are not like yours,-if educated they would be refractory, and would no longer carry burdens, and collect cow's ordure for fuel." On grounds like these, is the whole mass of female mind throughout Hindustan, China, Burmah, Persia, Turkey, &c., doomed to perpetual darkness and gloom, instead of sharing the light of science, and rejoicing in the radiance of the sun of righteousness. THEY ARE NOT AT THEIR OWN DISPOSAL IN MARRIAGE. Of all the relationships of life, this is the basis. Of all affinities, it is the closest and most tender. Of earthly bliss, it is the purest foun 134 LECTURE ON WOMEN. tain,-the brightest crown,-the loveliest image of heaven's blest communion. " True bliss (if man may reach it) is composed Of hearts in union mutually disclosed; And farewell else, all hope of pure delight." "In marriage," (says Jeremy Taylor,) "kindness is spread abroad, and love is united, and made firm as a centre; it is the nursery of heaven,-it fills up the number of the elect. It is the mother of the world, and preserves the kingdoms, and fills the cities, and the churches, and heaven itself. Like the useful bee, it builds a house, and gathers sweetness from every flower, and labors, and unites into societies and republics, and sends out colonies, and feeds the world with delicacies, and keeps order, and promotes the interest of mankind, and is that state of good things, to which God has designed the present constitution of the world." But all this supposes confidence and esteem, growing out of acquaintance between the parties,-affection, inspiring a mutual desire to please, and the immerging of individual interests in the common stock of domestic enjoyments. And of this, Paganism knows nothing. It holds females as articles of merchandise, to be disposed of to those who will pay for them the highest price. Girls of six or eight years are bought and sold by their fathers as calves of the stall, to be taken, at twelve or fourteen, (whether willing or unwilling,) from the home of their childhood, and put into the hands of the man for whom they were purchased. In Hindustan, females, who remain unmarried till they are fifteen or sixteen years of age, (however correct in their conduct,) are regarded as infamous, and (like widows) are never sought for in marriage; and widowers (even if sixty or seventy years old) invariably marry girls of ten or twelve. Among the poorer classes in China, when a man dies, his relatives (to regain the money originally paid for his bride) are allowed to sell his widow to become the wife of another man. The arrangement is made without her knowledge, and (regardless of her wishes) she is forced into a palenkeen, and carried to the house of her purchaser. The price of a bride varies much in different countries. In some parts of Africa ten or fifteen bullocks are paid as an equivalent, while a handsome red-haired Circassian or Georgian girl cannot be bought for less than six or seven thousand piasters. In the kingdom of Dahomey, all unmarried women are held as the property of the king. Once a year they assemble at the .i'"-, lumen tlfl Calcutt ~ _.~~I~;'me of Cacta LECTURE ON WOMEN. 137 palace, when he selects the handsomest for himself, and sells the remainder to his subjects. The purchaser is allowed no choice, but receives the wife selected for him by the king. But the whole story of man's regard for woman in unevangelized lands, is told in the simple language of the Modean of Siberia, who, at the close of the marriage ceremony, places the bride on a mat, and conveys her to the bridegroom, saying, " There, wolf, take thy lamb." It is not in all heathen countries, however, that wives are obtained by money or its equivalent. In some tribes more romantic customs prevail. The New Hollander fixes his eye upon some female of a tribe at enmity with his own. He steals upon her at some moment when no protector is near, and deals out blows with his club, upon her head, neck, back, indeed every part of her body, till she becomes insensible; and then drags her by one of her arms, (the blood streaming from her wounds,) over rocks, hills, stones and logs, with all the violence and ferocity of a savage, till he reaches his tribe-. The scene that follows, admits not of description. Suffice it to say, the poor violated woman becomes the wife of her ravisher,-is admitted to his tribe,-and (notwithstanding the singularity of the courtship) is contented with her lot, and rarely leaves her husband and her home. That genuine love may exist, even among these rude barbarians, and sometimes be exhibited in the purest forms, admits not of doubt. Mr. Barrington (who had long resided in Parametta) mentions an instance that fell under his own observation, pleasantly illustrating this fact. "A brother of twenty-three, and two sisters of twenty and fourteen respectively, dwelt together affectionately in a cave near the city. On returning one day from hunting the kangaroo, just as the darkness of night mantled the heavens, and while the forked lightning played vividly around him, at the mouth of the cave, his eye caught the form of his younger sister, bleeding on the ground. Troubled before at the warring of the elements, his soul was now in agony. He endeavored to raise her up, but she was senseless. At length, however, his efforts were successful, and, with returning animation, she exclaimed,'Dear brother! our sister is torn from us,- - a wretch came to the cave, beat her cruelly with his club, and caught up one arm to drag her away,-I laid hold of the other to prevent him; but the moment he saw it, with a single blow, he knocked me to the ground, where you have now found me.' The night was passed in the anguish of grief and amid harrow 138 LECTURE ON WOMEN. ing purposes of revenge. Morning came. Together they sought the tribe of the offender. A little before reaching it, they me, the sister of the very man who had committed'the outrage, gathering sticks for a fire. A fine opportunity was thus presented for revenge. The brother (bidding his sister to hide herself) flew upon the young woman, with club in hand, and with all the ferocity of a savage in his heart. The victim trembled; but knowing his power, she stood firmly, and looked him in the eye, when, (like the lion of the forest, meeting the eye of intelligent man,) he paused,-he gazed,-enchantment was on him: she saw it,-dropped on her knees and implored his compassion. Revenge softened into love; throwing down his club, he clasped her in his arms, and vowed eternal constancy. This nobleness won her heart. He called his sister, who thirsted still for the stranger's blood, and said to her,'She is now my wife."' "Nor force nor interest joined unwilling hands, But love consenting tied the blissful bands." All three now love each other tenderly, and (under the instruction of a Christian friend) read the oracles of God, and cherish the spirit that breathes from the bosom of Jesus. POLYGAMY PREVENTS THE ENJOYMENT OF THE HUSBAND'S AFFECTION. Conjugal love may be disturbed,-or it may be diminished,-or it may be maddened into phrensy,-or it may be annihilated, —but it cannot be divided. Abraham may become the husband of Hagar, but his heart is with Sarah. Jacob may be the protector of Leah, but he loves Rachel. Elkanah may deal kindly with Peninnah, but his affections are with Hannah. Good men these, and faithful to their marriage-vows, though borne away into the transgression of the original law of Heaven, by the strong current of the popular sentiment of the age in which they lived. Then, though Heaven interfered not to prevent the practice, it never sanctioned it by law; and if it were not condemned by statutes and penalties, it was powerfully rebuked by its effects and consequences. Never did it fail, in the most auspicious circumstances for its indulgence, to produce domestic discord and wretchedness. Jealousy, bitterness,'and strife, are its invariable attendants, even when associated with faith as strong as that of the patriarchs, and piety as ardent as that of the sweet singer of Israel. Its inconsistency with the spirit of the gospel has expelled the practice from evr3y Christian land; and its incongruity with reason and expediency, has stamped it with infamy. But it still prevails among the higher classes, in nearly every part of the unevangelized world. ~ —~ _~7Z.__7_' -..... 5 _ Al Mohl\ Dress. IIO(I A HIi7du Wo7mmll of Bengal. of high ralk, it fi2 Dress. LECTURE ON WOMEN. 141 Besides four queens, the king of Birmah has thirty wives, and five hundred other women at his disposal. The emperor of Turkey swells his harem, usually, with more than a thousand wives,-the sultan Achmet I. is said to have had three thousand. The king of Ashantee has three thousand three hundred and thirty-three,-a mystical number, on the integrity of which the prosperity of his kingdom is supposed to depend. And the king of Yarriba boasted to Capt. Clapperton, that his wives, linked hand in hand, would reach entirely across his kingdom. Not only kings, but nobles, and men of wealth and station, and indeed men of all classes, who have the ability to sustain a plurality of wives, are eager to possess them,-not as objects of affection, but as honorable appendages to their establishments, or as ministering to their pride and sensuality. Love is not known -"where pleasure is adored, That ruling goddess, with a zoneless waist And wandering eyes, still leaning on the arm Of novelty." but its place is supplied by envy, and rancor, and hate, bursting forth, often, in words of wrath and deeds of cruelty, and the wanton murder of the innocent. Says Lady Montague, during her residence in Constantinople, " The body of a young woman of surpassing beauty was found one morning near my house. She had received two wounds, one in her side, and the other in her breast, and was not quite cold. Many came to admire her beauty; but no one could tell who she was,-no wo.man's face being known out of her family. She was buried privately, and little inquiry made for the wretch who had imbrued his hands in her blood." The Pacha of Acre, in Palestine, a few years since, put to death seven of his wives, at one time, with his own hands. And even where cruelties like these are not perpetrated, the wife is kept a prisoner m the house of her lord, and her face is never seen beyond it. She is thus entirely in the irresponsible power of her husband, nor is one earthly ear but his. open to the tale of her wrongs, how terrible soever they may be. That she endures such wrongs, is no more to be questioned than the existence of caprice in man's proud heart, or of contempt for the whole sex, which he regards is infinitely inferior to his own. The Pagan or Mahometan wife is liable to divorce, and consequent poverty and shame, at any moment when her husband wills it. For one cause, and only one, Christianity permits the disruption of the conjugal tie. And it is this inviolability of the -142 LECTURE ON WOMEN. relation that operates so kindly in the restraint of unseemly passions, and in perpetuating " Domestic happiness, the only bliss Of Paradise that has survived the fall." But false religions allow to man unbounded license. Might and right, in their vocabulary, are but synonymous terms; and woman (dishonored without her own fault) is, at her husband's pleasure, turned an outcast from her home. Let the Arab's wife be taken sick, and forthwith she is returned to her parents with the message, "I paid for a healthy woman, and cannot afford the support of a sickly one." Let the Siberian become dissatisfied with his wife, for any cause, and he has but to tear her cap from her head, and the marriage contract is dissolved. Let the husband of Sumatra but break a bamboo, in the presence of his wife and their relatives, and the divorce is effected. Or, let the Greenlander leave his home in apparent anger, and not return for a few days; the wife understands his meaning, picks up hei clothes, and returns to her friends. Or let the South Sea Islandei but speak the word, and the relation is dissolved, though no dislike of the wife to the husband can produce a separation without his consent. But a divorce is ruin to the female,-it dooms her irrevocably to scorn and universal contempt, and (with scarcely less certainty) to a life of vice and infamy. But the degradation of woman under the fell influence of false religions is not yet fully seen. She is her husband's slave, and with unquestioning servility, must yield to his behest, on penalty of torture, separation, or death. Nor is this a mere accident of her condition. The religion of her country decrees it,-the sacred books demand it. The Koran, and the Hindu Shasters, whose doctrines sway the mind, and determine the practice, of more than two hundred millions of the human family, make woman infinitely man's inferior,-the mere pander to his passions, -the abject drudge, owing him unconditional submission. Says the Shaster of the Hindu, -" The supreme duty of a wife, is, to obey the mandate of her husband. Let the wife who wishes to perform sacred ablution, wash the feet of her lord, and drink the water, for the husband is to the wife greater than N ishnoo. If a man goes on a journey his wife shall not divert herself by play, nor shall see any public show, nor shall laugh, nor shall dress herself in jewels and fine clothes, nor shall see dancing, nor hear music, nor shall sit at the window, nor shall ride out, nor shall behold anything choice and rare, but shall fasten well the house door. and remain private, and shall not eat any dainty food, and '~\\\\ x~ A Mohammeda Woman of Bengal, of high rank, tn full Dr 21 ohalmelanfirma ofBenal f hghran, e ful Des LECTURE ON WOMEN. 145 shall not blacken her eyes with powder, and shall not view her face in a mirror,-she shall never exercise herself in any such agreeable employment during the absence of her husband." Again, " A woman shall never go out of the house without the consent of her husband, and shall act according to the orders of her husband, and shall not eat until she has served him,"though, " if it be physic, she may take it before he eat." Not only in Hindustan, but in almost every unevangeliz(d country, the wife is obliged to stand and wait upon her husband while he eats, and to be content with such food as is left after his wants are satisfied. In the Society Islands, while Paganism reigned, women were not only thus compelled to wait upon their husband's table, but were not allowed, on pain of death, to eat at all of those kinds of food which were most highly esteemed. The cocoa-nut, the plantain, the fowl, the turtle, the swine, the shark, and various kinds of fish, were tabued to them. Nor were they allowed to eat in the same house with the men, nor to cook their food at the same fire, nor to put it into the same vessels. The transgression of these rules involved immediate drowning or strangulation.'" The females of Raratonga," (says the Rev. Mr. Williams,) " were denied those kinds of food reserved for the men and the gods,-compelled to eat their scanty meals by themselves, and forbidden to dwell under the same roof with their tyrannical masters." Till Riho Riho became ruler of the Sandwich Islands, similar customs prevailed there. About the time when he caused the idols to be destroyed, a dinner party was made, to which the principal chiefs and other persons of distinction were invited. When the company were seated around the table spread in an open bower, the king took his seat between two of his queens,-presented them with some of the forbidden fobod, and ate from the same dish with them. The whole company were astonished at such an innovation on ancient usages; so great, indeed, was the excitement produced, that it threatened a revolution in the gov.ernment. The authority of the monarch, however, sr.staii ed by the incipient influences of Christianity, prevailed. In 1787, the emperor of China issued the following decree. "All persons of the female sex, of whatever quality or condition, are forbidden, upon any pretext whatever, to enter a temple or quit their houses, except in cases of absolute necessity. Fathers, husbands, brothers, sons or relatives, are commanded to keep them at home, upon pain of being themselves severely punished. After this, any woman who shall enter a temple shall be 10 146 LECTURE ON WOMEN. apprehended and imprisoned, till some one shall appear to claim her,,and to undergo the punishment due to his negligence,"thus cutting off at a stroke the whole female population of the empire from all the rites of religion, and all the pleasures of social intercourse. In sonite parts of Siberia the marriage ceremony is no sooner performed, than the wife pulls off her husband's boots, in token of submission. In other parts of the same country, the morning after a wedding, a man representing the father of the bride. delivers to the husband a whip, which, whenever the wife offends, is to be used freely. In -the interior of Java the bride washes the bridegroom's feet in token of subjection. In Bambouk, Africa, she takes off her sandals, kneels before the bridegroom, pours water upon his feet, and wipes them with her mantle. In Madagascar, when a husband returns from war, his wife gives him the customary salutation of passing her tongue over his feet most respectfully. In New Holland, the slightest offence given to the husband brings down the club upon the wife, which never fails to draw forth a stream of blood and often fractures the skull. Among the Mandingoes, the terrible personage called Mumbo Jumbo, is called forth to frighten the refractory wife into submission. This demon form, assumed either by the husband himself or some one instructed by him, gives notice of his approach from the neighboring woods, near sunset, by the most frightful yells. At dark the men go out to meet him. He has a rod in his hand, a hideous mask on his head, and is fantastically decorated with the bark of trees. He is conducted to the village, where all the married women are assembled. The ceremonies commence. Songs and dances continue till a late hour. Mumbo Jumbo himself sings a song peculiar to the occasion. Then the women are required to arrange themselves in a circle. After a long pause and profound silence, Mumbo points out those that hlave been disobedient to their husbands, or otherwise have b)ehaved improperly, and they are immediately seized, stripped, tied to a post, and severely beaten with Mumbo's rod, amid the shouts and deridings of the whole assembly. And to such humiliation of woman, are boys, in some instances at least, systematically trained. The Hottentot mother, who has brought up her boy with tenderness till he has reached the period when. custom demands his initiation by certain ceremonies into the sdciety of men, is the first to feel the weight of his arm on his return'home from the scene of his transition; for, to show that he is now a man aud has the spirit of a man, he A Parsee imantan of Bombay, of higqh rank, in full h eaJ. LECTURE ON WOMEN. 149 beats her soundly; nor does censure follow the barbarous act, but he is applauded for his contempt of the society and authority of woman. For aught I know, the mother herself applauds it,-but how deep her degradation, when prepared to submit to insult like this on maternal dignity and honor! How unlike is the spirit ot Christianity, prompting the son, in the perfection of his understanding, in the plenitude of his power, and amid the self-gratulations of his independence, to submit to the mild reason of his mother,-to acknowledge her unassuming sway, and admit that though independent of all things else, he cannot do without the smiles of maternal approbation, the admonitions of maternal solicitude, and the reproofs of maternal tenderness and integrity. Woman, in unevangelized lands, is forced to perform the most perilous and menial services of the state and the family. The three thousand wives of the king of Dahomey are enrolled in the army, formed into regiments, armed with all the accoutrements of war, and a part of them serve as the king's body-guard. These numerous queens, and the other thousands belonging to the kings of Ashantee and Yarriba, are but servants, maintained for ostentation,-to display the wealth and power of their royal masters; and when not engaged in fighting the battles or guarding the persons of their lords, they are doomed to labor in the fields and submit to all the drudgery that pertains to the wife of the meanest subject of the realm. Nor is this all. At the death of an African king, his wives are slaughtered by scores and by hundreds, from an idea that their attendance will be needed in another world. Go with me to Van Dieman's Land, and see the weaker sex charged with the whole burden of supporting their families,husbands, children and all. Is the rough soil to be cultivated? In their hands are the implements of labor. Is the sea to be searched for the sea-carp or the lobster? They are found plunging from the projecting rocks into the briny flood, remaining on the rocky bottom, beneath the waves, twice as long (says a naval officer) as the most expert of our divers,-filling thei. baskets,-returning ashore,-drying themselves a few minutes y the fire, and warming their chilled limbs, and then resuming their perilous toils, while their husbands, through the whole, are seated comfortably around the fire, feasting on the choicest of the fish, and the most delicate of the broiled fern-roots. Nor need I carry you to the other side of the globe, to witness the unseemly toils and bitter sufferings of benighted woman. Our own continent supplies us practical illustrations without end. 150 LECTURE ON WOMEN. Let a fact or two suffice. Father Joseph (a missionary on the banks of the Oronoco) ventured to reprove an Indian female, fol destroying her infant daughter. She replied, "'O that my mother had thus prevented the manifold sufferings I have endured! Consider, father, our deplorable condition. Our husbands go out to hunt; we are dragged along with one infant at the breast and another in a basket. Though tired with long walking, we are not allowed to sleep when we return, but must labor the whole night in grinding maize to make chica for them They get drunk and beat us; they drag us by the hair of the head and tread us under foot. And after such a slavery of twenty years, what have we to comfort us? A young wife is brought home and permitted to abuse us and our children. What kindness can we show our daughters, equal to putting them to death. Would to God my mother had put me under ground the moment I was born! " One case more only for the sake of contrast. " Soon after my acquaintance with these Indians," (says a missionary to the Choctaws,) " I one day saw a chief travelling on horseback, quite at his ease, followed by his poor wife, who was not only on foot, but carried his infant child, his rifle, and a quantity of provisions in a large basket at her back, supported by a strap drawn across her forehead. At a subsequent season, I met the same family again on their travels; the chief was now on foot, laden with his own arms, and he had kindly placed his wife on the saddle. The child, too, now much larger than before, was sweetly sleeping in the arms of its father, who himself seemed cheerful and happy amid the fatigues of the way." The language of the poet to his wife he practically adopted as his own: " On all her days let health and peace attend, May she ne'er want nor lose a friend; May some new pleasure every hour employ, But let her husband be her highest joy." And what think you was the cause of this wonderful transformation 3 THt CHOCTAW CHIEF HAD BECOME A FOLLOWER OF CHRIST. But the widowhood of the Pagan wife and mother is, if possible, more wretched than her married life. As if Satan could not bear that the daughters of the first victim of his seduction should find peace in any condition, he first torments them as daughters in the house of their fathers, then as wives in the dwellings of their husbands, and then as widows, cast out from JI;,i~i~:` ~\\ -`-~-~-=~;V~n\W77. A Daning irl q Bngal LECTURE ON WOMEN. 153 every charity of human life. Under the dark covert of Pagan superstition and Mahometan delusion, unopposed by the sword of the Spirit, he accomplishes with ease his fiendish purposes, and adds the wormwood and gall of universal malice and contempt to all the bitterness of the dregs that had filled her cup of woe, from the cradle to the death of her husband. Formerly, the Caffre widow, on the decease of her husband, whatever was the season of the year, and whatever her condition, was compelled to fly to the forest, and houseless, hungry, and alone, mourn her loss day after day. During her absence her dwelling was plundered by her relatives of everything valuable, set on fire, and consumed, and the only dowry allotted her from her husband's property was a new garment, made from the hide of one of his oxen. On returning from the wildernesss, she built a new hut with her own hands, and subsisted on the avails of her own labor. Missionary enterprise has succeeded in abolishing this cruel custom, and Mr. Shaw, the missionary who was instrumental in accomplishing it, received the name of Umkinets Umfazie, (the woman's shield,) by which he is now generally known in Caffraria. In Greenland, when the husband dies, the widow, if unprotected by friends, is usually robbed of a considerable portion of her property by those who come to sympathize with her by an affected condolence, and can obtain no redress. If aged and infirm, she is not unfrequently buried alive by her own\ children. As the legitimate consequences of their servile and wretched condition, females of every unevangelized land are devoid of those sentiments of delicacy, and that refined taste and acute discrimination between the lovely and the disgusting in manners and customs, which distinguish the sex in lands enlightened by the gospel. Before Christianity commenced its reign in the Society Islands, wrestling was a favorite amusement of females, and one in which those of the highest rank engaged, not only with each other, but also with the men, in the presence of thousands of spectators of both sexes. Immediately after marriage, every female provided herself with an instrument set with rows of shark's teeth, with which, on the death of any of the family, she fearfully cut and lacerated herself, beating the head, temples, cheeks, and breast, till blood flowed profusely, while she uttered the most deafening and agonizing cries. Filthy in their persons, indecent in their apparel, fantastic in their ornaments, and familiar beyond endurance in their approaches to the other sex, their character stands forth an enduring but sad monument of that 154 LECTURE ON WOMEN. intellectual and moral degradation which Paganism and Mahometanism have spread far and wide. Here their bodies are rubbed with bear's grease, and there with fish oil, or some offensive compound of vegetable and animal matter. The sheep-skin, or the bullock's hide,-the tattered handkerchief, or the entrails of slain beasts, serve for partial protection from the frosts of winter, or the burning summer's sun; and scarcely answering the purpose of fig-leaves in the fallen first pair, are not unfrequently laid aside as needless incumbrances, while the whole person is exposed to the observation of every passer-by. In Arabia, they stain their fingers and toes red; their eye-brows black, and their lips blue. In Persia, they paint a black streak around the eyes, color their eye-brows and hair, and stain the face and neck with figures of beasts, birds, flowers, &c. The Hottentot women paint the entire body in compartments of red and black. Hindu females, when they wish to appear particularly lovely, paint the body with saffron and tumeric mixed with grease. In nearly all the islands of the Pacific and Indian oceans, and in many other parts of the world, like the men, they tattoo the body, with an instrument resembling somewhat a fine-toothed comb, whose sharp teeth, dipped into a solution of indigo or soot, are thrust into the flesh, introducing the coloring matter to remain forever, and imprinting a great variety of fanciful figures on the face, the lips, the tongue, the limbs, the whole body. The process is painful, though not more so than that of the female G(reenlander, who first saturates threads with soot, and then ins!rts them beneath the skin, and draws them through. In New Hol and, the women cut themselves with shells, and by keeping opwlun the wounds a long time, form wales or seams on the flesh, vwhich they deem higli.y ornamental. And another singular addition is made to their beauty by taking off the little finger of the left hand, at the second joint,-a process performed in infancy by tying a hair around it so tight as to produce mortification. In some parts of Hindustan, at the time of marriage, a like portion of the third and little finger is removed. A similar custom prevails among the Hottentots. Among some of the savage tribes of America, and also in Sumatra and Arracan, continual pressure is applied to the skull to flatten it, and add to the beauty of its form. In nearly all the South Sea Islands, custom requires an incision to be made in the lobe of each ear, into which rolls of leaves, or long pieces of wood or ivory are inserted, and from these, shells or fish teeth are suspended, to such an amount that their weight A KYAN WOMAN. From a portrait taken by M. Symes, Esq., for the East India Company. Kyan is the,ame of a people inhabiting the mountains between Arracan and Ava. All the women of that tribe, when they arrive at a certain age, tave the face tattooed. For a description i.f Me, process of tattooing, see opposite page. LECTURE ON WOMEN. 157 draws down the ear nearly to the shoulder, and not unfrequently tears it asunder. The mother of Sumatra carefully flattens the nose of her daughter; and in New Guinea, the nose is perforated, and a large piece of wood or bone inserted, making it difficult to breathe. On the north-west coast of America, an incision more than two inches in length is made in the lower lip, and filled with a wooden plug. In Guiana, the lip is pierced with thorns, the heads being inside the mouth and the points resting on the chin. And in Java, Borneo, and Celebes, they file their teeth to a point, and color them black, considering it disgraceful to let them remain " white like the teeth of dogs." In some countries corpulency is esteemed essential to beauty; and the wives of kings and chiefs are beloved in proportion to the sleek fatness and gross weight of their persons The Tunisian woman, of moderate pretensions to beauty, needs a slave under each arm to support her when she walks, and a perfect belle carries flesh enough to load down a camel. So anxious are mothers that their daughters should attain this unwieldy size, that they compel them to eat enormous quantities of fattening food and drink several bowls of camel's milk every day. Mungo Park describes a poor girl as crying for more than an hour, with a bowl at her lips, while her mother stood over her with a rod, and beat her cruelly, if she failed to swallow fast enough. And Capt. Clapperton found himself in not a little'difficulty at Houssa, through the importunity of an Arab widow, whose wealth and rank, enforced by the charms of a huge person, black-dyed eyebrows, blue hair, red stained hands and feet, all adorned with necklaces, girdles and bracelets, seemed to fit her for the station of a queen, whither her aspirations tended, and to which, with Clapperton for a husband, she doubted not she might attain. But he happened not (O cruel!) to fancy " a walking tun-butt" for a wife, and preferred the loss of the honors of African royalty to the lifecompanionship of five hundred pounds of Arab flesh. The beauty of a Chinese lady is in her feet, which in childhood are so compressed by bandages as effectually to prevent any further increase in size. The four smaller toes are turned under the foot, to the sole of which they firmly adhere. The poor girl not only endures much pain, but becomes a cripple for life. Another mark of beauty and distinction lies in the length to which the finger nails are allowed to grow,-a length that requires them to be shielded from accident by casings of bamboo. The ambitious beauties of Siam, not content with protecting carefully these ever-growing excrescences of nature, provide themselves with artificial. I.ls four inches long. 158 LECTURE ON WOMEN, Allow that, agreeably to the proverb, 1" there is no disputing of tastes," and that no nation or individual is responsible to another for peculiar customs, will it be questioned that the wearing of cumbrous and unwieldy ornaments, and the disfiguring of the body, and forcing it into uncouth forms at the expense of so much suffering, are customs offensive to nature, and to nature's God,-the legitimate progeny of Paganism?-and so far as evcr grafted upon the stock of Christianity, are they more incongruous with its simplicity and at variance with its spirit, than repulsive to reason and common sense? Foolish and unseemly customs are not confined to Pagan and Mahometan females, it is true,they exist in more enlightened lands; but in these lands, they are one after another assailed, changed and banished by the mild genius of Christianity; while, in the darker portions of the earth, they enter into the very constitution of society, and know no change or modification, more than the elements of nature, or the immemorial rites of a bloody superstition. Deplorable, then, are the delusions under which the god of this world hath bound down the nations that yield unresistingly to his sway,-severe the bondage under which they wear out hated life, and melancholy the barbarous customs, which through conscience, fancy, or caprice, his tyrant arm imposes on successive generations. To all this may be added their unbounded superstition. Their servile fear of the gods amounts to a terror which quenches the kindlings of natural affection, and drives them on to deeds of darkest inhumanity. Ignorant of the God of love, and conceiving of their divinities as capricious, malignant and revengeful, they are easily impelled to sacrifices at which nature shudders, and every sentiment of true piety stands aghast. Unenlightened by education, and enslaved by the spirit of idolatry, they become the victims of priestly craft, without resistance, and the dupes of their own vain imaginings, as if reason and conscience entered not at all into their moral constitution. The African female ventures not to commence a journey, nor to undertake important business of any kind, till well furnished with protective ch-arms, consisting chiefly of bits of paper, which contain a written sentence, or fragment of a sentence, carefully deposited within a bag fastened to her person. The women of Houssa, seeing Major Denham using a pen. came to him in crowds, to obtain a scrawl that should serve as an amulet to restore their beauty, to preserve the affections of their lovers, or to destroy a rival. If a child be born in Madagascar, on a day reputed unlucky, its evil destiny must be averted, by the,:lestruction of its life, under the hands i~ ~~ i t'llt,~""~ ~'l~"' ~'.,' i A Hindu Woman of the Brahmin caste. She has prepared a dinner of rice, placed it upon a Plantain leaf, and is carryinq it to her husband. LECTURE ON WOMEN. 161 of its parents. The only alternative is, to leave it in a narrow path, over which a herd of cattle is furiously driven, while the parents stand looking on from a distance; and if it chance to escape unhurt, they run to embrace it, convinced that the malig — nant influence is removed. Sometimes the child is drowned in a vessel of water prepared for the purpose, or thrown into a pit, with its face downward, or suffocated by stuffing a cloth into its mouth; but the parents themselves are commonly the executioners, under the impression that there is no other way of saving the ehild from the misfortunes that await its future years. From time immemorial, Hindu mothers have thrown their infant children into the Ganges, to be devoured by alligators; not because they were destitute of maternal affection, but because a nmother's love was overpowered by her fears of the wrath of some offended deity. The Hindu widow burns on the funeral pile of her husband. Thus she escapes the obloquy of widowrhood, and becomes entitled, as she believes, to a residence with her husband and their relatives in heaven. Thanks to the gospel of Christ, this horrid superstition has relaxed its grasp on Indian mind; but, till within a few years, thousands of widows became annually its victims; and at the death of princes and other men of elevated rank, possessed of many wives, the dreadful sacrifice has been all that Abaddon himself could desire. Twelve widows in one instance, eighteen in another, thirty-seven in another, and on the death of Ajie, prince of Malwar, fifty-eight threw themselves on the funeral piles of their husbands and perished. As late as 1944 twenty-four women were burnt in Punjab. There can be no doubt that this dreadful sacrifice is sometimes voluntary on the part of the victim, but it is by no means universally so. Not only is all the earthly glory of the deed, andl the happiness of a Pagan heaven promised on the one hand, and all the terrors of contempt and persecution through life, with ever - lasting infamy, arrayed on the other, but force is applied, with! fiend-like perseverance, to compel the unhappy wife to molnIlt the blazing altar of Moloch. Follow me to the immolation of a Brahmin's widowN in Northern' Hindustan. The unfortunate woman, of her own accord, has aLscended the burning pile. The torture of the fire is more than she can endure, and by a violent struggle she throws herself beyond the reach of the flames, and tottering to a river near by, is kindly plunged into it by some English gentlemen present, to assuage her torrmnts. She relains her senses perfectly, shrinks with dread from another encounter with the flames, and refuses so to die. Her 11 162 LECTURE ON WOMEN. Inhuman relatives then take her by the head and feet, and throw her upon the pile, and hold her there till driven away by the heat,. They endeavor too, to stun her with blows, —but again she escapes and makes to the river. Her relatives then try to drown her, but one of the English gentlemen mentioned interferes, and she throws herself into his arms, begging him to save her. " I cannot describe to you," says one present at the scene,: the horror I felt at seeing her mangled condition; almost every inch of skin on her body had been burnt off,-her legs and'thighs, her arms and back, were completely raw,-her breasts dreadfully torn, and the skin dangling from them in threads,-the skin and nails of her fingers had peeled wholly off, and were hanging to the back of her hands. In fact, I never saw and never read of so entire a picture of misery as this poor woman displayed. She still dreaded being again committed to the fire, and called to us to save her. Her friends at length desisted from their efforts. We sent her to the hospital. Every medical assistance was given, but, after lingering twenty hours, in excruciating pain, her spirit departed." Such is the superstition of heathen lands. Its forms are various, but its spirit is everywhere the same. It leads its votaries to defile themselves with the mud of the streets, to measure the distance from their homes to their temples, by the length of their bodies prostrated every six feet of the way, —to swing in the air, suspended by hooks thrust through the muscles of the back, and to submit to a thousand other tortures, in honor of some cruel but imaginary deity. It teaches the brother to betray the sister,-the mother to imbrue her hands in the blood of her own offspring, —and the son to light the pile which consumes the mother that gave him life. It glories in deeds like these, as more pleasing to the gods than any alleviation of human woe that kindness can effect, and more intrinsically meritorious than all the moral virtues commended by the philosophy of Seneca, or the precepts of Christ. But it is time to close. We have now cursorily glanced at the character of woman, as unaffected by the refining and elevating influences of Christianity. We have seen her trodden down as the mire of the streets by him whom Heaven created to be her protector and comforter. We have seen unevangelized mnan everywhere, like the fabled generation of warriors springing from the serpent's teeth armed for the work of destruction, directing his chief malignities against woman, —his best friend, his safest counsellor,-his most unfailing soiace,-because her native'imidity and weakness invite the violence and insult of a coward A HINDU MOTHER LAMENTING THE DEATH OF HER CHILD. "From time zmmemorzal, mothers have thrown their children Wnto the Ganges, to tie devoured by alligators, not because they were destitute of maternal affection, but because a mother's love was overpowered by her fears of the wrath of some offended deity."-P. 161 LECTURE ON WOMEN. 166 arm! We have seen her lost to self-respect, dead to instinctive affection, ignorant of the rights with which her Maker has invested her, unacquainted with her relations to eternity, indulgent to the wildest passions of depraved nature, and plunged far down the abyss of unnatural crime. We have marked her wanderings, listened to her complaints, and seen her scalding tears. And have we no sympathy in her sufferings? —no arm that will extend to her relief?-no voice that will call her to Calvary, and direct her eye to woman's friend and Saviour, and thence to a world of unmingled purity and love2 Measures are in progress (thank God!) for restoring woman to her true dignity, and re-establishing her just relations to man as her husband, guardian, and unfailing friend. The same measures will restore the world to the dominion of Christ, and man, in all his tribes, to the sway of reason and revelation. Then shall it no more be said that --— " his ambition is to sink, To reach a depth profounder still, and still Profounder, in the fathomless abyss Of folly, plunging in pursuit of death;" but he shall rise to " glory, honor, and immortality," and share it with the helper of his faith and love, the mother of his children, the softener of his dying pillow,-the kind angel that hovers over him as his soaring spirit takes its flight. Not far distant is the day, unless we quite mistake the " signs of the times," when, throughout all nations, woman shall resume the station Heaven first assigned her, and form again the loveliest ornament of humanity,-man's coadjutor in works of faith and labors of love, and childhood's most persuasive teacher of all that is virtuous, lovely, and of good report, in human disposition and action. Soon let that day of brightness dawn,-that glorious era be fully lisherec( in; for it shall prove the termination of earth's bitterest woes, ard the consummation of Heaven's most earnest labors A h /qdsqieda aXrcat HABITS AND SUPERSTITIJNS OF THE THUGS, A SECT W'HO PROFESS TO BE DIVINELY AUTHORIZED TO PLUNDER AND MURDER. MCOMPILED PRINCIPALLY FROM THE OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS OF CAPT. SLEEIMAN, AGIT OF THE EAST INDIA COMPANY FOR THE SUPPRESSION OF THUGGEE WHILE Europeans have generally travelled through India in comparative security, arising from the dread inspired by the power and dominion of the British government, the path of the native has been beset with perils by hordes of ferocious robbers, which every where abound, from the highest regions of the Himelaya Mountains to the southern extremity of Hindoostan. The most sanguinary class of these freebooters are the Thugs, or Phansigars. Their existence appears to have been entirely unknown to Europeans until aboiut the year 1800. From January, 1826, to December, 1835, the number of Thugs committed by various magistrates amounted to 1562. Of these 329 were punished by death, 999 by transportation, 77 by imprisonment for life; from 21 security was required; 71 were sentenced to limited periods of imprisonment; making a total of 1450 convicted. Of the remainder, 21 were acquitted, 11 escaped, 31 died before sentence, and 49 were admitted evidence for the prosecution. Gangs of Thugs sometimes consist of two or three hundred persons. In such. instances, they commonly follow each other, in small parties of ten or twenty, upon roads parallel to each other, being prepared to concentrate on any point, when necessary. Different parties frequently act in concert, apprizing one another of the approach of travellers whose destruction promises a valuable booty. They assume the appearance of ordinary travellers: sometimes they pretend to be traders; and, if enriched by former spoliations, travel on horseback, with tents, and pass for wealthy merchants, or other persons of consequence. Sometimes they commence their route in more humble characters; but acquiring, in their rapacious progress, horses and bullocks, these at once furnish them with the means of transporting the remainder of their plunder, and of making pretensions to h"gher degrees of wealth and station. 170 HABITS AND SUPERSTITIONS Thugs are accustomed to wait at choultries, on the high roads, or near towns where travellers rest. They arrive at such places, and enter towns and villages, in straggling parties of three oi four persons, appearing to meet by accident, and to have no previous acquaintance. On such occasions, some of the gang are employed as emissaries, to collect information, and, especially, to learn if any persons with property in their possession are about to undertake a journey. They are often accompanied by children of ten years of age and upwards; who, while they perform menial offices, are gradually initiated into the horrid practices of Thuggee, and contribute to prevent suspicion of their real character. Skilled in the arts of deception, they enter into conversation, and insinuate themselves by obsequious attentions into the confidence of travellers of all descriptions, to learn from them whence they came, whither and for what purpose they are journeying, and of what property they are possessed. When, after obtaining such information as they deem requisite, the Thugs determine to attack a traveller, they usually propose to him, under the specious plea of mutual safety, or for the sake of society, to travel together; or else they follow him at a little distance, and, when a fit opportunity offers for effecting their purpose, one of the gang suddenly throws a rope or sash round the neck of the unfortunate victim, while the rest contribute, in various ways, to aid the murderous work. Intrepidity does not appear to be a characteristic of the Thugs; and, in truth, it is a quality not to be looked for in assassins by profession. A superiority in physical force is generally regarded as an indispensable preliminary to success. Two Thugs, at the least, are thought necessary for the murder of one man; and, more commonly, three are engaged. Some Thugs pride themselves upon being able to strangle a man single-handed; and this is esteemed a most honorable distinction. But the majority of them are, and ever have been, firm adherents of the maxim, that " discretion is the better part of valor." Some variations have existed in the manner of perpetrating the murders; but the following seems to be the most general. While travelling along, one of the gang suddenly throws the rope or cloth round the neck of the devoted individual, and retains hold of one end, the other end being seized by an accomplice. The instrument of death, crossed behind the neck, is then drawn very tight, the two Thugs who hold it pressing the head of the victim forwards: a third villain, who is in readiness OF THE THUGS. 171 behind the traveller, seizes him by the legs, and he is thus thrown on the ground. In this situation, there is little opportunity of resistance. The operation of the noose is aided by kicks inflicted in the manner most likely to produce vital injury, and the sufferer is thus quickly despatched. The best precautions are taken to guard against discovery or surprise. Before the perpetration of the murder, some of the gang are sent in advance, and some left in the rear of the place, to keep watch, to prevent intrusion, and to give warning, if occasion requires, to those engaged in the act. Should any persons unexpectedly pass that way before the murdered body is buried, some artifice is practised to prevent discovery, such as covering the body with a cloth, while loud lamentations are made, professedly on account of the sickness or death of one of their comrades; or one of the watchers will fall down, apparently writhing with pain, in order to excite the pity of the intruding travellers, and to detain them from the scene of murder. Such are the perseverance and caution of the Thugs, that, in the absence of a convenient opportunity, they have been known to travel in company with persons, whom they have devoted to destruction, for several days before they executed their intention. If circumstances favor them, they generally commit the murder in a jungle, or in an unfrequented part of the country, and near a sandy place or dry watercourse. Particular tracts are chosen, in every part of India, where they may exercise their horrid profession with the greatest convenience and security. The most favorite places are much-frequented roads, passing through extensive jungles, where the ground is soft for the grave, and where the local authorities take no notice of the bodies. In these chosen spots, a hole, three or four feet in depth, usually forms the grave of the unhappy traveller, who is placed iii it with his face downwards. The barbarous character of the Thugs is displayed in their treatment of the wretched remains of the murdeied persons. Though death brings a termination of suffering, it does not put an end to the outrages of the murderers. Long and deep gashes are made in various parts of the bodies: sometimes the limbs are disjointed, and the figure distorted into unusual positions. These outrages arise from various motives. Their intention generally is to expedite the deconlposition of the body, and to prevent its inflation, which, by causing fissures in the superincumbent sand, might attract jackals, and thus lead to the discovery of the corpse. Sometimes 172 HABITS AND SUPERSTITIONS however, these deeds have been the result of disappointment. and the emanalions of a petty and unmanly revenge. When the amount of plunder is less than had been expected, the villains have frequently vented their displeasure in wanton indignities: on the unconscious remains of the dead. If, when a murder is perpetrated, a convenient place for interring the body be not near, or if the Thugs be apprehensive of discovery, it is either tied in a sack, and carried to some spot where it is not likely to be found, or is put into a river or a well. In Oude, where the fields are almost all irrigated from wells, the bodies were generally thrown into them; and when the cultivators discovered these relics of crime, they hardly ever thought it worth while to ask how they came there -so accustomed were they to find them. If none of these expedients be advisable, a shallow hole is dug, in which the corpse is buried till a fit place for interring it can be discovered, when it is removed, and cut in the manner already mentioned. If compelled to perform the interment under circumstances which subject them to the risk of observation, the Thugs put up a screen on the wall for a tent, and bury the body within the enclosure; pretending, if inquiries are made, that their women are within the screen. If the traveller had a dog, it is killed, lest the affection of the animal should cause the discovery of the body of his murdered master. Travellers resting in the same choultry with Thugs are sometimes destroyed in the night. On these occasions, a person is not always murdered when asleep; as, while he is in a recumbent posture, the stranglers find a difficulty in applying the cloth. The usual practice is, first to awaken him suddenly, with an alarm of a snake or a scorpion, and then to strangle him. In attacking a traveller on horseback, one of the gang goes in front of the horse, and another has his station in the rear; a third, walking by the side of the traveller, keeps himn engaged in conversation, till, finding that he is off his guard, he suddenly seizes the victim by the arm, and drags him to the ground, the horse at the same time being seized by the foremost villain: the iliseratle sufferer is then strangled in the usual manner. Against Thugs, it must be obvious that arms, and the ordinary precautions taken against robbers, are unavailing. When a per son is armed with a dagger, it is usual for one of the villains to secure his hands. It sometimes happens that entire parties of travellers, while journeying in imaginary security, are suddenly OF THE THUGS. 173 cut off. Such are the cruelty and cupidity of these wretches, that, on the presumption of every traveller possessing concealed treasure, or some property, h'.wever trifling, the greatest apparent indigence does not always afford security. The plunder is sometimes carried home, sometimes disposed of on the road. If the murdered person resided near the place of his assassination, the property is carried to a distance: if, as is more commonly the case, he is a stranger, they do not scruple to offer the fruits of their rapine in the immediate vicinity of their crime: the only precaution taken is, that the place of sale be in advance of that where the murder was committed, and not a village where the traveller had previously been seen. A portion of the plunder is usually appropriated to defraying the expenses of religious ceremonies; and sometimes a part is also allotted for the benefit of widows and families of deceased members of the gang. The residue of the booty, being divided into several parts, is generally shared as follows - to the leader, two shares; to the men actually concerned in perpetrating the murder, and to the person who cut the dead body, each one share and a half; and to the remainder of the gang, each one share. The operations of the Thugs are facilitated, and their designs cloaked, by a peculiar dialect: they have recourse, also, to a variety of signs. Drawing the back of the hand along the chin, from the throat outwards, implies that caution is requisite - that some stranger is approaching. Putting the open hand over the mouth, and drawing it gently down, implies that there is no longer cause for alarm. If an advanced party of Thugs overtake any traveller whom they design to destroy, but have need of more assistance, they make certain marks on the roads, by which those of the gang who follow understand that they are required to hasten forward. A party in advance also leaves certain marks, where a road branches off, as intimations to those who are behind. They draw their feet along the dust, in the direction they have taken; and if their friends are to follow quickly, they leave the dust piled up at the end of the line where the foot drops, or make a hole in the dust with the heel. If the road afford no dust, they leave two stones, placed one upon the other, in the line they have taken, and strew a few leaves of trees along the road. If their coadjutors are to make haste, they make a very long l'ne of leaves. They have many other signs, for similar purposes 174 HABITS AND SUPERSTITIONS Of the number of persons who fall victims to these lawless associations, it is obvious that no estimate can be made deserving of the slightest confidence. The number has, without doubt varied greatly at different periods. There is reason to believe that, from the time of the conquest of Mysore, in 1799, to 1807 and 1808, the practice, in that part of India, reached its height, and that hundreds of persons were annually destroyed. In one of his reports, the magistrate of Chittoor observes, " I believe that some of the Phansigars have been concerned ill above two hundred murders: nor will this estimate appear extravagant, if it be remembered that murder was their profession - frequently their only means of gaining a subsistence. Every man of fifty years of age has probably been actively engaged, during twentyfive years of his life, in murder; and, on the most moderate computation, it may be reckoned that he has made one excursion a year, and met, each time, with ten victims." The profession of a Thug, like almost every thing in India, is hereditary, the fraternity, however, receiving occasional reenforcement from strangers; but these are admitted with great caution, and seldom after they have attained mature age. The children of Thugs, during their more tender years, are kept in ignorance of the occupation of their fathers. After a time they are permitted to accompany them; but a veil is thrown over the darker scenes of the drama. To the novice, indeed, the expedition presents nothing but an aspect of pleasure. He is mounted on a pony; and being, by the laws of the Thugs, entitled to his share of the booty, he receives a portion of it, in presents suited to his years; the delight attending the acquisition being unalloyed by any consciousness of the means by which it has been obtained. The truth reveals itself by degrees. In a short time, the tyro becomes aware that his presents are the fruits of robbery. After a while, he has reason to suspect that robbery is aggravated by a fouler crime. At length, suspicion passes into certainty; and finally, the pupil is permitted to witness the exercise of the frightful handicraft which he is destined to pursue. The moral contamination is now complete; but it is long before the disciple is intrusted with the performance of the last atrocity. He passes through a long course of preparatory study - being first employed as a scout, next as a sexton, then as a holder of the limbs - before he is in any case thought worthy of being elevated to the dignity of a strangler. A too precipitate disclosure of the frightful truth has some OF THE THUGS. 175 times produced fatal consequences. The following affecting story, related by a Thug who had become approver against his comrades, will illustrate this. "' About twelve years ago," said the narrator, " my cousin, Aman Subahdar, took out with us my cousin Kurhora, brother of Omrow, (approver,) a lad of fourteen, for the first time. He was mounted on a pretty pony; and Hursooka, an adopted son of Aman, was appointed to take charge of the boy. We fell in with five Sieks; and when we set out before daylight in the morning, Hursooka, who had been already on three expeditions, was ordered to take the bridle, and keep the boy in the rear, out of sight and hearing. The boy became alarmed and impatient, got away from Hursooka, and galloped up at the instant the'I hirnee,' or signal for murder, was given. He heard the screams of the men, and saw them all strangled. He was seized with a trembling, and fell from his pony. He-became immediately delirious, was dreadfully alarmed at the turbans of the murdered men, and, when any one touched or spoke to him, talked wildly about the murders, screamed as if in sleep, and trembled violently. We could not get him forward; and, after burying the bodies, Aman, myself, and a few others, sat by him while the gang went on. We were very fond of him, and tried all we could to tranquillize him, but he never recovered his senses, and before evening he died. I have seen many instances of feelings greatly shocked at the sight of the first murder, but never one so strong as this. Kurhora was a fine boy; and Hursooka took his death much to heart, and turned Byragee. He is now at some temple on the banks of the Nerbudda River." The indiscriminate slaughter in which these miscreants might oe tempted to indulge is in some degree restrained by supersti*ion. It is deemed unlucky to kill certain castes and classes; and their members are therefore usually respected. The most important and extended exception to the general rule of murder, is that of the female sex. Thugs, who have any real regard to the principles which they profess to respect, never take the lives of women. It cannot, however, be supposed that such a rule should be invariably observed by such persons as form the society of Thugs; and, in fact, it is constantly violated. " Among as," said one of the approvers interrogated by Captain Sleeman, " it is a rule never to kill a woman; but if a rich old woman is found, the gang sometimes get a man to strangle her, by giving him an extra share of the booty, and inducing him to take the 176 HABITS AND SUPERSTITIONS responsibility upon himself. We have sometimes killed other prohibited people, particularly. those of low caste, whom we ought not even to have touched." Among the privileged classes are washermen, poets, professors of dancing, blacksmiths, carpenters, musicians, oil-venders, sweepers, the maimed, the leprous, and those persons who carry the water of the Ganges into distant parts of India, to be used for religious purposes. The sacred cow, in the eyes of all Hindoos who have any pretensions to consistency, is a protection to its possessor; art is, however, sometimes resorted to, for the purpose of removing this impediment to business. A party of Thugs projected the murder of fourteen persons, including several women; but the design could not be carried into effect, because the victims had a cow JA Carrier of the Ganges lWater.'with them. With some difficulty, they were persuaded to sell the cow to the Thugs; who, to induce the travellers to consent to the sale, pretended that they had vowed to make an offering of a cow at Shaphore, and were much in want of one. The cow was actually presented to a Brahman at Shaphore; and, the obstacle being removed, the whole of the unsuspecting travellers, including the females, were, two or three hours afterwards, strangled. The movements of the followers of Thuggee are invariably governed by omens with which they believe their goddess favors them. However favorably an expedition may have been corn menced, success is liable to be postponed by a multiplicity of ominous appearances. The dog enjoys the prerogative of putting a veto on their proceedings, by shaking his head. Sneezing entitles all the travellers within the gripe of the assassins to the OF THE THUGS. 177 privilege of an escape, and no one dares to put them to death. The fighting of cats, in the fore part of the night, is a good omen; but, if heard towards morning, it betokens evil; the evil, however, may be averted by gargling the mouth with a little sour milk, and then spirtirg it out. The fighting of cats during the day is a very bad omen, and threatens great evil: if the cats fall down from a height while fighting, it is still worse. These ills are beyond the healing influence of sour milk, and call for nothing less than sacrifice. The noise of jackals fighting is also a very bad omen, and involves the necessity of leaving the part of the country in which the gang hears it. Almost every sound made by animals, birds, and insects, and also their various movements, are regarded as ominous either of good or of evil. "There are always signs around us," say the Thugs, "' to guide us to rich booty and to warn us of danger; and if we are only wise enough to discern them, and religious enough to attend to them, we shall prosper in all our undertakings." The following colloquy will illustrate the opinions, entertained by Thugs generally, as to the danger of associating with those who have not been regularly educated; the importance of attending to rules and omens; and the value and excellence of Thug learning. Capt. Sleeman. You consider that a borka (a leader) is capable of forming a gang, in any part of India to which he may be obliged to flee? Sahib and Nasir. Certainly; in any part that we have seen of it. Capt. S. Do you know any instance of it? Sahib and Nasir. A great number. Mudee Khan was from the old Sindouse stock, and was obliged to emigrate after the attack upon that place. Many years afterwards, we met him in the Deccan; and he had then a gang of fifty Thugs, of all castes and descriptions. We asked him who they were: he told us that they were weavers, braziers, bracelet-makers, and all kinds of ragamuffins, whom he had scraped together, about his new abode on the banks of the Heran and Nerbudda Rivers, in tho districts of Jebulpore and Nursingpore. He was a Mussulman; and so were Lal Khan, and Kalee Khan, who formed gangs, after the Sindouse dispersion, along the same rivers. Capt. S. But these men have all been punished; which does not indicate the protection of Davy. Sahib and Nasir. It indicates the danger of scraping to12 178 HABITS AND SUPERSTITTONS gether such a set of fellows for Thuggee. They Killed all people indiscriminately, women and men, of all castes and professions; and knew so little about omens, that they entered upon their expeditions, and killed people, in spite of such as the most ignorant ought to have known were prohibited. They were punished, in consequence, as we all knew that they would be; and we always used to think it dangerous to be associated with them, for even a few days. Ask many of them who are now here - Kureem Khan, Sheikh Kureem, Rumzanee, and others - whether this is not true; and whether they ever let go even a sweeper, if he appeared to have a rupee about him. Capt. S. And you think that, if they had been well instructed in the signs and rules, and attended to them, they would have thrived? Sahib and Nasir. Undoubtedly! so should we all. Capt. S. You think that an inexperienced person could not any where form a gang of Thugs of himself? Sahib and Nasir. Never. He could know nothing of our rules of augury, or proceedings; and how could he possibly succeed? Does not all our success depend upon knowing and observing omens and rules? Capt. S. It would, therefore, never be very dangerous to release such a man. Sahib and Nasir. Never; unless he could join men better instructed than himself. Every one must be convinced, that it is by knowing and attending to omens and rules that Thuggee has thrived. The practice of Thuggee is not confined to adventurers upon land. The rivers of India are infested by bands of fresh-water pirates, of similar habits to those of the land Thugs, possessing the same feeling, and differing from them only in a few trifling particulars. There is still another class of Thugs, who murder such persons only as are travelling with their children. Their only object is to secure the children and sell them into slavery. The dark and cheerless night of superstition, which has long clouded the moral vision of India, has given rise to institutions and practices so horrible, that, without the most convincing evidence, their existence could not be credited by minds trained under happier circumstances than those which prevail in the East. That giant power, which has held the human race in chains wherever the pure and unadulterated doctrines of revelation have not penetrated, has, in India, revelled in the wantonness of OF THE THUGS. 179 prosperity; the foundations of delusion have been laid wide and deep; the )oison of a false and brutalizing creed has been insinuated into every action of daily life; and the most obvious distinctions of right and wrong have been obliterated. The fact of the existence of the cold-blooded miscreants who, in India, make a trade of assassination, is sufficiently horrible; but when it is added, that their occupation is sanctioned by the national religion, - that the Thugs regard themselves as engaged in the special service of one of the dark divinities of the Hindoo creed, - that the instruments of murder are in their eyes holy, - and that their faith in the protection of their goddess, and the perpetuity of their craft, is not to be shaken,- we must be struck by the reflection, that we have opened a page in the history of man, fearful and humiliating beyond the ordinary records of Iniquity. The genius of Paganism, which has deified every vice, and thus provided a justification of the indulgence of every evil propensity, has furnished the Thugs with a patron goddess worthy of those whom she is believed to protect. Of Kalee, the deity of destruction, they are the most devout and assiduous worshippers: in her name they practise their execrable art; and their victims are immolated in her honor. The Thugs believe that Kalee formerly cooperated more directly with them, by disposing of the bodies of those whom they murdered, but she required them not to look back to witness her operations. All was well, so long as they observed this rule; but the services of the goddess as a sextoness were lost through the carelessness or indiscreet curiosity of one of the association. Of the circumstances attendant on this mischance, there are different versions; and at least two are in pretty general circulation. According to one, a party of Thugs, having destroyed a traveller, left the body, as usual, unburied, in perfect confidence of receiving the wonted aid from the goddess. A novice, however, unguardedly looking behind him, saw the patroness of the Thugs in the act of feasting on the corpse, one half of it hanging out of her mouth. According to another report, the person looking back was a slave; and the goddess was engaged, not in satisfying the demands of hunger, or gratifying a taste for luxury by swallowing the murdered traveller, but in tossing the body into the air; for what purpose does not appear. The offence to the goddess is said, also, to have been aggravated by the fact that she was not attired with sufficient strictness to satisfy her sense of decorum. Both tales 180 HABITS AND SUPERSTITIONS agree in representing the goddess as highly displeased, and as visiting her displeasure upon her servants, the Thugs, by condemning them to bury their victims themselves. Though she refused any longer to relieve the earth of the loathsome burdens with which her worshippers encumbered it, she was so considerate as to present her friends with one of her teeth for a pickaxe, a rib for a knife, and the hem of her lower garment for a noose. Whether or not this origin of the pickaxe be generally received, it is certain that this instrument is held by the Thugs, throughout India, in the highest veneration. Its fabrication is superintended with the greatest care; and it is consecrated to the holy duty to which it is destined with many ceremonies. In the first place, a lucky day must be fixed upon: the leader of the gang then instructs a smith to make the required tool, and the process is conducted with the most profound secrecy. The door is peremptorily closed against all intrusion; the leader never quits the forge while the manufacture is going on; and the smith must engage in no other work till his sacred task is completed. The pickaxe, being made, must next be consecrated. Certain days of the week are deemed more auspicious for this purpose than the rest: Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, and Friday, enjoy the distinction. Care is taken that the shadow of no living thing may fall on the axe, as this would contaminate the devoted implement, and frustrate all the pains that had been taken in its formation. A doctor most deeply versed in the learning of the Thugs undertakes the solemn office of consecration. He sits down with his face to the west, and receives the pickaxe in a brass dish. The instrument which is to supply the want occasioned by the cessation of the goddess's personal labors is first washed in water, which is received into a pit dug for the purpose. The pickaxe then receives three other ablutions. Trhe second washing is made with a mixture of sugar and water; the third with sour milk; and the fourth with ardent spirits. With red lead the pickaxe is marked, from the head to the point, with seven spots. It is again placed on the brass dish, and, with it, a cocoa-nut, some cloves white sandal-wood, sugar, and a few other articles. A fire is now kindled, and the fuel consists of dried cow-dung and the wood of the mango or byr-tree. All the articles deposited in the brass pan are, with the exception