their holes by the power of charms, or incantations; and perhaps the Psalmist alludes to a similar opinion, when he says of the wicked, "they are like the deaf adder, that stoppeth her ear, which will not hearken to the voice of the charmer, charming never so wisely."

40th Class. From a man named Dévůlů (brought into Bengal by the bird Gŭrooră !) and a female voishyu, arose the Günüküs, and Badyŭ-karus. The former wear the poita, and are called Doivăgnă bramhŭns; the latter are miserable musicians, who also make different kinds of mats.

To a people who use no chairs, and few bedsteads, mats are very necessary: and a number are made in Bengal. The name of the most inferior mat is chanch, which is made from the grass khuree, and is three cubits and a half long, and two cubits and a half broad; it is sold for about two-pence. A coarse mat, called jhéntula, is made from the grass méliya,† and sold for eight anas. The dŭrmus, made from the reed arundo tibialis, are used to sit and sleep upon, as well as to inclose the sides and ends of the houses of the poor, twenty or thirty of which are sold for a roopee. Of another sort, called moula, five cubits long and three and a half wide, and made from the above reed cut into small threads, eight, nine, or ten, are sold for a 'roopee. Another kind, used to sit and sleep upon, is made from the grass kŭchkŭchiya; thirty-two of which, four cubits long and two broad, are sold for a roopee. teen mats of nearly the same dimensions as the last, made from the grass méliya, are sold for a roopee. Valandiya, a mat made at a village of this name, is very much used by the natives to sit and sleep upon: eight of them are sold for the roopee. Another kind, called kafee, five cubits long and three broad, made from the grass patee, sells at half a roopee the pair; superior kinds are sold at one, two, three, four, five, six, and even eight roopees the pair. From the rough grass hogula‡ another kind of mat is made, sixty of which are sold for a roopee. From the leaves of the date and of the fan palm,§ mats are made, sixteen of which are sold for a roopee. A very strong mat for floors, which will last many years, is made with split canes.||

*Saccharum fuscum. + Cyperus inundatus.

Calamus rotang.

Six

A sacred mat, used in worship, is made of the grass kashi,* and sold at different prices, from a penny to one roopee each. Another kind, the sheetülöpatees,+ laid on beds or couches on account of their coolness, are sold from one roopee to five each.

rus.

41st Class. From king Vénů, in a miraculous manner, sprung the Mléchus, Poolindŭs, Pookkŭshŭs, Khusus, Yüvănūs, Sōōkshmŭs, Kambojůs, Shăvărăs, and KhăAll Europeans are branded with the name of Mléchu, which word, according to the pooranus, denotes persons who despise the gods, and partake of forbidden food; or, in other words, persons whose manners differ from those of the Hindoos. The Musulmans are called Yuvünus.‡

The Hindoos generally speak of thirty-six casts of shoodrus; but those here collected, from one of the smritees, amount to nearly fifty; and the names of several more might have been added.

Remarks on the effects of the Cast.-The Hindoo shastrus bear the most evident proofs, that the founders of this system must have been men who designed to deify themselves. We can scarcely suppose that the system originated with a monarch, for he would not have placed the regal power beneath that of the priesthood; it could only spring from a number of proud ascetics, who, however, were far from being sincere in their rejection of secular affairs, as they secured to their own order all the wealth and honours of the country, together with the service of the other three orders. Agreeably to this plan, the persons of the first order were to be worshipped as gods; all the duties of the second concentrated in this, they were to protect the bramhuns; the third was to acquire wealth for them, and the fourth to perform their menial service: the rules for these orders were so fixed, that though the higher orders might sink into the lower, the latter could never rise, except in another birth.

The institution of the cast, so far from having contributed to the happiness of society, has been one of its greatest scourges. It is the formation of artificial orders, independently of merit or demerit, dooming nine tenths of the people, even before

* Sacchorum spontaneum. th. Musulmans are descended.

+ Thalia dichotoma.

The Hindoos say, that from a sage of this name

birth, to a state of mental and bodily degradation, in which they are for ever shut out from all the learning and honours of the country.

The distinctions of rank in Europe are founded upon civic merit or learning, and answer very important ends in the social union; but this system commences with an act of the most consummate injustice that was ever perpetrated; binds in chains of adamant nine-tenths of the people; debars them for ever from all access to a higher state, whatever their merits may be; puts a lock upon the whole intellect of three of the four orders, and branding their very birth with infamy, and rivetting their chains for ever, says to millions and millions of mankind, "You proceeded from the feet of Brumha; you were created for servitude."

Some persons have thought that the cast, as it respected mechanical employments, must be advantageous, since, by confining the members of one family to one trade, it secured improvement. Actual experience, however, completely disproves this theory, for Hindoo mechanics never introduce a new article of trade, nor improve an old one. I know, that improvements have been made under the inspection of Europeans, but these do not enter into the argument. For native use, the same cloths, the same earthen, brass, iron, and other utensils, the same gold and silver ornaments, in use from time immemorial, unimproved, are in use at this day. But, if these mechanical employments had been thrown open to all ranks, who can say what advances might not have been made in improvement? Those who are acquainted with the effects of European skill and taste on the artists of Bengal, can see very plainly an amazing change for the better: the native goldsmiths, joiners, smiths, shoe-makers, &c. under the superintendence of Europeans, produce work little inferior to that imported from Europe.

But not only is the cast contrary to every principle of justice and policy; it is repugnant to every feeling of benevolence. The social circle is almost invariably composed of persons of the same cast, to the careful exclusion of others. It arms one class of men against another; it gives rise to the greatest degree of pride and apa

thy. It forms a sufficient excuse for not doing an act of benevolence towards another, that he is not of the same cast; nay, a man dying with thirst will not accept of a cooling draught of water from the hands or the cup of a person of a lower cast. I knew a kayust'hu, whose son had rejected the cast, seek an asylum at his son's house just before death; yet so strong were the prejudices of cast, that the old man would not eat from the hands of his own son, but crawled on his hands and knees to the house of a neighbour, and received food from entire strangers, rather than from his own child, though he was then on the brink of that world, where all casts are resolved into those of the righteous and the wicked. If a shoodru enter the cook-room of a bramhăn, the latter throws away all his earthen vessels as defiled; nay the very touch of a shoodru makes a bramhun unclean, and compels him to bathe, in order to wash away the stain. On the other hand, in the spirit of revenge, the toorus, a class of shoodrus, consider their houses defiled, and throw away their cooking utensils, if a bramhun visit them, but they do not thus treat even a Musŭlman. The kéyés, another cast of shoodrus, also throw away their cooking vessels if a bramhun come upon their boat. In short, the cast murders all the social and benevolent feelings; and shuts up the heart of man against man in a manner unknown even amongst the most savage tribes. The apathy of the Hindoos has been noticed by all who are acquainted with their character : when a boat sinks in a storm on the Ganges, and persons are seen floating or sinking all around, the Hindoos in those boats which may remain by the side of the river, or in those passing by at the time, look on with perfect indifference, perhaps without moving an oar for the rescue of those who are actually perishing.

What is the crime for which a person frequently forfeits his cast, and becomes an outcast, and an exile for ever? Perhaps he has been found eating with a virtuous friend; or, he has embraced the religion of his conscience; or, he has visited other countries on business, and has been compelled, by the nature of his situation, to eat food not cooked by persons of his own cast. For these, or other reasons, the cast proscribes him his father's house, and if his mother consent to talk with him, it must be by stealth, or at a distance from the place which was once his home, into which he must never more enter. Hence the cast converts hospitality, friendship, and the desire to visit foreign realms, into crimes, and inflicts on the offender, in some cases,

a punishment worse than death itself. Ghănushyamŭ, a bramhŭn, about thirty-five years ago, went to England, and lost his rank. Gokoolu, another bramhun, about the same time, went to Madras, and was renounced by his relations; but, after incurring some expense in feasting bramhuns, he regained his cast. In the year 1808, a blacksmith, of Serampore, returned from Madras, and was disowned by his friends, but after expending two thousand roopees amongst the bramhans, he was restored to his family. In the year 1801, the mother of Kalee-prăsad-ghoshu, a rich kayŭst❜hu, of Benares, who had lost cast by intercourse with Musulmans, and was called a peer-alee,* died. Kalee-prusad was much concerned about presenting the offerings to the manes, and, after much intreaty and promise of rewards, at last prevailed upon eleven bramhons to perform the ceremonies in the night. A person who had a dispute with these bramhuns informed against them, and they were immediately abandoned by their friends. After waiting several days in vain, hoping that his friends would relent, one of these bramhüns, suspending a jar of water from his body, drowned himself in the Ganges!—Some years ago, Ramŭ, a bramhŭn, of Trivénee, having, by mistake, married his son to a peer-alee girl, and being abandoned by his friends, died through grief. In the year 1803, Shivu-ghoshů, a kayŭst'hů, married a peer-alee girl, and was not restored to his cast till after seven years, and he had expended 700 roopees. About the same period, a bramhunee of Vélu-pookhuriya, having been deflowered, and in consequence deprived of her cast, refused all food, and expired in a few days.

In the village of Bujbüj, some years ago, a young man who had lost his cast through the criminal intrigues of his mother, a widow,t in a state of frenzy, poisoned himself, and his two brothers abandoned the country. Gooroo-prusad, a bramhun, of Charna, in Burdwan, not many years ago, through fear of losing cast, in consequence of the infidelity of his wife, abandoned his home, and died of grief at

* A năwab of the name of Peer-alee is charged with having destroyed the rank of many Hindoos, bramhŭns and others; and from these persons have descended a very considerable number of families scattered over the country, who have been branded with the name of their oppressor. These persons practise all the ceremonies of the Hindoo religion, but are carefully avoided by other Hindoos as outcasts. It is supposed, that not less than fifty families of peer-alees live in Calcutta, who employ bramhun priests to perform the ceremonies of the Hindoo religion for them. It is said, that raja Krishnů-Chůndru-Rayŭ was promised five lacks of roopees by a peer-alee, if he would only honour him with a visit of a few moments: but he refused.

+ On account of marriages being contracted so early in this country, the number of virgin widows is very great. The Hindoos acknowledge that almost all young widows, being excluded from a second marriage, live in a state of adultery,