tition from the védus. Devout shoodrus practise the following ceremonies daily: About twelve o'clock they bathe, and afterwards, with the pooranů prayers, attend to the two first services prescribed for each day, either by the side of the river or in the house; and in the evening they repeat another service. In these ceremonies, the bramhinical object of worship is the shalogramů; that of the sloodrus, who are forbidden to use this stone, the water of the Ganges.

Shoo irus, not being prohibited by the shastru the exercise of any trade, pursue (at present) that which they think will be most profitable, but in almost all mechanical employments, these trades are pursued from father to son in succession. Several

cast engages in the same trade, though this is not regular; as, among the weavers are kaist'hus, milkmen, gardeners, and husbandmen; different casts also follow the eccupation of carpenters.

Many weavers, barbers, farmers, oilmen, merchants, bankers, spice-merchants, liquor-merchants, ornament-makers, &c. can read the translations of the pooranŭs in the Bengalee. Some voidyus read their own shastrus on medicine; as well as the Sungskriti grammars, the poets, and the works on rhetoric; and the names of several voidyŭ writers in this language are mentioned. A few kaist’hus, and other shoodrus, who have become rich, also read certain books in the provincial dialects.

The bramhuns deny that there are any pure shoodrus in the kulee-yoogй; they add that the present race of shoodrus have all arisen from improper marriages betwixt the higher and lower casts. The general name by which the kŭlee-yoogů shōodrůs are distinguished is Vürnu-sunkŭră.*

There are many subdivisions among the shoodrus, some of which are as effectual barriers to mutual intercourse as the distinctions between bramhuns and shoodrus: a kaist'hu will no more visit a barber than would a bramhun, nor a barber a joiner; and thus through all the ranks of the lower orders.

* Mixed casts: from vŭrnů, a cast, and sunkürů, mixture.

I shall here notice the different ranks of shoodris, or vurnü-shünkürüs, as far as I am able: this will bring before the reader the state of the ARTs and MANUFACTURES among the Hindoos:

1st Class. The Voidyus. These persons, who sprang from the union of a bramhun with a female voishyŭ, claim the honour of belonging to the third order, in consequence of which they wear the poita, and at the time of investiture perform some of the ceremonies used in investing a bramhun. Rajvällůvů, a person of this class, steward to the niwab of Moorshidabad, about a hundred years ago, first procured for the voidyus the honour of wearing the poita: he invited the bramhins to a feast, and persuaded them to invest his son; from which time many voidyus wear this badge of distinction. Some persons of this order, like the voishyus, remain unclean fifteen days after the death of a parent, and others a month, like other shoodris. The voidyus can read some of the shastrus: they extort more privileges from the bramhuns than other shoōdrus; sometimes sitting on the same seat, and smoking from the same pipe, with them; in a few instances they employ indigent bramhins as clerks and even as cooks.* Few voidyus are rich: some are very rigid idolators, and many voidyŭ widows ascend the funeral pile: at Sonŭkhalee, in Jessore, which contains many families of this order, almost all the widows are regularly burnt alive with the corpses of their husbands.

Billalisénă created four classes of kooleenus, who have assumed the titles of Séně, Mõlliků, Dăttă, and Gooptů.

The voidyus, who are the professed, though not the exclusive, medical men amongst the Bengalees,† study the Nidanŭ, Rükshitŭ, Drivyŭ-goonŭ, and other medical shastris. There are no medical colleges in Bengal, but one person in a village, perhaps, teaches three or four youths, in many cases his relations, who are

* This, I find, is not only the case as it respects the voidyŭs, but rich shōōdrús, of every order, employ bramhuns as cooks; even the voiragee mendicants procure bramhŭns to prepare the food at their feasts.

+ A respectable Hindoo will not receive medicine from any Hindoo except a voídy ŭ ; and some shastrés deelare, that a person rejecting a voidyŭ physician will be punished in hell; but that he who employs a voidyŭ, though he should not be able to see Gúnga in his dying moments, will ascend to heaven.

maintained at their own homes. Three, four, or five years are spent with the tutor, who, however, derives no emolument from his pupils, being content with the honour and merit of bestowing knowledge. After completing his education, a young man begins to prepare medicine, and to practise, as his neighbours may call upon him. Medicines are never sold separately in a prepared state.

Beside the voidyůs, some other casts practise medicine,* as bramhŭns,† kaist’hŭs, barbers, potters, &c. Many women have also acquired great celebrity by their nos◄ trums. Indeed, it may be said of almost all the Bengalee doctors, that they are old women guessing at the divine qualities of leaves, roots, and the bark of trees, and pretending to cures as wonderful as those of which a quack-doctor boasts, mounted on a cart in an English market-place. The women of the haree cast are employed as midwives,‡ and the doivugnů bramhans inoculate for the small-pox.§

2d Class. The Kaist'hus, commonly called by Europeans, the writer cast, sprang from a kshůtriyŭ and a female shōodrů. There are four orders, called the Ootrůrarhēc,|| Dōkshinŭ-rarhee, Vũngůjŭ and Varéndrů. Among these, Büllalŭsénů created four orders of koolēēnus, called Ŭdhikaree, Ghoshi, Vusoo, and Mitru; and fortytwo orders of Shrotriyus, called Dé, Dăttů,I Kărů, Palitů, Shénů, Singhŭ, Dasă, Goohu, Gooptu, Vévůtta, Sărŭkară, Müllikŭ, Dhură, Roodrů, Bhůdră, Chůndră, Vishwasi, Adityŭ, So, Hajra, &c.

*The barbers, by waiting upon Europeans, have obtained some information respecting the efficacy of calomel, and English salves; and, are in many cases, able to perform cures beyond the power of the voidy us.

+Yet a bramhun, practising physic, becomes degraded, so that other bramhuns will not eat with him. The Hindoo women are greatly shocked at the idea of a man-midwife; and would sooner perish than employ one.

The ravages of this disease are very extensive in Bengal. Could Europeans of influence engage the doivŭgnů bramhŭns, to enter heartily into the use of the vaccine matter, the good done would be boundless: the difficulties in the way of the cow-pox among the Hindoos are not great, and I believe the use of the vaccine matter is spreading daily in Calcutta, and at the different stations, through the influence of Europeans. It can only prevail, however, through the regular practitioners.

|| Some families of this order have a regular custom, at their feasts, of throwing all their food away after it has been set before them, instead of eating it.

I The Duttus came with the five bramhuns whom Bullalŭsénů made koolēēnus, but the king refused to make them koolēēnus, because they would not acknowledge themselves to be the servants of the bramhŭns.

The members of a shrotriyu family, by marrying amongst koolecnus for three or four generations, are raised to great honour, and, at the feasts, first receive garlands of flowers, and the red paint on their foreheads. Some of the kayŭst'hŭ koolēnus marry thirty or forty wives.

The kayŭst hús perform the same daily ceremonies as the bramhuns, but they select their prayers from the tintrus. They are in general able to read and write; a few read the works of the poets and the medical shastrus; and some understand medicine better than the voidy us. Among them are found merchants, shop-keepers, farmers, clerks, &c. In Bengal the bramhuns are far more numerous than the kayŭst'hus, yet, in proportion to their numbers, there are more rich kayust'hus than bramhŭns.*

3d Class. From the union of a bramhun and a voishyŭ arose the Gundhu-vůniks,† or druggists. The shop of a respectable Hindoo druggist contains many hundred kinds of drugs and spices; and some are rich. Among this class of shoodrus are farmers, merchants, servants, &c. They marry among themselves, but bramhons shew them a degree of respect, by visiting them, and eating sweetmeats at their houses. They expend large sums at feasts, when, to please their guests, they employ bramhun cooks.

Indivi

Their

4th Class. From a bramhún and a voishyŭ also arose the Kasharees, or brass founders. More than fifty articles of brass, copper, and mixed metal, are made for sale by this cast; some of them, however, are of coarse and clumsy manufacture. duals of this cast are found amongst husbandmen, labourers, servants, &c. matrimonial alliances are contracted among themselves; few are rich, and the very poor are few; they read and write better than many other shoodrus; and a few read the Bengalee translations of the Ramayunŭ, Muhabharătă, &c.

5th Class.

From a bramhun and a voishyŭ arose the Shunkhŭ-vůniks,‡ or shellornament makers: these ornaments, worn by females on the wrist, are prescribed by

They have acquired wealth in the service of Musulmans and Europeans.

+ Gündhu, a smell, and

the shastră.

In Calcutta and its neighbourhood, women wear six or eight of these rings on each wrist; and in the east of Bengal they cover the lower part of the arm with them. The prices vary from one to eight roopees a set, of six or eight for each wrist; joined sets, which will cover the arm up to the elbow, are sold at different prices from ten to twenty roopees: the latter will last during two or three generations ;* but when six or eight only are worn loose on each arm, they break in three or four years. Persons of this cast have become farmers, labourers, &c. while individuals from other casts have begun to follow the occupation of shunkhŭ-vůniks, though not favourable to the acquisition of wealth. Except in large towns, this order of shoodrus is not numerous.

6th Class.

From a kshatriyŭ and a female shoodrů arose the Agoorees, or husbandmen; but many other shoodrus, are employed as farmers.

The Bengal farmers, according to some, are the tenants of the Honourable Company; according to others, of the jumidarus,† or land-holders. Whether the jimidarus be the actual or the nominal proprietors of the land, I leave to be decided by others; they collect and pay the land-tax to government, according to a regular written assessment, and are permitted to levy upon the tenants, upon an average, as much as four anast for every roopee paid to government; added to which, they constantly draw money from the tenants for servants' wages, as presents (from new tenants), gifts towards the marriage expences of their children, &c.

The farmers in general obtain only a bare maintenance from their labours, and we in vain look amongst them for a bold, happy, and independent yeomanry, as in England a few are able to pay their rents before the harvest, but many borrow upon the credit of the crop, and pay after harvest. The great body of the Bengal farmers, however, are the mere servants of the corn-merchant, who engages to pay the

* At the hour of death, a female leaves her ornaments to whomsoever she pleases: sometimes to her spiritual guide, or to the family priest. A person not bequeathing something to these persons, is followed to the next world with anathemas. From jumeen, land, and daru, a possessor. An ana is about two-pence English. One roiyut in a thousand villages may be found possessed of great wealth, and one in three villages who possesses forty or fifty cattle, and is not in debt.