1

ductive, the fruit is not so various and delicious, nor are the meadows so green, as in England.

On the other hand, it might be urged, that in Bengal we have none of the long and dreadful frosts, killing every vegetable, as in England; none of that sleety, dripping, rainy weather that is experienced there, so that in a sense it rains in England all the year round, while in Bengal the sky is clear the greater part of the year. In England the days are so gloomy, that multitudes sink into a despondency which terminates in insanity, and many die by their own hands; there the harvest is often destroyed by bad weather, or fails for want of sun. In England, many perish in the snow, and with the cold; your fingers ache, and your back is chilled, even by the fire-side, and multitudes die of colds, consumptions, asthmas, and many other diseases, the effect of the climate.

Now, by softening down the disadvantages, and bringing forward the favourable circumstances, on either side, how easy would it be to mislead a person who had not seen both countries. If a fair and just comparison be formed betwixt England and Bengal, as it respects climate, I should think England ought to have the preference, but not in the degree that some persons imagine;* and yet, I think, the middling and lower orders do not suffer so much from the weather in Bengal as the same classes do from the cold and wet in England; for, to resist the heat, a man wants only an umbrella made of leaves, or he may sit under a tree; while, to resist the cold, rain, hail, and snow of a northern climate, without thick clothes, a good fire, and a warm house and bed, he is danger of perishing.

If there be any thing in the climate of Bengal which makes it unhealthful, it is,

*If the following extraordinary assertion of Forster, in his notes to Bartolomeo's Voyage to the East Indies, be just, the preference must certainly be given to the climate of England. "The intense heat in the tropical regions is destructive both to men and animals. At Calcutta, which lies at a considerable distance from the line, wild pigeons sometimes drop down dead at noon, while flying over the market-place. People who are then employed in any labour, such as writers in the service of the East India Company, whose correspondence of en will not admit of delay, sit naked immersed up to the neck in large vessels, into which cold water is continually pumped by slaves from a well. Such a country cannot be favourable to health or longevity."-We should think not. What say you, writers to the Hon. Company, up to the neck in water;-is not this an abominable country?

no doubt, the flatness of the country, and its consequent inundations and stagnant

waters.

7th Class. From a kshutriyŭ and a female shoodrů arose the Napitus,* or barbers. The Hindoos, even the poorest, not only never shave themselves, they never cut their own nails; and some barbers are devoted to the work of cleaning cars. These persons may be seen in the streets, with a kind of skewer, covered at one end with cotton, in their hands, seeking employment. The wives of the barbers cut the nails, and paint the feet and the hands, of the Hindoo women; these women never have their hair cut; the more and the heavier it is, the more ornamental it is considered; they wash it by rubbing clay into it at the time of bathing.† Rich men are shaved every day; the middling ranks once in six or eight days, and the poor once in ten or fifteen. The poor give about a farthing; the middling and upper ranks, about a half-penny a time. The barber makes use of water, but not of soap; yet the Hindoo manifests the utmost patience while he shaves all round the head, (leaving a tuft of hair in the middle at the back of the head, which is commonly tied in a knot), his upper lip, chin, forehead, armpits, sometimes his breast, his ears, the inside of his nose, his wrists and ancles, round his eye-brows, &c. Some do not shave the upper lip; and mendicants leave the whole beard. Shaving is never done in the house, nor in a shop, but sometimes under a small shed, or a tree; very often in the street or road. The Hindoos never wear wigs: the climate does not require it; and it would shock their feelings exceedingly to wear the hair of another, especially of a dead man.

The barbers, like their English brethren, dabble a little in pharmacy; but they nei

* One of the Hindoo poets has fixed a sad stigma on the barbers, by a verse to this purport:-Among the sages, Narudu, among the beasts, the jackal-among the birds, the crow-and among men, the barber-is the most crafty.

They consider their hair as an essential ornament, and the cutting it off as a shocking degradation, the mark of widowhood. "If it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered." 2 Cor. xi. 5. The Hindoo women are very careful also to have their heads covered, and never fail to draw the veil over their faces n the approach of a stranger.

The barbers have no poles, nor are there any such things as sign-boards against the shops in Bengal.

ther bleed people, nor draw their teeth, these remedies being seldom resorted to in Bengal. The finger and toe nails are cut with an instrument like an engraver's tool; with another instrument wounds are probed, and the barber has his razor, tweezers, comb, a small mirror, a whet-stone, a strap, &c.

Many of the barbers peruse books in the colloquial dialects, and a few have even gained a smattering of English and Persian.` Some pursue other callings, and are corn-merchants, shop-keepers, servants to native merchants, &c.

8th Class.

From a kshůtriyŭ and a female shōodrů sprung the Modŭkŭs, or confectioners. They make and sell near a hundred different sweetmeats, principally composed of sugar, molasses, flower, and spices. Except the cocoa-nut, they never use fruit in sweetmeats. The Bengalees, if their circumstances admit of such an indulgence, eat large quantities of sweetmeats every day, and give them to their children to the injury of their health. At weddings, shraddhŭs, and at almost every religious ceremony, sweetmeats are eaten in large quantities: the master of a feast is praised, in proportion to the quantity of sweetmeats offered to the image. If a marketplace contain a hundred shops, twelve or fifteen of them will belong to confectioners. These sweet things, however, are not very delicate, if compared with those made in Europe. Some persons of this cast are farmers, merchants, servants, &c. A degree of wealth is acquired by a few, and many are able to read the popular tales and poems in Bengalēē.

9th Class. From a shoōdră and a female kshůtriyŭ arose the Koombhŭkarus, or potters, who make a considerable variety of earthen ware, plaister houses with clay, also make bricks, tiles, spouts, balustrades, and those images, which, after having been worshipped certain days, are thrown into the rivers or pools; as well as a number of playthings, as birds, horses, gods, coaches, and elephants, which are painted or gilt. Bricks, which are also made by other casts, are sold at one roopee twelve anas, or two roopees, the thousand; but they are not so good as those made in England. The brick-kilns assume a pyramidical form; a moderate kiln contains about two hundred thousand bricks. The potters also dig wells, and make the round pots

*

with which they are cased, the edges of which lap over each other, and form a solid wall of pots, far more compact than any brick work, and descending, in some instances, one hundred and fifty cubits below the surface of the earth. Each pot is about two inches thick, and a foot deep.

Many articles made by the Hindoo potters resemble the coarse earthen ware used by the poor in England. They do not glaze their common pots; nor have they any thing like porcelain, or the white jugs or basons of England; all their wares being made of brown clay, to which they give a lighter or darker colour in baking. The potter sells his wares in the market, scarcely ever at his own house. A few of the potters are men of some property; and many can read the popular stories in Bengalee.

10th Class. From a shoodrŭ and a female kshůtriyŭ arose the Tatees, or weavers, the six divisions of whom have no intercourse so as to visit or intermarry with each other. These shoodrus are numerous in Bengal, yet, except in their own business, they are said to be very ignorant. Their loom is in substance the same as the English, though much more simple and imperfect. They lay the frame almost on the ground, and sitting with their feet hanging down in a hole cut in the earth, they carry on their work.

Women of all casts prepare the cotton-thread for the weaver, spinning the thread on a piece of wire, or a very thin rod of polished iron, with a ball of clay at one end; this they turn round with the left hand, and supply the cotton with the right. The thread is then wound upon a stick, or pole, and sold to the merchants or weavers. For the coarser thread, the women make use of a wheel very similar to that of the English spinster, though upon a smaller construction. The mother of a family, in some instances, will procure as much as from seven to ten shillings a month by spinning cotton.

* The Bengalees have no pumps, and consequently procure their drinking water almost wholly from pools or rivers; few wells produce good water.

The coarse cloths worn by the natives are made in almost every village; the better sorts, in the neighbourhood of Shantee-poorů, Goorăpă, Hůree-palŭ, Vŭrahŭnăgără, Chăndrů-kona, Dhaka, Rajbŭl-hatů, Krishnü-dévũ-poorů, Ksheerůpace, Radha-nŭgără, Bélükoochee, and Hérélů.

The Hon. Company have factories at Shantee-poorů, Pérooa, Dwarǎhata, Ksheerůpaee, Radha-nigürü, Ghatalü, Dhaka, Maldu, Jungee-poorů, Rajumŏhůl, Hérélő, Bélu-koochee, Nudeeya, Ramu-poorů, Boyaliya, Sonar-ga, Chundru-kona, and Veerbhoomee, where advances are made to the weavers, who, in a given time, produce cloths according to order. At the Dhaka factory, some years ago, cloths to the value of eighty lacks of roopees were bought by the Company in one year.* At Shanteepooră, I am informed, the purchases, in some years, amount to twelve or fifteen lacks; at Malda to nearly the same sum, and at other places to six or twelve lacks. I give these amounts from bare report.

Bengalee merchants have numerous cloth factories in different parts of the country; and some employ annually 20,000, others 50,000, others a lack, and others two or three lacks, of roopees, in the purchase of cloths.

At Shantee-poorŭ and Dhaka, muslins are made which sell at a hundred roopees a piece. The ingenuity of the Hindoos in this branch of manufacture is wonderful. Persons with whom I have conversed on this subject say, that at two places in Bengal, Sonar-ga and Vikrům-poorů, muslins are made by a few families so exceedingly fine, that four months are required to weave one piece, which sells at four or five hundred roopees. When this muslin is laid on the grass, and the dew has fallen

upon it, it is no longer discernible.

At Baloochůru, near Moorshüdübad, Bankoora, and other places, silks are made, and sold to the Company and to private merchants. The silk-weavers are, in a great measure, a distinct body from the cloth-weavers.

This fact was mentioned to me by a gentleman in the service, but the exact year I do not remember.