higher orders, an insolent show of reverence for its rules, if the matter were to be searched into, and the laws of the cast were allowed to decide, scarcely a single family of Hindoos would be found in the whole of Bengal whose cast is not forfeited: this is well known and generally acknowledged.

The author has devoted one hundred pages, making the THIRD CHAPTER of this volume, to a description of the Manners and Customs of the Hindoos; and upon these he here offers a few remarks in addition to those which close the chapter.

Some have professed to doubt, whether a state of civilization be preferable to a savage state or not; but would it not be the same question in other words, if it were asked whether is to be preferred, the state of man or that of the irrational animals? What is the precise boundary

which marks the distinction between the civilized and the savage state? Is it not, that in the former the improvement of the mind is recognized as the highest end of existence, but not in the latter? The Hindoo manners strongly remind us of this distinction :

The Hindoos are said to exercise much tenderness towards women in a state of pregnancy; not, however, from any high sensibility in reference to the sex, but from an anxious concern to secure the safe birth of a child, hoping it will be a son, to whom they may commit the charge of releasing them after death from a state similar to purgatory. The rejection, with a degree of horror, of the services of a skilful surgeon, even where the life of the mother is exposed, is another proof that the mind is in a state of great imbecility; while the terrors felt by all parties on these occasions strongly demonstrate the deplorable state of medical science among the Hindoos. The appearance of piety in a family after the birth of a child however, though blended with the grossest ignorance and superstition, may become an instructive lesson to Christians, as well as an excitement to gratitude for better knowledge. In giving names to their children, the Hindoos shew a marked preference for the names of the gods, hereby expressing their veneration for the deity, and their hope that the god whose name the child bears may honour it with his favour.

Parents who have been afflicted by the loss of several children in infancy not unfrequently attribute their misfortunes to the prayers of envious persons. If they are afterward blessed

with another child, they give it an unpleasant name, that no one may envy their happiness.* In the same spirit, these poor people place on the end of a stick a black rejected cooking pot streaked with white, and set it up in the midst of a garden of vegetables, that the evil eyes of malicious persons may not destroy the crop. How effectually would the reception of one passage of scripture eradicate all these fears: "The prayers of the wicked are an abomination to the Lord."+ How absent from the minds of this people are all ideas of the essential necessity of holy dispositions in our approaches to the Almighty.

Hindoo mothers display an excessive attachment to their offspring: but this fondness, confin ing its cares to the body, leads them to feed their children to excess; to indulge them with per nicious food, which brings on early diseases; and to permit evil tempers to grow without correction: and thus maternal affection is converted into the greatest possible bane.

The exercises of the village school exhibit an exclusive concern for secular interests, without the least reference to the enlargement of the mind. A Hindoo has not the most distant idea that schools ought to inculcate morals and the first principles of religion. It is by mere accident that the names of the gods, mingled with other names, form a spelling lesson: a schoolmaster, in the same manner as a head servant, is termed a sirkar; he teaches a certain art useful in obtaining a livelihood. That this is the only idea the Hindoos have of schools, is further proved by the disgraceful fact, that all India does not supply a single school for girls! Their ideas are, that the employments of a woman do not require the assistance of education: she can sweep the house, cook, collect cow-dung for fuel, wait on her lord, and feed her children without it, and having discharged these offices with fidelity, the whole work of life is accomplished. The use of the needle, knitting, and imparting knowledge to her children, are duties to which she has no call, and for which she is wholly incapacitated. No wonder that Hindoo society is so degraded, when those who might become the best part of it are treated as irrational, and converted into beasts of burden.

The Hindoos never appear to have considered the subject of marriage as having any thing to do with moral or intellectual advantages. Their laws recognize nothing as the proper ends of marriage but that of perpetuating the species, and leaving a son to perform the funeral rites. A woman is never considered as the companion of her husband, but as his slave, or as a crea

* Three kourees is not unfrequently given (Teen Kouree).

+ How supremely important it is, that the works received by a whole nation as divine, should contain only those sentiments that are capable of imparting a system of perfect morals!

ture belonging to his hŭrum-măhăl. The Hindoo legislators considered, that amongst the animals certain species were seen to domesticate in pairs, and they therefore placed men among these species; but still they denied to man the privilege possessed by an inferior animal, that of choosing its mate. These laws appear to have had two sources: those relating to offerings, which declare that the bramhŭns are the mouths of the gods, must have proceeded from a band of hungry priests; but their marriage laws must have originated with some gloomy ascetic, who, having no idea that final liberation could possibly be promoted by union to matter, made the state of marriage as irksome as possible.

In the directions given by the shastră respecting the choice of a wife (p. 122), the reader will find no allusion whatever to mind or temper; the attention of the bridegroom is wholly directed to the person and the family of the maid, and to the prospect of male offspring. Excessive care is also observed on both sides, in the marriages of the higher orders, respecting family rank; but honour and wealth are the only objects of concern. Each individual seeks either to raise his family a step higher in the cast, or, if one party consent to sink lower, this sacrifice is never made but for the sake of considerable gain. As a proof how exceedingly alive to the idea of rank the Hindoos are, we need only refer to their eager desire of marrying their daughters to the kooleenй, or, (in title only) noble families, one individual amongst whom sometimes marries a hundred wives, and, except the first, leaves them all to become common or concealed prostitutes. In Bengal, this contemptible pride has sacrificed so many femafes,* that wives are scarcely to be found for young bramhuns not koolēēnus ; and it has been in agitation among some of the most respectable families near Calcutta to address a petition to Government on this subject. The mercenary spirit frequently observable in contracts of marriage is equalled by nothing except that of two individuals in a fair, mutually suspicious of each other, striking a bargain for a yoke of oxen.

The early age at which marriages are contracted, not only prevents, as has been already observed, voluntary choice and future union, contributing fatally to illicit connexions and irregular second marriages; but what is, if possible, still worse, many of these children are left in a state of unchangeable widowhood, and of exposure, in the present state of Hindoo morals, to certain seduction and infamy.

* It is the same principle in part which immolates the widow on the funeral pile-the honour of the family is concerned, or the dignity and religious character of the family is promoted, when they can boast that a sŭtēē, or a succession of sŭtēēs, has been found amongst them.

The wedding ceremonies exhibit the manners of a people exceedingly fond of display; and yet incapable of any thing beyond a state of semi-barbarism. The noise of the horrid drum at the houses of the parents for two or three days together, preceding and during the wedding, strongly reminds us of a state of perfect barbarism. These deductions being made, were a European permitted to be present at all the ceremonies of a wedding on a large scale, he could not fail of being struck with the magnificence of the spectacle, particularly with the midnight procession.

The expences attendant on marriages, are a grievous burden on this people: the rich feel the burden, but a poor man is overwhelmed by it: it devours in a few days the future labour of years; for a poor Hindoo almost always borrows the whole of the estimated expence at an enormous interest, frequently at 36 per cent.-The borrowing system is universally acted upon by the Hindoos, and this is one of the most fruitful sources of their poverty, immorality and misery. To defray the debts incurred at the birth, marriage, and death of one grown up child, if the father survive him, often requires the labour of several years. The chief anxiety of a Hindoo, therefore, is not to acquire daily food for his family, but to pay off those extraordinary expences, incurred at the call of ridiculous custom or superstition. Though several thousands of roopees may have been expended upon it, not a vestige remains after marriage by which the married pair may be more wealthy or more happy: the whole sum evaporates in shew, noise and smoke, or is squandered away in the entertainment of bramhŭns and relations.

Polygamy, as practised in this country, where two or three wives live in one house with the husband, is invariably productive of the greatest misery. Our English advocates for this practice always confined their views, no doubt, to one resident wife; but surely the argument ought to be, Would two or more wives living under the same roof be a blessing to a husband? (p. 133.)

Second marriages, after the decease of the first wife, are contracted as soon as the ceremonies of purification have been performed. How often are we reminded of the want of sentiment and dignified feeling in the social institutions of the Hindoos.

Although the Hindoos never consult the inclination of those whom they bind together for life, they do not neglect to consult the stars, and to select fortunate days and months for the

celebration of their marriages. Girls sometimes pray that the gods would choose for them good husbands.

There is still another instance in which the customs of the Hindoos contribute to render them unfeeling we allude to their funerals, described in p. 207; and to the paragraph to which the reader is here referred, we may add the fact, that the wood which is to burn the body is sometimes brought and laid in the presence of the dying man, who is thus treated like an English criminal when his coffin is carried with him to the place of execution.

The Hindoos divide the year into twelve months, each month containing thirty or more days. The month they divide into two equal parts of fifteen days, according to the increase and decrease of the moon. Though they do not reckon by weeks, they acknowledge a revolution of seven days, named after the sun, the moon, Mars, Mercury, Jupiter, Venus, and Saturn, exhibiting in this instance a most remarkable coincidence with the custom of our Saxon ances tors: Rivee-varu, (Sunday) is named from Rüvee, the sun, as Sunday was derived from the Saxon idol of the sun ;'--Somu-varů, (Monday) from Somů, the moon, and Monday from the Saxon 'idol of the moon ;'-Müngülü-varů, (Tuesday) from Müngülü, the Hindoo Mars, and Tuesday, from the Saxon god Tuesco ;-Boodhů-varů, (Wednesday) from Boodhu, the Hindoo Mercury, and Wednesday from Woden;-Vrihuspŭtee-vară, (Thursday) from Vrihúspitee, the Hindoo Jupiter, and Thursday, from Thor;-Shookrů-varů, (Friday) from Shookrů, the Hindoo Venus, and Friday from the goddess Friga ;-Shunee-varu, (Saturday) from Shunce, the Hindoo Saturn, and Saturday from the Saxon god Seater, fondly of some supposed to be Saturnus,' says Richard Verstegan, in the dedication to king James of his work, "Of the Originall of Nations."- The Hindoos divide the day and night into sixty dundus or eight prühürüs, each prühürü making about three of our English hours, or a fourth of the day or night whether long or short.

The features of the Hindoos are more regular than those of the Burmans, the Chinese, or the Malays; and did they possess all the advantages of European science, they would no doubt rank among the most polished nations. Their children are exceedingly precocious, perhaps far more so than European lads of the same age. Their ancient sages, we know, were capable of the deepest researches into the most difficult and abstruse subjects.

The dress of the rich is really graceful, and well suited to the climate; but the indigent must C