SECTION III.

Notices relative to Manners and Customs in general.

THE Hindoos, notwithstanding their divisions into casts and various sects, are scarcely less peculiar and isolated in their manners than the Chinese: their dress, their ceremonies, and their domestic economy, have been preserved without innovation from age to age. Still, however, the unchanging dress and modes of the Hindoos are natural and graceful, compared with those of a Chinese, who, with his long tail, his fantastic dress, his fan, his wooden shoes, and his chuckling sulam, looks more like a piece of carved work, than a human being walking at large on the earth.

Many of the higher orders of Hindoos, especially in the Northern provinces, are handsome in their features, having an oval face, and a nose nearly aquiline. Some are comparatively fair, and others quite black, but a dark brown complexion is most common, with black eyes and hair. The general expression of the countenance reminds you, that the Hindoo is mild and timid, rather disposed to melancholy, and effeminate pleasures. In Bengal, the greatest number are below the middle stature, and very slender in body; but this description does not altogether suit the Hindoos of the upper provinces, where you immediately perceive, that you are surrounded with a people more robust and independent, though the general features are the

same.

The Hindoos are generally loquacious, and the common people very noisy in conversation. Their youth are lively, inquisitive, and of quick perception. They appear to be capable of great improvement, and of imitating most of the European arts, and carrying them to the greatest perfection: either they are incapable of bold and original designs, or their long slavery to ancient patterns and usages has, like the Chinese shoe, made the whole race cripples.

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The dress of the rich, in which there is neither buttons, strings, nor pins, is happily suited to the climate, and produces a very graceful effect. Over their loins they fold a cloth which almost covers their legs, hanging down to the tops of the shoes. The upper garment is a loose piecet of fine white cloth "without seam from top to bottom," thrown over the shoulders, and, except the head, neck, and arms, covering the whole body. The head is always uncovered, unless the heat or cold constrains the person to draw his upper garment over it like a hood.‡ Shoes worn by the rich, are covered with gold and silver thread, are open at the heels, and curled up at the toes; stockings are very seldom worn.§ Many Hindoos in the service of Europeans, to please their masters, wear the Musulman dress; put on a turban, and garments like a jacket and petticoat, or loose pantaloons. The poor have only a shred of cloth to cover their loins. The dress of the women differs from that of the men, in that they wear only one long garment, which, wrapped round the loins, comes over the shoulders, and occasionally over the head as a hood. In Bengal, a woman's garment is ten cubits long and two broad; in the southern parts of India, it is much longer: very few wear shoes. Ornaments are eagerly sought after, even by the poorest women, which they fix in their hair, on the forehead, in

* Before a Ilindoo puts on a new garment, he plucks a few threads out of it, and offers them to different beings, that they may be propitious, and that it may wear well. The poor wear their garments till they are very filthy, and the pillow on which they sleep is never washed, notwithstanding their hair is oiled daily: their houses and garments are generally full of vermin.

+ A native, when he saw a picture of His Majesty George the Third in the house of the author, in a Roman habit, asked, why he wore garments like the Hindoos, and not like the English.

"The colour of the (Roman) gown is generally believed to have been white. As to attire for the head, the Romans ordinarily used none, except the lappet of their gown; and this was not a constant cover, but only occasional, to avoid the rain, or sun, or other accidental inconveniencies: hence it is, that we see none of the old statues with any on their heads."

§ It is remarkable, to what excellent uses the toes are applied in this country. In England, it is hard to say whether they are of any use whatsoever. A man could certainly walk and ride without them; and these are the principal purposes to which the feet are applied in Europe. But here the toes are second-hand fingers: they are called the "feet fingers" in Bengalee. In his own house, a Hindoo makes use of them to fashen the clog to his feet by means of a button which slips between the two middle toes. The taylor, if he does not thread his needle, certainly twists his thread with them; the cook holds his knife with his toes while he cuts fish, vegetables, &c.; the joiner, the weaver, &c. could not do without them, and almost every native has twenty different uses for the toes. It is true, I have heard of a maimed sailor in England writing with his toes, which is rather more than what I have seen done in this country; but yet, this is only another proof of what might be done, even with the tges, if necessity should arise, to make us set our toes as well as our wits to work.

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the ears, in the nose, round the arms, wrists, ankles, &c. They paint their fingernails, and round the bottoms of their feet, red, and their eye-lashes black; their teeth are made red with eating panu.*

In their forms of address, and behaviour in company, the Hindoos must be ranked amongst the politest nations. It is true, there is a mixture of flattery, and of fulsome panegyric in their address, but this is given and received rather as the requirement of custom than the language of the heart. It is a polish always understood to lie on the surface; it pleases without deceiving any body. When he enters the presence of his spiritual guide, the Hindoo prostrates himself, and, laying hold of his feet, looks up to him, and says, 'You are my saviour;'-to a benefactor, he says, 'You are my father and mother;'-to a man whom he wishes to praise, 'You are Religion incarnate;' or, O! Sir, your fame is gone all over the country; yes, from country to country.' 'As a Benefactor, you are equal to Kărnnă.'+ 'You are equal to Yoodhisthiru in your regard to truth.' You have overcome all your passions.' 'You shew due respect to all.' 'You are a sea of excellent qualities.' 'You are "You are the father and mother devoted to the service of your guardian deity.' of bramhans, cows and women.'

There are five kinds of obeisance among the Hindoos, viz. 1. ŭstangă, in which the person prostrates himself, and makes eight parts of his body, viz. his knees, hands, temples, nose, and chin, touch the ground; 2. punchangă, in which the person makes his forehead, temples, and hands touch the ground; 3. dŭndavătă, simple prostration, in which the person causes his forehead to meet the ground; 4. numuskară, in which he, bringing his joined hands open up to his forehead, causes his two thumbs to touch his forehead several times; 5. abhivadănů, in which the person raises his right hand (never his left) to or towards the forehead, gently bending the head. This last is the common form. Should a bramhun, the servant of a king, be * Panŭ, which is chewed like tobacco, consists of the leaf of the piper betel, the fruit of the ereca fausel, lime made of shells, and (at pleasure) of a number of spices.

+ Kŭranč, the brother of Yoodhist hiru, was very famous for his liberality.

‡ King Yoodhist’hirŭ is on all occasions mentioned as a person the most tenacious of truth of any Hindoo that ever lived, and yet he was dragged to hell for lying.

sitting with his master, a shōodru, coming in, would give the common sulam, with one hand, to the monarch, and with his joined hands would make the reverential numuskarů to the bramhun. The Bengalee women, if of equal rank, bow to each other, by raising their joined hands to the head. A woman of inferior rank bows to a superior, and rubs the dust of her feet on her forehead, but the superior does not return the bow.

In their descriptions, the Hindoos indulge in the most extravagant hyberbole. A splendid palace they call the heaven of Vishnoo;-a heavy rain, the deluge ;-a quarrel, the bloody contest between the Pandůvěs and the sons of Dhritŭrashtrů, in which eighteen ŭkshouhinees were slaughtered ;-a crowd is always swelled to myriads. Respecting a water spout, the Hindoos say, the elephants of the god Indrů are drinking;—the rainbow they call Ramu's bow ;-a whirlwind is caused by aerial beings called pishachus ;-thunder is occasioned by Indru's hurling his thunderbolts at the giants, who come to drink water from the clouds, and the lightning arises from the sparks of these thunderbolts. Some add, that the ring round the moon arises from the splendour of the planets or gods, who sit there as the counsellors of Chundră (the moon.)

In directing their letters, as well as in the compliments prefixed to them, the Hindoos use the most extravagant address: the following may serve as specimens: To a king: To the great, the excellent, the prosperous, the illustrious king, Krishnu Chŭndrů-Rayŭ, the nourisher of multitudes from many countries, the fragrance of whose fame has spread through the whole world; at whose feet many kings, adorned with refulgent crowns, bow; whose glory makes his enemies shrink as the sun does the koirůvă; whose fame is pure as the queen of night; the priest of the perpetual sacrificial fire.'-To a teacher: To Ŭbheeshtüdévo, the ferryman across the sea of this world, the teacher of the way of deliverance from sin, the sun-like remover of the great darkness springing from worldly attachment; the nut‡ which removes the impurites of the soul; to thy feet I bow, the nails of which are like the horns of the half moon.'-To a father: To the excellent person, my father, the only author of

* One ŭkshouhinee comprises 109,350 foot, 65.610 horses, 21,870 chariots, and 21,870 elephants. Nymphica esculenta. An allusion to a nut by which the Hindoos purify water.

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my existence, my governor, whose mind drinks the honey on the water-lily feet of the deity; at thy feet, which drive away my darkness, I supplicate.'-To a mother :

To my excellent and dignified mother, who bore me in her womb; who, feeding, nourishing, and comforting me, raised me to manhood; by whom I saw the world, and who gave me a body to perform the offices of religion; at thy feet I supplicate, which are the water-lilies on the reservoir of my heart.'

When two Hindoos, after a short absence, meet, the inferior first attempts to take hold of the feet of the other, which the latter prevents. They then clasp each other in the arms, and move their heads from one shoulder to the other twice; and afterwards ask of each other's welfare. The inferior replies, Through your favour, I continue well.' As you command; all is well.' Or he asks, How? Is the house well?' meaning the family. When a bramhun happens to sit near another bramhun, if a stranger, and if he is speaking to an inferior, he asks, Of what cast are you?' The other replies, ' I am a bramhŭn.' To which line of bramhuns do you belong?' I am a Rarhee bramhŭn.' t'hakoorů.'*

says,

'Of what family?' 'Of the family of Vishnoo.

When two persons of the lower orders of Hindoos quarrel, if one should strike the other, the person injured appeals to the spectators, and, taking hold of their feet, 'You are witnesses that he struck me.' Some of the spectators, unwilling perhaps to become witnesses, say, 'Ah! don't touch our feet;' or, the injured party takes a corner of the garment of each one present, and ties it in a knot, saying, 'You are witnesses that he struck me.' When a Hindoo is guilty of common swearing, he says, 'If I live, let me endure all the sorrow you would endure if I should die ;' but this oath is wrapped up in three words, Eat your head.' Another says, Touching your body, I say this.' 'Dohaee Günga!' is another oath; the meaning of which is, From such a falsehood preserve me Gonga.' 'If I speak a falsehood, let me be esteemed a rascal.' 'If I have committed such an action, let me be a leper.' 'If I have done this, let me not see this night.' 'If I have gone to such a place, let me become a chandalŭ,' &c.

tors.

*The different orders of Hindoos trace their descent for ten or twelve generations, from distinguished ances