the bramhans add the forms of the tůntrus to the ceremonies of the védă into which they had been previously initiated.

The principal subjects treated of in the tintră shastrus appear to be these: The necessary qualifications of a religious guide, and of his disciple; of receiving the initiatory rite from the religious guide; the formulas used by those who follow the rules of the tŭntrus ;* formulas used in daily worship, (sundhya,) in worship before the idol, at burntofferings, bloody-sacrifices, in the act of praise, poorăshchărănă;† repeating names and incantations; the method of subjecting the female attendants (nayikas) on the gods and goddessess to the power of the worshipper; rules for nyasu; formulas used in the secret ceremonies called bhootă-shooddhee, shaktabhishéků, pōōrnabhishéků, bhoirůvēechŭkrů, shǎt-kărmă; an account of different kinds of bead-rolls, and of their use in religious ceremonies; of the goddesses distinguished by the name of Muha-vidya, the worship of whom is particularly recommended in the tůntrus.

As a specimen of what may be expected to be found in this class of Hindoo writings, the author selects a few paragraphs from the table of contents of the Tuntrŭ-Sarů :

The qualifications of a religious guide (gooroo); the faults by which a man is disqualified from becoming a gooroo; the qualifications of a true disciple; how far a gooroo and his disciple participate in the consequences of each other's sins; the duties of a disciple towards his gooroo.

The moment a disciple receives the initiatory rite, all his sins are obliterated, and the benefit of all his religious actions is secured to him; if he have even killed a bramhăn, a cow, or drank spirits, &c. and have lived in the practice of these sins for a million of births, they will all be removed the moment he receives the initiatory rite; he will also possess all the merit which would arise from the sacrifice of a horse; obtain whatever he desires; raise his family in honour, and after death will ascend to the heaven of the god whose name he has received, and remain for ever there, enjoying inconceivable happi

* Neither a woman nor a shōōdrů may read or hear the prayers of the védŭ, on pain of future misery; but they may use the prayers of the tǎntrus.

+ Certain ceremonies performed at the time of an eclipse, or for a month together, or at other times, to obtain the favour of a person's guardian deity.

ness, without the fear of future birth.* If a person receive the initiatory rite from his father, or from a hermit, or even from a dúndee,† but not from his religious guide, every benefit will be lost, except he take what is called a siddhă-măntră,‡ and this he may receive from any one. If a person receive this rite from a woman, not a widow, or from his own mother, though a widow, the merit is greater than when received from a man.

He who neglects to receive the initiatory rite,§ will sink into the hell of darkness; no one may trade with such a person, nor proceed in any religious service if he have had the misfortune to see his face after it was begun. The person who refuses to receive this rite will be subject to infinite evils; he can never obtain the merit of the offerings to the manes; and when he dies he will sink into torment, excluded from all hope of restoration to human birth. If a mendicant or a hermit die in this state, even such a one will sink into never-ending misery.

Next follow the forms of those incantations which a religious guide may give to shoodrus, and the punishment which both will incur if an incantation be given to which a person has no right;—the initiatory incantations proper for persons born under the different stars, &c.;-those proper to be given according to the choice which a person makes of his guardian deity; in choosing whom, the Hindoo always consults his fears or his concupiscence, viz. if he seek riches, he chooses Gunéshŭ; if relief from some disease, Sooryu; if grandeur, Shivă; if emancipation, and blessings of all kinds, Vishnoo; ligion, Shree-Vidya; if knowledge, Kalēē; and if a kingdom, Nēelă-Sürüswǎtēē. Many instructions of a similar nature are inserted in this part of the work; and directions are added respecting the fortunate days, both of the week and of the moon, when the initiatory rite may be received.

* Other shastrus declare, that whoever ascends to the heavens of the gods, will there enjoy only a temporary residence.

+ A religious devotee, before whom even the bramhúns prostrate themselves.

‡ A siddhă măntrů is united to the name of Kalēē, Tara, Shorŭshēē, Bhoovůnéshwůrēē, Bhoirŭvēē, Dhōōmavǎtēē, Vŭgüla, Matongee, or Kŭmůla.

Those who do not receive this rite, are despised by their countrymen.

Notwithstanding what is here said, the doctrine of endless punishment is not really a part of the Hindoo system. A people whose notions of the evil of sin are so superficial could not be expected to premulgate a doctrine which marks transgression as beyond measure sinful.

The number of letters in the incantation must be regulated by the number of those in a person's name, that there may be neither too many nor too few. If the letters in the peron's name be fewer than those in the formula, the rite may be given.

Then follow directions on various subjects, as, with which fingers a person may number his beads; what kind of beads may be used in repeating the name of the deity; the proportion of merit attached to these repetitions as made with different kinds of beadrolls; how long a person should repeat the name at once; whether he will obtain the object of his devotion if he neglect to number these repetitions; and whether the name of a deity must be repeated aloud, or in a whisper, or in the mind.

The different kinds of nyasă are next described, as ungŭ-nyasă, kŭrangů-nyasă, pranayamů, matrika-nyasů, rishyadee-nyasů, shorha-nyasă, vărnă-nyasă,* &c.—The merit attached to circumambulating the temples of Shivu, Doorga, or any other god or goddess, according to the number of the circumambulations.-The merit arising from drinking the water with which an image has been bathed; or in which a bramhan's foot has been dipped. The evil consequences of not offering to some god the food which a person is about to eat. Then follow the names of a number of gods and goddesses, with a description of the ceremonies used in their worship; an account of a ceremony performed while sitting on a dead body; and of another in which a person, sitting in one posture, repeats the name of some deity, using his bead-roll, from sun-rise to sun-rise, and from sun-set to sun-set.-A number of prayers for preventing the effects of poison, arising from the bite of a snake, &c.-The way in which Hinoomano's image is to be made, and the method of worshipping this deified monkey. An incantation for removing difficulties in child-bearing.—Another, by which a person going into a house to commit adultery, robbery, &c. may prevent others from seeing him.-Incantations used at the time of worship, for purifying the mind, the offerings, the body, the prayers, * Nyasŭ is a ceremony performed at the time of worship (pōōja,) and consists of a number of curious, minute, and almost undefinable motions with the hands and fingers, (while the person repeats prayers,) such as touching the eyes, ears, shoulders, mouth, nose, head, breast, &c. doubling and twisting the hands, fingers, &c.

+ A conscientious Hindoo, before he eats, offers his food to his guardian deity, using some such words as these: "This food, O god, I present to thee." A Hindoo shop-keeper, also, gives his god credit in his daily a ccounts for a sum which may amount to the twentieth part of a half-penny.

and the place of worship.-The method of preparing the place in which the home, that is, the burnt sacrifice, is to be offered.-Certain ceremonies are next described, for the removal of sorrow, sickness, injuries, &c.; for bringing an enemy under subjection; for depriving an enemy of all strength; for separating intimate friends; for driving an enemy to a distance; for killing a person, &c.-The proper modes of sitting when repeating the name of a deity, or performing acts of worship, as crossing the legs, drawing up the heels to the hip bone, bringing the legs under the thighs, &c.--Forms of praise, worship, &c. offered to different gods.-The benefits to be derived from repeating all the names of those gods who have each a thousand names.*-The names of sixty offerings which may be presented to the gods, and the benefits arising to the offerer; the separate advantages of repeating the name of a god according as the person shall use any one of fourteen kinds of roodrakshut bead-rolls.-An account of the ceremonies directed to be performed daily, annually, or to the end of life; of those which necessarily folow certain actions or certain periods; and of those for obtaining some particularly desired blessing. Of the ceremonies connected with the worship of the male deities; and of those called moodra.‡-Of purifying the twelve parts of the body and mind during worship.

Having already mentioned that the tůntrus contain formulas for injuring and destroying others, the author here inserts an account of one of these ceremonies, extracted from the Ooddéshu-tŭntru:-Before a person actually enters on the prescribed ceremonies, he obtains, through some acquaintance of the person whom he wishes to destroy, a measure of the length of different parts of his body, as well as of his whole body; having obtained which, with a small quantity of the dung of a bull, he forms the image of his enemy. This being prepared, on some proper night, the darker the better, he and others proceed to a cemetery, taking with them a hawk, spirituous liquors, red lead, turmerick, fish, &c.

• Vishnoo under all his forms, and most of those who are called the shuktee dévtas.

+ Elæocarpus Ganitrus; the seeds of which are strung like beads, and employed by religious persons to assist them in numbering their prayers.

Certain motions with the hands and fingers, different from what is called nyasŭ, not in substance, but in the minute parts. These motions can scarcely be described; but they consist in laying the finger on the thumb, and the thumb on the finger; twisting the fingers and hands; placing the fingers one against another; holding up the first finger of the right hand; then the two first fingers; then the little fingers; spread ing the hands, &c. &c.

Here the parties first bring the soul of this enemy, by incantations, into the image, and then light a fire, and offer a burnt-sacrifice with clarified butter, repeating prayers to Ŭntuků, the form of Yămă in which he separates soul from body. The hawk is next killed, and pieces of its flesh are boiled in a human skull containing spirits, which is placed on a fire-place composed of three other human skulls. With this flesh, thus boiled, they next present burnt-offerings, repeating incantations to Survvă-bhootů-kshŭyŭ, another name of Yămă signifying that he takes away the lives of all. Towards the close of these offerings, between every prayer, the offerer rubs his hand, besmeared with the flesh and the clarified butter of the burnt-offering, on the breast of the image made of the dung of the bull, saying, “Oh! Ŭntükü ! thy face is like the last fire; do thou loosen all the joints of my enemy; dry up his breath, and cause him to fall." Again, "Oh! Čntŭkü, thou who, sitting on the buffaloe, holdest in thy hand the deathful sceptre, draw forth the life of my enemy.” Again, “Oh! Ŭntăkŭ, who presidest over religion and irreligion: I am innocent; but do thou destroy, destroy, destroy, this my enemy, root and branch; stop his breath; dry up the sources of life in him; stop all the channels of the circulation of his blood; dry up the juices of his body." He next rubs upon the flesh, before offering it, a small quantity of yellow orpiment and turmerick, and then offers this flesh in the two names of Yumu, Mrityoo and Untuků, rubbing it, as he throws it on the fire, on the breast of the image of his enemy. He next tears open the belly of this image, and takes out of it the thread containing the dimensions of the body, and offers it in the fire of the burnt-offering, repeating prayers to Yumŭ for the destruction of his enemy. He next takes the knife with which the hawk was killed, and worships it, repeating, "Cut, cut, separate, separate, pierce, pierce, divide into morsels, morsels;" after which he takes the image, and with this knife cuts it into quarters, according to the measures formerly procured, and the quarters and the measures are thrown into the fire, one by one, and offered to Yŭmů, with appropriate prayers or incantations; and then these malignant ceremonies, worthy of infernal spirits, are closed by the offerer's rubbing the ashes of the burnt-offering on his forehead. Sometimes the whole is concluded by offering the nest of a crow to Yumă, which is said to hasten the destruction of an enemy, who it is expected will be seized by some violent disease, which will soon terminate in death.