and the burnt-sacrifice offered. A fee is given to the priest, and the whole closes with an entertainment.

At eight, nine, ten, eleven, twelve, or fifteen years of age, on some fortunate day, the boy is invested with the poita (Oopǎnйyйnů), which is announced to the neighbours four or five days preceding the ceremony, by anointing the lad with turmerick: a number of persons, during these days, feast him separately at their houses, and the day before the investiture, the parents invite all the women of the village to a feast, who carry a metal bason to the house of entertainment, where female barbers pare their nails, and paint the sides of their feet red; the women of the house also anoint the bodies of these their guests with perfumes, paint their foreheads, rub oil in their hair, place beetle, perfumes, and turmerick, in their hands, and, filling their basons with oil, dismiss them; if the person be rich, the female guests receive a piece of cloth, and a metal bason each, in addition to the bason of oil. During the day, a feast is given, and in the evening, all the bramhuns of the town and neighbourhood are invited; the master of the feast adorns them with garlands of flowers, paints their foreheads red, and offers them presents of beetle; after the feast, accompanied by the musicians, the whole family assembles and carefully preserves the dust of the feet of their bramhun guests. About two o'clock the next morning, the females of the family, some with lamps in their hands, others with empty basons, and others carrying oil in cups, parade through the village, with music playing, and receive from the houses of the bramhuns, water in pitchers, giving a little oil in return. About five o'clock, these women, and the boy who is to be invested, eat some curds, sweetmeats, plantains, &c. mixed together in one dish; and about six, the family bathe, at

which time, the musicians and priest arriving, the music begins to play. Under an awning before the house, at each corner of which a plantain tree is fixed, and from each side of which branches of the mango are suspended, the father, through the priest, first presents offerings to the manes, and then (his son sitting near him) repeats certain formulas, taking up sixteen or twenty different offerings, one after the other, and with them touching the shalgramů, the earth, and then his son's forehead, he lays each down again. The boy then rises, has his head shaved, is anointed with oil and turmerick, bathes, and puts on new garments, and being thus prepared, he sits upon one of the wooden seats while the ceremony of investiture is performed. The priest first offers a burnt-sacrifice, and worships the shalŭgramů, repeating a number of prayers; the boy's white garments are then taken off, and he is dressed in red, and a cloth is brought over his head, that no shōōdrů may see his face; after which, he takes in his right hand a branch of the vilwu, and a piece of cloth in the form of a pocket, and places the branch on his shoulder. A poita of three threads, made of the fibres of the suru, to which a piece of deer's skin is fastened, is suspended from the boy's left shoulder falling under his right arm, during the reading of incantations. By the help of the priest, the father now repeats certain formulas, and some passages from the védus; and, in a low tone of voice, lest any shōōdru should hear, pronounces the words of the gayutrēē to the boy three times, the son repeating it after him, viz. "Let us meditate on the adorable light of the divine ruler (Savitree): may it guide our intellects." After this, the sŭrů poita is taken off, and the real poita, consisting of six or more threads of cotton, and prepared

by the wives or daughters of bramhuns, is put on. During the investiture with the cotton poita, the father repeats the appointed formulas, and fastens the sură poita to the vilwŭ staff. Shoes are now put upon the boy's feet, and an umbrella in his hand; and thus apparelled as a Brŭmhucharee, with a staff upon his shoulder, and the pocket hanging by his side, he appears before his mother, repeating a word of Sungskritů, who gives him a few grains of rice, a poita or two, and a piece of money. He next solicits alms of his father and the rest of the company, who give according to their ability, some a roopee, and others a gold mohŭr; sometimes as many as a hundred roopees are thus given. The boy then sits down, while his father offers another burnt-sacrifice, repeating incantations; and at the close of these ceremonies, the boy, being previously instructed, rises in a pretended hurry, and declares that he will leave home, and, as a Brumhŭcharēē, seek a subsistence by begging; but his father, mother, or some other relation, taking hold of his arm, invites him to follow a secular life; in consequence of which, he returns, and sits down. Certain formulas are now repeated, when the boy takes a bamboo staff instead of his vilwŭ one, and throws it over his shoulder like the former. Other forms are repeated, after which the father presents a fee to the priest, and the boy goes into the house, a woman pouring out water before him as he goes. To this succeeds the service called sundhya; at the close of which, the boy eats of the rice which has been offered in the burnt-sacrifice; and thus the ceremony ends.

The following duties are enjoined on a youth after his investiture. During twelve nights, he is to sleep only on a bed of kooshŭ, or on a blanket, or a deer's skin, or on a carpet called doolicha, made of sheep's wool and painted

differ a colours. He is enjoined to eat only rice and spices, without oil, salt, &c. once a day, nor must he see a shōōdru, nor suffer a person of this cast to see him; with his face covered, he is to bathe in the river very early, continually committing to memory the forms of the daily service, including the gayŭtrēē; nor is he permitted to leave home without his Brumhucharee staff. If the boy's father have been in the habit of eating undressed food occasionally in the house of a shōōdrů, then, on the day of investiture, a certain person of this cast is allowed, with a present in his hand, to see the boy's face, but he lays himself under an obligation to be kind to the boy in future life. At the end of the twelve days, the boy throws his Brumŭcharee staff into the Ganges, lays aside the character of a mendicant, and enters upon what is called grŭst'hŭ-dhurmă, i. e. a secular state; on which day a few bramhuns are feasted at his house.

As the egg, at one time impregnated with life, is afterwards hatched by the parents, so the receiving of the poita and the gayutrēē is accounted the second birth of bramhuns, who are from that time denominated dwiju, or the twice-born. If a boy who has recently received the poita be awkward at washing it, and gives it to another, he must hold the clothes of the other while he washes it, that he may not be said to part with it, or to lose the virtue of it, for a moment. The repeating of the gayutree is supposed to be an act of such merit, as to wipe away the foulest sins.

convenient

Having been invested with the poita, at any time after this the boy may be married. For the ceremonies of marriage, see a succeeding article.

Of these ten ceremonies, called Sungskaru, the three

first only are performed for the first child; but the seven last for every child. Strict bramhuns, in the southern parts of Hindoost'han, attend to most of them for their daughters as well as their sons,

The smritees assign to bramhuns the offering of sacrifices; the offices of the priesthood; the study of the védŭs; explaining the shastrus to others; giving alms; and receiving presents. Till the iron age, the bramhŭns, it is said, employed the whole day in religious ceremonies; but at present, the greater part of the persons of this order curtail these duties, and bring the performance of what they imagine themselves compelled to attend to, within the compass of an hour or less. One brambun in a hundred thousand may repeat the morning and noon services separately, but almost all unite them, after which they eat, and proceed to business; a few repeat the evening service, either at home, or by the side of the river.

Formerly, only one order, called Satshutēē bramhuns, were found in Bengal, all of whom were equal in honour. Matters stood thus till the time of Adishōōrů, a Bengal raja, who, offended with the ignorance of the bramhans then in Bengal, and wishing to offer a sacrifice to obtain rain, solicited from Vēērŭ-singhŭ, the king of Kanyu-koovju, five bramhuns, to officiate at this sacrifice. The first bramhuns sent were rejected, because they wore stockings, and rode on horses; those afterwards sent by the king were approved: their names were Bhuttŭ

Those bramhŭns who have not two garments, take with them, when about to perform the sundhya, a second poita, as it is improper to perform this ceremony having on only que garment,