and his number from his horoscope was EIGHT in every thing.'

"But what, may I ask, is the particular objection to this the seventh day of the week, and the present hour, which happens to be nearly that of noon, for commencing the important undertaking of a recital of your personal adventures ?"

"I am sorry that I am not able," said Bikram, "to satisfy you farther on that head, than by merely stating that Tuesday and Saturday* are marked by the intelligent of my country as unfit for the commencement of important undertakings; and, as this happens to be Saturday, it may be as well to defer this momentous affair till there shall occur a more auspicious combination of the Celestial Intelligences."

"I yield to your scruples," said I," although I

*The Hindoo month, which is lunar, is governed by twentyseven constellations, some of which are fortunate, others unfortunate, in their influence. Some days and months are more favourable than others: both Tuesday and Saturday are considered unlucky; and even on the lucky ones, eleven and half-past twelve o'clock are esteemed bad. According to the month, day, or hour, a person marries, he will be rich or poor, in good or bad health, happy or unhappy with his wife and children."-Vide Asiatic Journal, No CXLII. p. 218.-ED.

must confess that I do so with reluctance; for from your war-worn appearance, as well as other marks of an interesting nature which I have observed about you, without mentioning the great degree of amusement and instruction which your general conversation is calculated to impart, I am led to infer that your personal narrative will be highly entertaining."

"Well," said the Rajpoot," at our next meeting I shall give you a specimen; and should you find it to be entirely devoid of interest, I hope you will be candid enough to give some unequivocal indications of weariness, which, I assure you, I shall take in good part, and not punish your goodness by inflicting upon you any farther specimens of my proficiency in the much abused art of autobiography."

With these explanations our conference ended for the time; and I shall take the opportunity here of closing my epistle, by assuring you that I remain, most learned Wilfred,

Your faithful friend,

Alexandria, 6th of the month Elul,

in the year 584.*

* i. e. 27th August, 1824.-ED.

I. N. O.

No XI.

STORY OF THE RAJPOOT.

His Birth and Education-Brahminical Precepts, and Poetical Aphorisms-Story of the Silent Poet.

WHEN I next met with the Rajpoot, most learned Seignior, I requested that no farther objections might be started, to defer the pleasure which I anticipated from hearing his autobiography; and, as he was naturally fond of story-telling, it did not require much entreaty to make him enter upon his narrative.

I have attempted to render it altogether, as elegantly as possible, into English, as I received it partly in that language and partly in Hindoostanee,

from his own mouth,—after due invocation of SRI

*

GANES, the deity of wisdom, and remover of obstacles, as follows:

STORY OF THE RAJPOOT.

"WITHOUT Speaking of former incarnations or transmigrations, of which, I must confess, I do not now retain any very vivid recollections, the last time that I was born was in the sacred city of Kashee or Benares, which is situated on the banks of the

* “Sanscrit,

Ganes, the name of a Hindoo divinity.

The JANUS of the Hindoos. The god of wisdom, represented with an elephant's head, and attended by a rat. He was the son of Mahadeva, and a daughter of the mountain Himālaya, and is invoked at the commencement of every affair of consequence."SHAKSPEARE.-Sri is a Bengalee prefix of respect, put before the names of deities and heroes, or books considered of a divine origin. -ED.

+ The doctrine of the Metempsychosis or Transmigration of Souls, as is well known, has been always a favourite tenet of religion with the Brahmins; and from them Pythagoras, as well as other philosophers of Europe, are supposed originally to have borrowed their ideas on this subject. We find the same doctrine alluded to in the question which was put to our Lord by his disciples, regarding the man who had been born blind.-John ix. 2.-ED.

6

Gunga,* or Ganges, river in the province of Allahabad, to which may with great propriety be applied the epithet of Jennat Albelad,+ Paradise of Regions,' which was first applied to Bengal by his Highness the Emperor Aurungzebe. This event, I mean that of my birth, so important to myself, if not to the world at large, took place on the 20th day of the month Serawun, in the year 1187 of the era Bengalee, which corresponds nearly to the year 1197 of the Hejira or era of the Mohammedans. I am not able to state with absolute certainty whether I was born on a black day or a white one, although, from the general tenor of my fortune hitherto, I am inclined to think it was the former; but I can confidently declare, for the satisfaction of any conscientious Moslem who may feel interested on the subject, that I am certain it was not on a Wednesday.||

* The word Gunga,, which we render Ganges, means, in Hindoostanee, "The River."-ED.

i. e. 30th July, A.D. 1780.-Ed.

"The Persian (Moslems) hold all Wednesdays as unfortunate.