it is most certain, that the middling and lower orders do not suffer so much from the weather in Bengal as the same classes do from the cold and wet in England; for to resist the heat, a man wants only an umbrella made of leaves, or he may sit under a tree; while, to resist the cold, rain, hail, and snow of a northern climate, without thick clothes, a good fire, and a warm house and bed, he is in danger of perishing.

If there be any thing peculiar to Bengal which makes it unhealthful, it is, no doubt, the flatness of the country, and its consequent inundations and stagnant waters.

7th Class. From a kshůtriyŭ and a female shōōdrů arose the Napitus," or barbers. The Hindoos, even the poorest, not only never shave themselves, they never cut their own nails; and some barbers devote themselves to the work of cleaning ears. These persons may be seen in the streets, with a kind of skewer, covered at one end with cotton, in their hands, seeking employment. The wives of the barbers cut the nails, and paint the feet and

Bartolomeo's Voyage to the East Indies, be just, the preference must certainly be given to the climate of England: "The intense heat in the tropical regions is destructive both to men and animals. At Calcutta, which lies at a considerable distance from the line, wild pigeons sometimes drop down dead at noon, while flying over the market-place. People who are then employed in any labour, such as writers in the service of the East India Company, whose correspondence often will not admit of delay, sit naked immersed up to the neck in large vessels, into which cold water is continually pumped by slaves from a well. Such a country cannot be favourable to health or longevity."-We should think not. What say you, writers to the Hon. Company, up to the neck in water ;-is not this an abominable country?

"One of the Hindoo poets has fixed a sad stigma on the barbers, by a verse to this purport :-Among the sages, Narůdu,-among the beasts, the jackal-among the birds, the crow—and among men, the barber-is the most crafty.

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the hands, of the Hindoo women; these women never have their hair cut; the more and the heavier it is, the more ornamental it is considered; they wash it by rubbing clay into it at the time of bathing. Rich men are shaved every day; the middling ranks once in six or eight days, and the poor ones in ten or fifteen. The poor give about a farthing; the middling and upper ranks, about a halfpenny a time. The barber makes use of water, but not of soap; yet the Hindoo manifests the utmost patience while he shaves all round the head, (leaving a tuft of hair in the middle at the back of the head, which is commonly tied in a knot), his upper lip, chin, forehead, armpits, sometimes his breast, his ears, the inside of his nose, his wrists, and ancles, round his eye-brows, &c. Some do not shave the upper lip; and mendicants leave the whole beard. Shaving is never done in the house, nor in a shop, but sometimes under a small shed, or a tree; very often in the street or road. The Hindoos do not wear wigs the climate does not require it; and it would shock their feelings exceedingly to wear the hair of another, especially of a dead man.

The barbers, like their English brethren, dabble a little in pharmacy; but they neither bleed people, nor draw teeth, these remedies being seldom resorted to in Bengal. They cut the finger and toe nails with an instrument like an engraver's tool; and with another they

They consider their hair as an essential ornament, and the cutting it off as a shocking degradation, the mark of widowhood. "If it be a shame for a woman to be shorn or shaven, let her be covered." 2 Cor. xi. 5. The Hindoo women are very careful also to have their heads covered, and never fail to draw the veil over their faces on the approach of a stranger.

The barbers have no poles, nor are there any such things as sign-boards against the shops in Bengal.

probe wounds. The, barber wraps in a cloth his razor, tweezers, comb, a small mirror, a whet-stone, a strap, &c.

Many of the barbers peruse books in the colloquial dialects, and a few have even gained a smattering of English and Persian. Some pursue other callings, and are corn-merchants, shopkeepers, servants to native merchants, &c.

8th Class. From a kshůtriyŭ and a female shōōdrů sprung the Modukus, or confectioners. They make and sell nearly a hundred different sweetmeats, principally composed of sugar, molasses, flower, and spices. Except the cocoa-nut, they never use fruit in sweetmeats. The Bengalees, if their circumstances admit of such an indulgence, eat large quantities of sweetmeats every day, and give them to their children to the injury of their health. At weddings, shraddhus, and at almost every religious ceremony, sweetmeats are eaten in large quantities: the master of a feast is praised, in proportion to the quantity of sweetmeats offered to the image. If a market-place contain a hundred shops, twelve or fifteen of them will belong to confectioners. These sweet things, however, are not very delicate, if compared with those made in Europe. Some persons of this cast are farmers, merchants, servants, &c. A degree of wealth is acquired by a few, and many are able to read the popular tales and poems in Bengalee.

9th Class. From a shōōdrů and a female kshutriyŭ arose the Koombhukarus, or potters, who make a considerable variety of earthen ware, plaister houses with clay, also make bricks, tiles, spouts, balustrades, and those images, which, after having been worshipped certain days,

are thrown into the rivers or pools; as well as a number of play things, as birds, horses, gods, coaches, and elephants, which are painted or gilt. Bricks, which are also made by other casts, are sold at one roopee twelve anas, or two roopees, the thousand; but they are not so good as those made in England. The brick-kilns assume a pyramidical form; a moderate kiln contains about two hundred thousand bricks. The potters also dig wells, and make the round pots with which they are cased, the edges of which lap over each other, and form a solid wall of pots, far more compact than any brick work, and descending, in some instances, one hundred and fifty cubits below the surface of the earth. Each pot is about two inches thick, and a foot deep.

Many articles made by the Hindoo potters resemble the coarse earthen ware used by the poor in England. They do not glaze their common pots; nor have they any thing like porcelain, or the white jugs or basons of England; all their wares being made of brown clay, to which they give a lighter or darker colour in baking. The potter sells his wares in the market, scarcely ever at his own house. A few of the potters are men of some property; and many can read the popular stories in Bengalee.

10th Class. From a shōōdrů and a female kshŭtriyu arose the Tatees, or weavers, the six divisions of whor have no intercourse, so as to visit or intermarry with ean other. These shōōdrus are numerous in Bengal, et, except in their own business, they are said to be ery ignorant. Their loom is in substance the same a the English, though much more simple and imperfect. They

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* The Bengalēēs have no pumps, and consequently procure thejdrinking water almost wholly from pools or rivers; few wells produce goo water.

As Hindoo women never learn to read, they are unable to teach their children their first lessons, but a father may frequently be seen teaching his child to write the alphabet when five years old: at which age the male children are commonly sent to the village school.

Rich men employ persons to teach their children, even at five years of age, how to behave on the approach of a bramhun, a parent, a spiritual guide, &c. how to sit, to bow, and appear to advantage, in society. When a boy speaks of his father, he calls him t'hakoorů, lord; or of his mother, he calls her t'hakooranēē. When he returns from a journey, he bows to his father and mother, and, taking the dust from their feet, rubs it on his head. Considering their inferiority to Europeans in most of the affairs of polished life, the Hindoos in general deserve much credit for their polite address.

Almost all the larger villages in Bengal contain common schools, where a boy learns his letters by writing them, never by pronouncing the alphabet, as in Europe; he first writes them on the ground; next with an iron style, or a reed, on a palm leaf; and next on a green plantain leaf. After the simple letters, he writes the compounds; then the names of men, villages, animals, &c. and then the figures. While employed in writing on leaves, all the scholars stand up twice a day, with a monitor at their head, and repeat the numerical tables, ascending from a unit to gundas, from gundas to voorees, from voorees to půnus, and from pŭnŭs to kahŭnus; and, during school hours, they write on the palm leaf the strokes by which

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