Imatges de pàgina
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the requisite atonement; but many affirm that the atonement benefits the party only in a future state, and does not effect his restoration to society in this world. The offering of atonement is a cow, or a piece of gold, or cloth, or a few kourees.

Such are the baneful effects of the cast on social life. But that which, more than any thing else, in the opinion of a sincere christian, condemns the cast, is the resistance which it opposes to the prevalence of the true religion. If a Hindoo be convinced of the excellency of the christian religion, be must become a martyr the same hour that he becomes a christian. He must think no more of sitting in the bosom of his family, but must literally forsake "all that he hath" to become the disciple of Christ. Liberty to obey the decisions of the mind, and the convictions of conscience, has ever been considered as one of the most important birth-rights of a rational being; but the cast opposes all the rights of reason and conscience, and presents almost insurmountable obstacles to the progress of truth.

The loss of cast, however, loses half its terrors where a person can obtain society suited to his wishes: the chains of the cast, too, are severely or lightly felt in proportion to a person's worldly incumbrances: an unmarried person finds it comparatively easy to leave one order of society and enter into another. I have seen some who have lost cast, quite as happy as those possessed of all that this distinction could bestow many of the peer-alees are pos sessed of large property, and are invited to Hindoo festivals without reserve; with this difference only betwixt them and other Hindoos, that they do not mix with the other casts at the time of eating; but this exists also

among different ranks of bramhuns: a bramhun of high rank will not eat in the same house, and at the same time, with a bramhun of low cast.

In some parts of India, the natives do things with impunity which in other parts would cause the loss of cast. In the upper provinces, the regulations of the cast relative to eating are less regarded than in Bengal; while the intermixture of the casts in marriage is there guarded against with greater anxiety.

Thousands of Hindoos daily violate the rules of the cast in secret, and disavow it before their friends: this fact refers to several new sects, who have seceded, in some measure, from the bramhinical system. But there are great multitudes of young men, especially in Calcutta, who habitually eat, in the night, with the Portuguese and others, and shake off the fetters of the cast whenever pleasure calls. Here licentious habits are making the greatest inroads on this institution: and indeed to such an extent are the manners of the Hindoos become corrupt, that nearly one half of the bramhuns in Bengal, the author is informed, are in the constant practice of eating flesh and drinking spirits in private. Ubhuyŭ-chŭrună, a respectable bramhun, assured the author of his having been credibly informed, that in the eastern parts of Bengal, the bramhuns distil in their own houses the spirits which they drink this bramhun, a few years ago, at the Shyama festival, called, in the night, at the house of a rich Hindoo near Calcutta, to see the image of the goddess, and observed, that the offerings formed a pile as high as the image itself. Two or three of the heads of the family

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Smoking intoxicating drugs also is almost become universal anong these representatives of the gods on earth.

were in a state of complete intoxication; and after remaining a short time, one of them called out, "Uncle, a thief is come to steal the offerings-see, he stands there, in a white garment." The uncle, also intoxicated, but still able to walk, staggered up to the pile of offerings, and supposing that to be the thief in a white garment, smote it with such force, as to scatter the offerings at the feet of the goddess, and all over the temple floor. While the uncle was thus driving the thief out of the temple, a friendly dog was devouring the vomit of the nephew laid prostrate in the temple yard.-In conversation with a respectable shōōdrů, on these secret violations of the rules of the cast, he gave me in writing an account, of which the following is a translation: "When a party sit to drink spirits, they ask a wise man among themselves, whose family for seven generations has been in the habit of drinking spirits, what benefit may be derived from the practice? He replies, He who drinks spirits, will be filled with joy, till he fall again and again to the earth: should he vomit, he must place his mouth in it: if he devour the vomit, he will be rewarded with heaven." Let the reader add this fact to various others which he will find in the introduction to the first volume, and he will be able to account for the Scripture designating the practices of the heathen by the expressive term"abominable idolatries."

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CHAP. III.

SECT. I.—Of births, and the nursing and education of

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children.

HINDOOS of respectability treat a pregnant female with peculiar tenderness; and when approaching the time of her delivery, she is indulged with whatever she desires. This solicitude does not arise from the fear that the infant will suffer if the mother be denied what she longs for, but, from the hope of having a son, as well as from a common fear among the Hindoos, that if a female do not obtain what she desires, the delivery will be prolonged. A Hindoo woman exceedingly dreads the hour of childbirth, especially at the first birth after marriage. In the houses of the rich, a slight shed is always prepared for the female; who, after her delivery, is considered as in a state of uncleanness; where a number of families live together, such a shed is always reserved for this purpose. Before the birth of a child, to keep off evil spirits, the Hindoos lay the scull of a dead cow, smeared with red lead, &c. at the door of this hut. If a female have a difficult delivery, she suffers extremely for want of that assistance which a skilful surgeon, (did Hindoo manners admit of his services,) would be able to afford: many perish. The midwives are chiefly of the haree cast; other

So great is this dread, that it has received a proverbial appellation, “sŭtŭ-shünka, or the hundred-fold to be dreaded," and the relations of such a female, considering how doubtful her passing through that period with safety is, to show their attachment, present her with various farewell gifts.

It is become a proverb among this indolent people, that the life of a woman, being more sedentary, is happier than that of a man, and nothing but a dread of the danger here alluded to, makes them content to be men still.

females of low cast practice, but they are not numerous. A roopee and a garment are the common fee to the midwife from the middling ranks; the poor give less.

Almost all the lower orders of Hindoos give spirituous liquors to their females immediately after delivery; and medicine, a few hours after the child is born; sickness rarely succeeds a lying-in. When the father first goes to see the child, if a rich man, he puts some money into its hand; and any of the relatives who may be present do the same. The mother is constantly kept very warm; after five days she bathes; and on the sixth day, to obtain the blessing of Shusht'hee on the child, this goddess is worshipped in the room where the child was born. If a child die soon after its birth, the Hindoos say, "See! the want of compassion in Shusht'hee; she gave a child, and now she has tahen it away again." If a person have several children, and they all live, the neighbours say, "Ah!-Shusht'hee's lap!" On the eighth day, to please the neighbouring children, the members of the family sprinkle, with a winnowing fan, on the ground opposite the house, eight kinds of parched pease and parched rice; and about twenty-one days after delivery, the woman begins to attend to her family business. On the twentyfirst day, Shusht'hee is again worshipped, by the women

d Hindoos of the lowest class, if several of their children have died soon after the birth, procure a ring to be made from the chains of some convict, and place it upon the next child's ancle. If a son, when grown up, act very contrary to the manners of his parents, he is said to have been changed in the womb by Jatŭ-harinēē, a goddess, worshipped by this people, and supposed, as her name imports, to play such tricks with mankind.

• Poor women in the northern parts of Bengal are known to attend to the business of their families the day after delivery. The author is informed, that sometimes a mother is delivered while at work in the field, when she carries the child home in her arms, and returns to her work there the next day.

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