the strict sense of religious law, forfeit their rank in the tribes they may be claffed in. They were alfo, either forbidden fron embarking on the ocean, or they were deterred from undertaking marine expeditions, by the difficulties incurred in procuring at fea, the requifite diet for a Hindoo. The probability therefore is not apparent, that any part of a people, fenced in by this reftriction, and who were so proudly centered in themselves, as to rejet with abhorrence, the admiffion of profelyes, would have emigrated into a distant country, and brought from thence a system of religious worship; nor does any probable tradition authorise the belief of an Egyptian colony having been established in India. The capacious space which Hindoftan occupies on the face of the globe, the advantages it derives from foil and climate, and from its numerous rivers, fome of them of the first class of magnitude, may be adduced as reasonable arguments of its having been peopled at a more early period of time than Egypt, which does not poffefs the like local benefits. If the degree of perfection which manufactures have attained, be received as a criterion to judge of the progrefs of civilization, and if it be alfo admitted as a teft of deciding on the antiquity of a people, who adopt no foreign improvements, little hesitation would occur, in beftowing the palm of precedence on Hindoftan, whose fabrics of the most delicate and beautiful contexture, have been long held in admiration, and have hitherto stood unrivalled. Let me conclude this comparative view, with obferving, and I truft difpaffionately, that when we fee a people people poffeffed of an ample ftock of fcience of well digefted ordinances, for the protection and improvement of fociety—and of a religion whofe tenets confift of the utmost refinement, and variety of ceremony-and, at the fame time, obferve amongst other Afiatic nations, and the Egyptians of former times, but partial diftributions of knowledge, law, and religion-we must be led to entertain a fuppofition, that the proprietors of the leffer, have been fupplied from the fources of the greater fund. These reflections which have been furnished by experience and various information, will perhaps afford more fatisfaction, than the laboured and perplexed proofs of dates and etymology, which are often framed, as they most commodiously accord with some favourite hypothefis. AMONGST the Hindoos, marriage,* when it can be performed with any degree of conveniency, is deemed an indispensable duty, and it is believed, that propagating the species in that state, entitles parents to fingular marks of the divine favour. They fhew a difapprobation of celibacy by many marks of opprobium and scorn; and I have frequently observed, that when a Hindoo, from question, or other caufes, has been brought to the affirmation of *This word, used in the Sanfcrit language, is often termed Callian, which fignifies pleasure. The Hindoos, in common ufage, have but one wife, and when this rule is deviated from, it is confidered a species of indecency. There is a set, though not numerous, of mendicants, called Joguees, or Byraghces, who live in a state of celibacy. his his single state, he has appeared difconcerted and ashamed, and immediately attributed his folitary condition to ill fortune, or fome domestic inconveniency. It is to this institution, which is strongly recommended, and, I may say, even enforced, that the generally extenfive population of Hindoftan, and its speedy recovery from the calamities of war and famine, may be largely ascribed. The entire system of domestic ordinance and œconomy of the Hindoos, is founded on a firm, yet, fimple basis; from which arise effects, happy in themselves, and powerfully operative in uniting the bonds of fociety. By the ancient laws of the country, the wife depends for the enjoyment of every pleasure, as well as for most of the ordinary accommodations of life, on the immediate existence of her husband; and it becomes her invariable interest to preserve his health, as much of her happiness is centered in his living to an old age. On the demife of the husband, the wife virtually devolves into a caput mortuum ; she is not permitted to marry again, she is deprived of all confequence in the family, and divefted of the marks of ornament and distinction. There are certain religious ceremonies not lawful for her to perform, and in somẹ inftances, fhe is held unclean; but on all occafions, after the hufband's death, the widow is claffed in the house as a slave or a menial fervant. But this ufage has not fo generally prevailed in latter times. The wives of the deceased Hindoos have moderated that fpirit of enthusiastic pride, or impulse of affection, which was used to urge them to felf-destruction on the pile of their husbands. Their Vol. I. H Their grief can now be affuaged, and their religious duties reconciled, by a participation of domestic comforts; and many of the Hindoo widows, especially in the Marhattah country, have acquired by their ability, their wealth, connection, or intrigue, the poffeffion of extenfive power and influence. Amongst the superior tribes of the Hindoos, where the sense of honor or fhame, is more delicately preserved, rather than fuffer a degradation, by which female attractions are extinguished, and the pride and spirit of the fex depreffed, the women are impelled by a furious courage, softened by the term of matrimonial affection, to terminate the mifery of their condition in death. According to a passage of the Shafter of the Hindoos, which I examined by the help of an interpreter, it is fpecifically ordained, that a wife ought to burn herfelf at her hufband's death; should fhe not poffefs the refolution of sustaining this trial, she is directed to make a pilgrimage to fome of the facred places of Hindoo ablution, as Benares, Allahabad, Ghyah, &c. and there, appropriating her property to charitable uses, offer up a facrifice of her hair to the memory of her husband. She is not to decorate her perfon with jewels, with gold, filver, or any female ornament: she is not to use perfumes, nor eat flesh, fish, or butter ; but to live on plain barley or wheaten bread, and eat but once in a day. Her time is to be employed in the conftant worship of God, and the purification of her mind, from anger, malice, and avarice; and she is to withdraw herself from all the concerns of the world.. If her life is paffed in these acts she is promised after death to enter heaven, heaven, without fuffering intermediate purgation. In addition to the dread of fo degraded a state of mortification, the widow on the other fide is told by the Bramins, that the performance of the act of self-destruction will entitle her to an ample participation of exquifite future joys, and will enfure to her progeny the pre-eminent favor of the Deity. Though the iffue of fuch a refolution forcibly affects those feelings of humanity cherished amongst European nations, yet as the ufage appears to originate in a cause tending to strengthen domeftic policy, it ought not to be haftily condemned, or imputed altogether to the dictates of cruelty or injustice. Conformably to the ftate of fubordination in which Hindoo women are placed, it has been judged expedient to debar them the ufe of letters. The Hindoos hold the invariable language, that acquired accomplishments are not neceffary to the domeftic claffes of the female fex, whether for contributing to her individual happiness, or preferving the decorum of character, and fimplicity of manners, which alone render her useful or amiable, in the estimation of her family. They urge that a knowledge of literature would conduce to draw a woman from her household cares, and give a difrelish to those offices, in which confift the only fatisfaction and amusement that fhe can, with propriety, and an obfervance of rectitude, partake of; and fuch is the force of custom, that a Hindoo woman would incur a fevere reproach, were it known that she could read or write. The Hindoo dancing girls, whofe occupations are avowedly devoted to the public pleasure, are, on the contrary taught H 2 |