widows are expressly forbidden to destroy themselves at the death of their husbands, and are permitted to renew the ceremonies of marriage. But so strong is yet the adherence of the Sicques who have been converted from the Hindoo tribes, to the ancient customs of their country, that many of their women are seen ascending the funeral pile; nor are they ever induced to enter a second time into the connubial state. The Sicques, after the manner of the Hindoos, bury their dead; and they oblige the Mahometan converts to adopt the like usage. They hold a lamentation for the death of any person criminal, and equally unjust as to be afflicted with grief at the payment of an equitable debt, or the surrender of a trust. Their belief of a future state seems to correspond in most of its parts with the metempsychosis of the Hindoos; and as a sketch of that system has been already given, any further explanation of it is unnecessary.

THE Sicque nation is composed of two distinct sects, or orders of people; those who compose the most ancient one are denominated Khualasah, and adhere, with little deviation, to the institutions of Nanock, and the eight succeeding priests; in obedience to which, the

* Khualasah conveys virtually the same meaning in the Arabic as Khalsah, which signifiespure, genuine, &c.

Khualasah sect are usually occupied in civil and domestic duties. They cut off the hair of their heads and beards, and in their manners and appearance resemble the ordinary classes of the Hindoos*.

THE modern order of the Sicques, intitled Khalsa, was founded by Govind Sing; who, deviating from the ordinances of his predecessors, imparted a strong military spirit to his adherents, whose zealous attachment enabled him to indulge the bent of a fierce and turbulent temper, and to give scope to an ambition, naturally arising from the power which his popularity created. Govind Sing is said to have restricted his sectaries from the use of tobacco, and to have enjoined them to permit the growth of the beard, and the hair of the head. The military division of the people is composed of the Khalsa sect, which, from a native harshness of features and haughtiness of deportment, is conspicuously discriminated from that of the Khualasah, and other classes of the foreign converts.

FOR the space of seventy years after the death of Nanock, the growth of the Sicques was slow, and their conduct was regulated by a temperate discretion. But when the Moghul empire had received its mortal wound from the

I have been informed that matrimonial connections are occasionally formed between the Hindoos, and Khualasah Sicques.

commotions which arose amongst the sons and the grandsons of Aurungzebe; when it was no longer guided by the skilful and vigorous hand which had diffused wisdom and spirit throughout its vast machine, the disciples of Nanock issued into the field, and participated in the varying fortunes of the day. The rebellions of the distant provinces, and the factions and intrigues of the court, events which rapidly followed the death of Aurungzebe, gave a powerful aid to the exertions of the Sicques, who, improving the favourable occasion, carried their depredations, even in the reign of Bhahauder Shah, to the environs of the capital. The situation * of the country where the doctrine of the Sicques had been the most widely promulgated, and where they first formed a military body, contributed to augment their power, as well as afford shelter against a superior force of their enemies. On the skirts of forests and mountains, impervious to cavalry, they enjoyed also the benefits arising from the vicinity of an opulent populous territory, which at once afforded a store of converts and plunder.

THE Sicque common-wealth acquired an active strength from the spirit and valour of Bunda, who had inspired them with a zeal,

*In the vicinity of the Punjab mountains.

which rendered meritorious every act of cruelty to the enemies of their faith, and gave their attacks, until opposed by the collected force of the empire, an irresistible impulse. The success of this fierce adventurer, had allured to his standard a numerous body of proselytes: some to obtain a protection against the rapacity of the Sicque government, others to take shelter from the oppressions or just demands of the empire whilst many embraced the new doctrine, from the hope of participating the plunder of the Punjab. The larger portion of the converts were of the tribe of Jatts and Goojers; a people who are chiefly seen in the northern parts. of India. They are esteemed skilful and active husbandmen, but notorious for a turbulent and restless temper,

THE defeat and death of Bunda effected a total destruction of the power of the Sicques, and, ostensibly, an extirpation of their sect. An edict was issued by Furruck Sir, directing that every Sicque falling into the hands of his officers, should, on a refusal of embracing the Mahometan faith, be put to the sword. A valuable reward was also given by the emperor, for the head of every Sicque; and such was the keen spirit that animated the persecution, such

*The Khalsa Sicques have largely originated from these tribes.

the success of the exertions, that the name of a Sicque no longer existed in the Moghul dominion. Those who still adhered to the tenets of Nanock, either fled into the mountains at the head of the Punjab, or cut off their hair, and exteriorly renounced the profession of their religion.

AFTER a period of more than thirty years, the spark that had lain concealed amongst the ruins of the fabrick of Nanock, burst forth, and produced a flame which hath never been extinguished, It is mentioned that the Sicque forces appeared in arms at the period of Nadir Shah's return from Delhi *; when the Persian army, incumbered with spoil, and regardless of order, was attacked in the rear by detached predatory parties of Sicque cavalry, who occasionally fell upon the baggage-guards, and acquired a large plunder. During the periods of tumult and distress, which followed the Persian †, and the first Afghan invasion, the Sicques emerged more conspicuously from their places of concealment; and collecting a numerous party of promiscuous adventurers, they soon rose into military importance. Even at the low ebb to which the Sicques had been reduced by the destruction of their force, the death of their leader, and the proscription of their sect, they had continued