effects of the expiring month, a number of Sannyasis proceed, about four o'clock in the morning, from door to door, beating on a metallic plate which produces a piercing sound. The people, being thus roused from sleep, are counselled to take wise precautions, and to guard against the evil presages of the month, by expiatory offerings, and sacrifices to Siva, who presides over it. With this view, every morning, the women scour a space of about two feet square before the door of the house, upon which they draw several white lines with flowers. Upon these they place several little balls of cow-dung, sticking in each a citron blossom. These balls with their flowers are collected every day, and preserved until the conclusion of the festival, when the women, who are here the sole actors, place them in a basket, and, preceded by musical instruments, march in procession, with great rejoicing and clapping of hands, to the public tank or some desert place where they cast away the relics. The first day is passed in feasting. On the second, which is sacred to the sun, married women purify themselves by bathing with all their garments on. Rising dripping out of the stream they in that condition dress rice and milk in the open air, in honour of the God of Obstacles. The third day, when the men alone perform, is devoted to the worship of the cow, the emblem of Bhavani. They are first sprinkled with holy water, like the horses in the Circensian games; the devotees next make four prostrations before them; their horns are then painted with various colours; garlands of flowers, and strings of cocoa-nuts and other fruit are put round their necks, which, being shaken off as they walk or run about, are picked up by the devout, who preserve them as so many sacred relics. The consecrated animals are then driven in a body through the villages, accompanied and followed by crowds of

people, who make a discordant noise upon various musical instruments. During the remainder of the day the cows are permitted to stray whithersoever they please, and feed in every field without restraint. The festival concludes by taking the images of the gods from the temples, and carrying them in procession, with great pomp, to the spot where the cattle have been collected. A number of dancing-girls move in front of the crowd, in honour of the idols, and pause from time to time, "to exhibit their wanton movements, and charm the audience with their lascivious songs 54 99

54 Dubois, Description of the Character, Manners and Cus toms of the People of India, p. 386-389. We have in the preceding pages confined ourselves to an enumeration of only a few of the principal festivals of the Hindoos. Those who wish to obtain further information on the subject we must refer to Ward's View of the History, &c. of the Hindoos, vol. ii. p. 22, &c. (third edition); and to Sir William Jones's dissertation on the lunar year of the Hindoos, in the Asiatic Researches, vol. iii. p. 257-293, where a very complete list of all the Hindoo festivals, arranged according to the months in which they occur, is given.

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CHAPTER VII.

CHARACTER-MANNERS-AND CUSTOMS.

THE manners of a people are merely the modes in which their national character developes itself in the ordinary business of life. Justly to appreciate the manners of a foreign nation is a task of extreme difficulty, not only to the historian who, for the most part, can only view them as they are reflected in the descriptions of others; but also for the traveller who is supposed to contemplate them as they are in themselves. For it often happens that travellers see rather with the eyes of their predecessors than with their own, and only make their experience an excuse for continuing to be enslaved by their old prejudices. Besides, in the case of the Hindoos, no traveller can speak, from personal experience, upon the general topic, the field of observation being much too large to be thoroughly investigated during the greatest extent of life indulged to man. Happily, however, a division of labour has taken place. Numerous individuals, scattered by choice or chance over the vast scene of Hindoostan, following each the bent of his own inclinations, have described with more or less of judgment and accuracy separate portions of the great whole. We thus inherit, as it were, the rich harvest sown by their toils. The immense picture, reduced to a moderate compass by the industry of those who, like the officers of the ancient kings of Persia, have been to us as so many eyes and ears, can now be taken in by the eye at a single glance. If, therefore, we succeed in forming an intelligible notion

VOL. I.

Y

of Hindoo character and manners, much of the credit will be due to the able enlightened travellers who have removed the obstacles which formerly obstructed the sight of philosophers, and by their united efforts placed the entire champaign, clothed in all its vivid variegated colours, before the sight.

From various causes, the greater number of which appear to have been in operation before the beginning of history, the national character of the Hindoos unites in its development great uniformity with the most striking variety; there being in every Hindoo, of every caste, some indescribable peculiarity denoting his affinity with his nation, while each of the innumerable tribes or hordes into which the vast mass of the population is divided, is distinguished by certain traits of manners peculiar to itself1. It would, however, be an endless as well as a useless task to describe all the more minute moral features which characterize the various small masses into which this great family of mankind is broken up. A brief recapitulation of the more striking and remarkable, and which, in most cases, are shared in common by the whole nation, is all that a well-regulated curiosity can require. We shall endeavour to trace the natural course of the life of a Hindoo, and examine his mode of acting, from his entrance into the world, until his spirit, according to his own creed, returns to the Being from whom it emanated, or is condemned to act over in a new body the drama of life again. The honest performance of this task will necessarily lead us to speak of customs and usages extremely different from our own, and

1 "The shades of moral distinction," says Colonel Tod, "which separate these races, are almost imperceptible; while you cannot pass any grand natural barrier without having the dissimilarity of customs and manners forced upon your observation." Annals of Rajasthan, vol. i. p. 608.

therefore offensive to our tastes. The Hindoos are, in fact, a comparatively barbarous people. Their religion is intimately allied with grossness, cruelty, and licentiousness. The principle, therefore, which should refine and purify is there converted into an instrument of corruption. Nature is not even left to itself. The aid of art and of religious pageantries is called in to arouse passions which, beneath the burning sun of India, rush towards their object with uncontrollable impetuosity. For this reason the picture of Hindoo manners must be anything but a beautiful exhibition of pastoral innocence. Yet in so vast a scene it is not to be supposed that all is dark. Some sunny spots there are in this dismal wilderness, upon which the mind dwells with satisfaction.

Even before his birth the Hindoo is an object of solicitude to his parents. The pregnant mother is treated with great tenderness and indulgence, and ceremonies are performed to avert the influence of malignant spirits.

When the father first comes to visit his new-born offspring, he, as a good omen, puts some money into its hand, and all those relations who are present do the same. On the fifth day after her confinement, the mother bathes; and on the sixth, the goddess Shashthi is worshipped with peculiar rites in the shed where the child was born 2. On the eighth day, that there may be as little intermission as possible in the ceremonies, eight kinds of parched pulse and rice, prepared within the house, are carried forth and sprinkled before the door, apparently as an offering to some divinity. These are immediately collected and eaten by the poor children of the neighbourhood. On the twenty-first day all the

2 Ward's View of the History, Literature, and Mythology of the Hindoos, vol. iii. p. 155, &c. (third edition.)