certain tribes of Hindoos, is thought to be indecorous; for this unintentional sin against etiquette, she determines to die, endeavours, like the Roman slave, to beat our her "desperate brains" against the wall, and, failing, prevails upon her own son, by threatening him with a mother's curse, to rid her of her life, for which he is afterwards executed as a murderer.

Notwithstanding these proofs of ferocity of character, which, though they might be greatly multiplied, are sufficient to show the perverted state of society in India, the Hindoos in general are far from being a reckless, unfeeling, savage people. "I do not by any means assent," says Bishop Heber, "to the pictures of depravity and general worthlessness which some have drawn of the Hindoos. They are decidedly by nature a mild, pleasing, intelligent race; sober, parsimonious, and, where an object is held out to them, most industrious and persevering. But the magistrates and lawyers all agree, that in no country are lying and perjury so common and so little regarded. Notwithstanding the apparent mildness of their manners, the criminal calendar is generally as full as in Ireland, with gang-robberies, setting fire to buildings, &c.; and the number of children who are decoyed aside, and murdered for the sake of their ornaments, Lord Amherst assures me, is dreadful 113.'

Without calling in question the opinion of the "magistrates and lawyers," whose experience, however, was most likely confined to the country in which they lived, or at farthest, to India and England, which, in this respect, can of course be expected to bear no comparison, it may be remarked that wherever despotism prevails, falsehood and dissimulation among the people are the necessary results. On the whole," continues the traveller," they are 113 Narrative of a Journey, &c. vol. iii. p. 254.

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a lively, intelligent, and interesting people: of the upper classes a very considerable proportion learn our language, read our books and our newspapers, and show a desire to court our society; the peasants are anxious to learn English, and though certainly very few of them have as yet embraced Christianity, I do not think their reluctance is more than might have been expected in any country where a system so entirely different from that previously professed was offered, and offered by those of whom, as their conquerors, they may well entertain considerable jealousy. Their own religion is, indeed, a horrible one; far more so than I had conceived; it gives them no moral precepts; it encourages them in vice by the style of its ceremonies, and the character given of its deities, and by the institution of castes, it hardens their hearts against each other to a degree which is often most revolting 114 "

The bishop then proceeds to relate several anecdotes illustrative of the demoralizing effects of the system of castes, which, as he himself considers them as extraordinary occurrences, can by no means affect our view of the national character. No man would think of taking his conception of the English nation from those solitary monsters which sometimes start up amongst us, and startle the world by their stupendous flagitiousness; of the French, from the massacre of St. Barthélémy, or the Reign of Terror; of the Dutch, from the atrocities of Amboyna. These are horrors, perpetrated by heads turned delirious by crime, at which every civilized man of every nation shudders. Let us act on the same principles in judging of the Hindoos. And, in fact, it is upon these principles that the benevolent and candid Heber proceeds: "The national temper," he observes, "is decidedly good, gentle, and kind; 114 Narrative, &c. vol. iii. p. 261.

they are sober, industrious, affectionate to their rela tions; generally speaking faithful to their masters, easily attached by kindness and confidence, and in the case of the military oath, are of admirable obedience, courage, and fidelity in life and death. But their morality does not extend beyond the reach of positive obligations; and where these do not exist, they are oppressive, cruel, treacherous, and every thing that is bad. We have heard much in England of their humanity to animals; I can only say that I have seen no tokens of it in Calcutta..... Do not suppose I am prejudiced against the Hindoos. In my personal intercourse with them, I have seen much to be pleased with, and all which I hear and believe as to what they might be with a better creed, makes me the more earnest in stating the horrors for which their present creed, as I think, is answerable 115 "

If we rightly understand the traveller, by those who are not under the empire of "positive obligations," he means the native rulers of India, who are generally tyrants; and tyrants are much the same all the world over. This opinion, however, was formed upon a slight acquaintance with the people, in the January of 1824, previous to his journey through the interior of the country, during which his opportunities of studying their manners and character were very considerable. Fourteen months later, when he had nearly completed his tour of the whole empire, corrected his opinions, enlarged his experience, and matured his views, we find his judgment of the Hindoo character much more favourable. "Of the people," says he, writing to Mr. Wynn, from Pertaubghur, in Malwah, so far as their natural character is concerned, I have been led to form, on the whole, a very favourable opinion. They 115 Narrative, &c. vol. iii, p. 264, 265.

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have unhappily many of the vices arising from slavery, from an unsettled state of society, and immoral and erroneous systems of religion. But they are men of high and gallant courage, courteous, intelligent, and most eager after knowledge and improvement, with a remarkable aptitude for the abstract sciences, geometry, astronomy, &c., and for the imitative arts, painting and sculpture. They are sober, industrious, dutiful to their parents, and affectionate to their children, of tempers almost uniformly gentle and patient, and more easily affected by kindness and attention to their wants and feelings, than almost any men whom I have met with. Their faults seem to arise from the hateful superstitions to which they are subject, and the unfavourable state of society in which they are placed. But if it should please God to make any considerable portion of them Christians, they would, I can well believe, put the best European Christians to shame. They are the sepoys and irregular horse of whom I chiefly speak, for of these it is that I have happened to see most, having taken all opportunities of conversing with my escort, and having, for several weeks together, had scarcely anybody else to converse with. I find, however, that my opinion of both these classes of men is that of all the officers in the company's service to whom I have named the subject; and so far as my experience reaches, which certainly is not great, I have no reason to suppose that the classes whom I have mentioned, are not a fair average specimen of the other inhabitants of the country 116"

116 Narrative, &c. vol. iii. p. 333, 334.

CHAPTER VIII.

FOOD-STATURE-DRESS-ORNAMENTS-AND
DWELLINGS.

THE prejudices existing in Europe respecting the Hindoos are innumerable. Those relating to caste, to religion, and to their general manners, we have endeavoured to remove. Our ordinary ideas of their food, of the simplicity of their habits, of their universal abstemiousness, sobriety, and superstitious reluctance to destroy animal life, next present themselves for our consideration. In the imagination of many writers, India has hitherto been a kind of Utopia, where, amid palmyra groves and bloodless altars, a race of gentle character, regarding the inferior animals as their brethren, in whose bodies the souls of their erring forefathers and deceased relations had been lodged in penance, lead a peaceful, harmless life.

This view of the matter is supported, it must be owned, by authorities to which the public are accustomed to attribute considerable weight. The Court of Directors of the East India Company, who should know something of the character and habits of their subjects, inform the world that the great majority of the Hindoos "live all their days upon rice, and go only half-covered with a slight cotton cloth'." Montes

1 Quoted by Mr. Rickards in his useful and valuable work on India, vol. i. p. 48. The testimony of this writer is entitled to very great respect, not merely because a large portion of his life has been spent in India-for others have lived much longer in that country and yet returned full of prejudices--but because his views are distinguished for sound manly good sense.

He