and superabundance of preparations. Many are the tricks employed to outwit him. With all his natural shrewdness, and forewarned by the females of his own family, he is no match for either the playful humor and frolics of the young, sprightly ladies. Sham articles of food cleverly dressed in close imitation of fruits and sweetmeats are offered him without detection in the full blaze of day, and the attempt to partake of them excites bursts of laughter and merriment. The utmost female ingenuity is here brought into play to call forth amusement at the expense of the duped youth. In their own way, the good-natured females are mistresses of jokes and jests, and nothing pleases them better than to find the youthful new comer completely nonplused. This forms the favorite subject of their talk long after the event. Shut up in the cage of a secluded zenana, quite beyond the influence of the outside world, it is no wonder that their minds and thoughts do not rise above the trifles of their own narrow circle.

As in the case of the "Brother" festival, ample presents of clothes, fruits, and sweetmeats are sent to the house of the son-in-law, and every lane and street of Calcutta is thronged with male and female servants trudging along with their loads in full hopes of getting their share of eatables and a Rupee or a half Rupee each into the bargain.

VIII.

THE DOORGA POOJAH FESTIVAL.

Y far the most popular religious festival of the present

day among the Hindoos of Bengal, is the Doorga Poo

jah, which in the North-Western and Central Provinces is called the Dusserah festival. It is believed that the worship of the goddess Doorgah has been performed from time out of mind. The following is a description of the image of the goddess which is set up for worship: "In one of her right hands is a spear, with which she is piercing the giant, Mohishasur; with one of the left, she holds the tail of a serpent and the hair of the giant, whose breast the serpent is biting. Her other hands are all stretched behind her head and filled with different instruments of war. Against her right leg leans a lion, and against her left, the above giant. The images of Luckee, Saraswathi, Kartick and Gannesh are very frequently made and placed by the side of the goddess." The majestic deportment of the goddess, with her three eyes and ten arms, the warlike attitude in which she is represented, her sanguinary character, which was the terror of all other gods, and the mighty exploits (far surpassing in feats of strength, courage and heroism, those of the Greek Hercules,) all combine to give her an importance in the eyes of the people, which is seldom vouchsafed to any other deity. Even Bramah, Vishnoo and Shiva the Creator, Preserver and Destroyer of the world, were said to have propitiated her, and Ram Chunder, the deified hero, invoked her aid in his contest with Ravana, and as he worshipped her in the month of October, her Poojah has, from that particular circumstance, been ever after appointed to take place in that period of the

year. * A short description of this festival, the preliminary rites with which it is associated, and the national excitement and hilarity which its periodical return produces among the people, will not be altogether uninteresting to European readers.†

Twenty-one days before the commencement of the Doorga Poojah festival, a preliminary rite, by way of purifying the body and soul by means of ablution, is performed. The rite is called the "Aapar pakhaya tarpan" so called from its taking place on the first day of Pratipad and ending on the fifteenth day of Amábashya, an entire fortnight, immediately preceding the Debipakhya during which the Poojah is celebrated. It generally falls between the fifteenth of September, and the fifteenth of October. As already observed, this popular festival, called Doorga Poojah in Bengal and Dussera "or the tenth" in the North-West, although entirely military in its origin is universally respected. It is commemorative of the day on which the god Rám Chunder first marched against his enemy, Rávana, in Lanka or Ceylon for the restoration of his wife, Seeta, + who was deservedly regarded as the best model of devotion, resignation and love, as is so beautifully painted by the poet : "A woman's bliss is found, not in the smile

*

Of father, mother, friend, nor in herself:
Her husband is her only portion here,
Her heaven hereafter. If thou indeed

Depart this day into the forest drear,

I will precede, and smooth the thorny way."

т

Doorga is also worshipped in the month of April, in the time of the vernal equinox, but very few then offer her their devotion, though this celebration claims priority of origin.

For some general remarks on the religion of the Hindoos, see Note c. "In this ancient story" says Tod, "we are made acquainted with the distant maritime wars which the princes of India carried on. Even supposing Ravana's abode to be the insular Ceylon, he must have been a very powerful prince to equip an armament sufficiently numerous to carry off from the remote kingdom of Kousula the wife of the great king of the Suryas. It is most improbable that a petty king of Ceylon could wage equal war with a potentate who held the chief dominion of India; whose father, Dosaratha drove his victorious car (ratha) over every region (desa) and whose intercourse with the countries beyond the Bramaputra is distinctly to be traced in the Ramayana."

In the mornings of Apar pakhaya, for fifteen days continually, those who live near the sacred stream go thither with a small copper-pan and some teel seeds, which they sprinkle on the water at short intervals, while repeating the formulæ in a state of half immersion. To a foreigner quite unacquainted with the meaning of these rites, the scene is well calculated to impress the mind with an idea of the exceeding devotedness of the Hindoos in observing their religious ordinances. The holy water and teel seeds which are sprinkled are intended as offerings to the manes of ancestors for fourteen generations, that their souls may continue to enjoy repose to all eternity. The women, though some of them are in the habit of bathing in the holy stream every morning, are, however, precluded by their sex from taking a part in this ceremony. Precisely on the last day of the fortnight, i. e., on the Amabáshya, as if the object were attained, the rite of ablution ends, followed by another of a more comprehensive character. On this particular day, which is called Moháloyá,* the living again pay their homage to the memory of the fourteen generations of their ancestors by making them offerings of rice, fruits, sweetmeats, clothes, curded milk, and repeating the incantations said by the priest, at the conclusion of which he takes away all the articles presented and receives his dakshiná of one Rupee for his trouble. Apart from their superstitious tendency, these anniversaries, are not without their beneficial effects. They tend, in no small degree, to inspire the mind with a religious veneration for the memory of the departed worthies, and by the law of the association of ideas not unfrequently bring to recollection their distinctive features and individual characteristics.

Some aristocratic families that have been observing this festival for a long series of years, begin their Kalpa or preli

*This is also the day which is vulgarly called the Kalá kátá amabáshay when unripe plantain fruits are cut in immense quantities for offerings to Doorga.

N

minary rite on the ninth day of the decrease of the moon, when an earthen water pot called ghat* is placed in a room called bodanghur, duly consecrated by the officiating priest, who, assisted by two other Brahmins, invokes the blessing of the deity by reading a Sanskrit work, called Chundee, which relates the numerous deeds and exploits of the goddess. It is a noteworthy fact that the Brahmin, who repeats the name of the god, Modosoodun, seems, to all appearance, to be absorbed in mental abstraction. With closed eyes and moving fingers, not unlike the Rishis of old, he, as it were, disdains to look at the external world. From early in the morning till 10 o'clock the worship before the earthen pot is continued, and the officiating priests+ are strictly prohibited from using sidha, (rice) taking more than one meal a day, or sleeping with their wives, as if that would be an act of unpardonable profanation. This strict regime is to be observed by them until the whole of the ceremonial is completed, on the tenth day of the new moon. It should be mentioned here that the majority of the Hindoos begin their kalpa, or preliminary rite, on pratipad, or the beginning of the new moon, when almost every town and village resounds with the sound of conch, bell and gong, awakening latent religious emotions, and evoking agamaney, (songs or inaugural invocations) which deeply affect the hearts of Doorga's devout followers. Some of these rhythmic effusions are exceedingly pathetic. Iwish I could give a specimen here of these songs divested of their idolatrous tinge, but I am afraid of offending the ears of my European readers.

The Brahmins‡ as a rule, commence their kalpa on the sixth day or one day only previous to the beginning of the

* This sacred jar is marked with two combined triangles, denoting the union of the two deities, Siva and Doorga, the worshippers of the Sakti, female energy, mark the jar with another triangle.

The day before the Kalpa begins, these priests receive new clothes, comprising a dhootie and dubja, and some money for habishay, or food destitute of fish. Very few, however, abide by the rules enjoined in the holy writings.

Even in the observance of this religious preliminary, the Brahmins take advantage of their superior caste, and curtail five days out of six in order to save expense. Every thing is allowable in their case, because they assume to be the oracles between the god and man.