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take to give even an outline. Fulsome praises aadressed to some chosen deity, frequently the repetition of his name for hours together, constitute the favourite occupation of the worshipper.

Among the religious duties of the Hindoo begging holds a conspicuous place. It is incumbent on all who aim at distinguished sancity to make mendicity the only source of their subsistence; and deep is the degradation of a devotee of high class when obliged to betake himself for support to an honest trade. The extensive prevalence of the same idea in the Romish church, where the mendicant orders enjoyed such reputation, shows it to have a foundation in human nature; but it is nowhere carried to so preposterous an extent as in Hindostan. Mr. Ward hesitates not to affirm that an eighth part of the inhabitants of Bengal and Bahar subsist in this manner. Thus they form a begging population of upwards of two millions; and the alms received by them, supposing each to obtain only a rupee a month, will amount to three millions sterling; a sum annually extracted from the labouring classes, who in general are extremely poor.

Devout pilgrimages are in like manner performed by the Hindoos to a great extent. All the principal roads are crowded with people hastening to the sacred shrines and waters. The most celebrated temple for this purpose is that of Jagannatha or Juggernaut, in Orissa, which is also frequented by vast crowds to witness the impious rites there celebrated. Another grand object of attraction is found on the banks of the Ganges, particularly at the prayagas, or junctions with its tributary streams. The influx of the Jumna renders Allahabad one of the chief among holy cities, and to bathe at the point of confluence atones for almost all the deadly sins. Still higher value is attached to those meetings of the waters that take place in its upper course, amid the grandeur of mountain scenery. Hurdwar, where the Bagiruttee and Alacananda unite in forming the Ganges, attracts at a particular season sometimes two millions and a half of pilgrims from the remotest provinces. About 45,000 or 50,000 adventurous devotees scale the tremendous cliffs of the Himmalehs, till they reach the shrine of Bhadrinath, and some even ascend to that of Gangoutri, where the holy river is seen bursting from beneath the eternal VOL. II.-U

snows. Many, however, in making their way along icy declivities, and by the side of rugged precipices and roaring torrents, either perish outright or lose partially the use of their limbs. Yet a very few proceed still farther, and penetrate the passes of the central range till they come in view of the spacious lake of Manasawara, overhung by the snowy cliffs of Caillas. Once to have beheld these sacred waters is considered by the devout as a peculiar felicity.

Penance and self-torture are regarded as essential to the attainment of a character for holiness. Not only do devotees boast of renouncing all the decencies and pleasures of life, with all the charms of social intercourse, but they rack their invention to contrive the most painful sufferings. The yogues or fakirs live in the depth of forests, either absolutely naked or having their bodies smeared with ashes and cow-dung, their nails grown to the dimension of huge claws, their beards reaching to an immeasurable length. It is their pride to expose themselves to the tempest when it beats with its utmost fury, and to the sun when darting its intensest rays; above all, to remain fixed for long periods in constrained and fantastic attitudes. Some hold their hands above their heads till they cannot bring them down again; others clench their fists till the nails penetrate the palm; and a third class turn their faces towards the sun till they cannot regain their natural position. A certain traveller, who left one of them thus stationed, was astonished on returning to India, sixteen years after, to find him in the very same posture. There are even persons who dig a living grave, and remain buried in the earth, with only an aperture for the admission of light and food. It is chiefly by means of such preposterous modes of self-torture that absorption into the essence of Bram or the Supreme Mind, the highest aim of every Hindoo saint, is held to be attainable.

These absurd austerities were remarked principally by the earlier travellers, and are said to have now become comparatively rare. Yet Mr. Ward, in the year 1806, when visiting the sacred island of Saugor, saw several instances of this irrational devotion. He mentions also an account given by a European gentleman, who in the neighbourhood of Calcutta perceived something of human shape in a hole in the earth; but, unable to believe that it was a

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man, beat it till blood flowed, without being able to excite any movement beyond what might have been expected from a log of wood. These yogues, according to the same author, are not humble penitents, but proud ascetics. They are impressed with the belief that the practice of these unnatural severities leads directly to the possession of divine and supernatural powers. They relate stories of impious men, nay of asoors or demons, who by such means have obtained an empire over nature, and even over the gods. There was, it appears, a band of giants, who, by suspending themselves with their heads downward over a slow fire for eight hundred years, and tearing the flesh from the bones, became so mighty, and caused such an alarm_throughout the Hindoo heaven, that the battle in which Doorga vanquished them ranks among the most distinguished exploits of that terrible divinity. Another doctrine of this strange creed teaches that the immortals, instead of viewing with satisfaction these acts of devotion, are struck with alarm, lest the performers should thereby arrive at a power dangerous to the stability of the celestial dominion. They do not therefore scruple to employ means for seducing them into such sensual indulgences as may cause them to relinquish these lofty pretensions.

Indian superstition assumes a still darker form in prompting to religious suicide. Various are the modes in which its blinded votaries consign themselves to death. One of the most common is exhibited at the procession of their idol cars, particularly at the festival of Juggernaut, when the precincts of the temple are crowded by vast multitudes of pilgrims from the remotest quarters, many of whom perish through fatigue and want of accommodation. The car is a lofty ornamented structure, in which are seated representations of the god, and of Bala Rama and Soobhadra, said to be his brother and sister. Large cables are attached to the vehicle, which the multitude eagerly grasp, and drag it along in triumph amid the shouts of surrounding thousands. This is the moment when, as the wheels pass swiftly on, the self-devoted victim rushes forward, throws himself before them, and is crushed to death. He thus commands the admiration of the bystanders, and exults in the hope that he will thereby expiate all his sins, and secure a passage to the celestial abodes. The best repre

sentation which we have met with of such an exhibition is that given by Sonnerat. He presents it under the title of "the Festival of Teroton, or the Chariot ;" not as specially applying to Juggernaut, but as a general picture of the scene exhibited there as well as at Seringham, Chillumbrum, and other celebrated pagodas.

The suttee, or sacrifice of widows on the funeral-pile of their husbands, is another well-known form of self-immolation. The practice does not appear to be exclusively religious, being connected with the tenderest of domestic ties, to which the secluded life of Indian females adds peculiar force. Their sacred books, however, decidedly attach a pious character to this unnatura! sacrifice, and lavish promises of divine blessings on the performance of it. The widow is assured that she shall thus gain an abode in heaven during as many years as there are hairs on the human head, which are stated at thirty-five millions; that her husband, also, though sunk in the depths of hell, will be drawn up to the same happy region, and the sins of both entirely wiped away. The deluded female who acts her part well proceeds gayly to the spot in her finest attire, and decked in her most precious jewels and ornaments. On her arrival she calmly and courteously addresses her surrounding friends, and distributes among them various articles of value. Mandelslo, the traveller, when present only as a spectator, had a bracelet thrown to him by the lady, which he kept ever after as a memorial of the scene. Often, however, when the dreadful moment approaches, she shrinks from the performance of her rash vow, gives way to cries and despair, and even refuses to ascend the pile; but the relations, considering the honour of their family as implicated, employ every species of urgency and even compulsion to induce her to complete the sacrifice. A scene peculiarly distressing occurs at the death of those opulent Hindoos who have carried polygamy to a great extent, when twelve, fifteen, or eighteen wives are known to have perished on the same pile. Ward mentions a case in which the fire was kept burning for three days; and during that time thirty-seven widows of one Bramin came in parties at different times and threw themselves into the flames. But perhaps the deepest of these tragedies ever acted in India was on occasion of the untimely death of Ajit, one of the

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most distinguished princes of Marwar, described by Colonel Tod in his second volume. Fifty-eight queens, "the curtain wives of affection," determined to offer themselves a sacrifice to Agni, exclaiming, "The world we will abandon, but never our lord!" They went "radiant as the sun, dispensing charity like falling rain," and threw themselves together on one mighty pile, which soon blazed to the skies, and, according to the Hindoo writers, "the faithful queens laved their bodies in the flames, as do the celestials in the lake of Manasawara." It is painful to peruse the expressions of applause and veneration in which their conduct is mentioned, and of the honour it is supposed to confer both on themselves and their deceased spouse. What renders this practice still more revolting is the fact that the son is made the instrument of his mother's death, the ceremonial requiring that his hand should apply the fire to the pile. We shall afterward have occasion to mention the steps taken by the British government for suppressing this frightful superstition.

Another deplorable result of false religion in India was infanticide. It was to the Ganges chiefly that this barbarous sacrifice was performed. Not unfrequently, in cases of barrenness, a married pair bound themselves, if blessed with offspring, to doom their first-born to the divinity of the river. Having allowed the child to reach the age of three or four, they led him into the water beyond his depth, and left him to float down the stream. Perhaps some charitable hand might pick him up; but by his parents, at least, he was never more recognised. Other infants were placed in baskets and hung up on trees, where they were devoured by ants or birds of prey. The British authorities, however, have now strictly prohibited this criminal practice. The very frequent destruction of female infants among the Rajpoot tribes in the west of India is imputed by Ward to superstition; but Colonel Tod and Sir John Malcolm, who had much better information concerning this quarter of India, are convinced that it arises altogether from a foolish pride of birth, and the difficulty of suitably disposing of daughters in marriage. There are other modes by which individuals seek a voluntary death, as by plunging into the Ganges, particularly at the point of its junction with the Jumna, and by exposing themselves to be

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