a few attendants, and about twenty persons to throw the animal down, and hold it in the post, while the head was cut off. The goats were sacrificed first, then the buffaloes, and last of all two or three rams. In order to secure the animals, ropes were fastened round their legs; they were then thrown down, and the neck placed in a piece of wood fastened into the ground, and made open at the top like the space betwixt the prongs of a fork. After the animal's neck was fastened in the wood by a peg which passed over it, the men who held it pulled forcibly at the heels; while the executioner, with a broad heavy axe, cut off the head at one blow the heads were carried in an elevated posture by an attendant, (dancing as he went,) the blood running down him on all sides, into the presence of the goddess. Kalēē-shŭnkŭrů, at the close, went up to the executioner, took him in his arms, and gave him several presents of cloth, &c. The heads and blood of the animals, as well as different meat-offerings, are presented with incantations as a feast to the goddess; after which clarified butter is burnt on a prepared altar of sand. Never did I see men so eagerly enter into the shedding of blood, nor do I think any butchers could slaughter animals more expertly. The place literally swam with blood. The bleating of the animals, the numbers slain, and the ferocity of the people employed, actually made me unwell; and I returned about midnight, filled with horror and indignation.

The gifts to bramhuns and guests at this festival are numerous, and in some instances very expensive. The bramhŭns, and then the family and other guests, are entertained, when the spirituous liquors which have been presented to the goddess are drank privately by those who are in the secret. The festival closes with the dances and songs before the goddess.

The reader may form an idea how much idolatry prevailed at the time when the Hindoo monarchy flourished, from the following circumstance, which belongs to a modern period, when the Hindoo authority in Hindoost'hanŭ was almost extinct.-Raja Krishnů-chundrů-rayŭ, and his two immediate successors, in the month Kartiků, annually gave orders to all the people over whom they had a nominal authority to keep the Shyama festival, and threatened every offender with the severest penalties on non-compliance. In consequence of these orders, in more than ten thousand houses, in one night, in the zilah of Krishnů-nŭgŭrů, the worship of this goddess was celebrated. The number of animals destroyed could not be less than ten thousand. The officiating bramhŭns, especially those who perform religious ceremonies for shōōdrus, were greatly perplexed, as a single bramhun had to perform the ceremonies of worship at two hundred houses, situated in different villages, in one night. All the joiners, barbers, or blacksmiths, in fifteen or twenty villages, in many instances have but one officiating priest, the bramhuns in general being unwilling to incur the disgrace which arises from performing religious services for shōōdrus.

Eeshanů-chundrů-rayŭ, the grandson of Krishnů-chŭndru-rayŭ, in certain years, presented to Kalēē eighty thousand pounds weight of sweetmeats, the same quantity of sugar, a thousand women's cloth garments, the same number of women's China silk garments, a thousand offerings, including rice, plantains, peas, &c. and immolated a thousand buffaloes, a thousand goats, and the same number of sheep; which altogether could not cost less than ten thousand roopees, while the other expenses amounted to scarcely less than twenty thousand. To defray these expenses, this raja sold the greater part of his patrimony; and in this and

other idolatrous customs he and other Hindoo rajas have expended almost the whole of their estates.

Raja Ram-Krishnů also expended very large sums of money upon the worship of Kalee. He set up a stone image of this goddess at Vŭrahŭ-nŭgŭrů; on which occasion he is said to have spent a lack of roopees. He also endowed this image with such a large revenue, that at present five hundred persons are maintained there daily. In the service of this goddess he has nearly reduced himself to poverty, though formerly from the rents of the lands, &c. he used to pay fifty-two lacks of roopees annually into the Company's treasury.

Kalee is the guardian deity of very many of the Bengalees, especially of the bramhuns.

At Kalēē-ghatŭ, near Calcutta, is a celebrated image of this goddess, whom (in the opinion of the Hindoos) all 'Asia, and the whole world worshippeth.' Having obtained an account of this temple from a bramhun whom I sent to Kalee-ghatŭ for the purpose, I here lay it before my readers :

The temple consists of one room, with a large pavement around it. The image is a large black stone, to which a horrid face, partly cut and partly painted, has been given; there are neither arms nor legs, a cloth covering all the lower part which should be the body. In front of the temple is a very large building capable of seating two hundred people; in which, and on the pavement around the temple, many bramhŭns daily sit reading the Chundee, a work on the wars of Kalee: on some days as many as a thousand bramhuns may be seen thus employed. Beyond

this building, in front of the image, the animals for sacrifice are slain. Not fewer than four thousand persons assemble on particular occasions at this temple, especially at the Shyama and Doorga festivals; and, twice a week, on the Chétŭla market days, two thousand people or more visit this place, multitudes of whom (my informer says, not less than a thousand) present offerings. At these times it is common for a Hindoo to go up to the temple, and, presenting himself at the door with joined hands, to address himself thus to the idol: Oh! mother! I am going to the market for such and such a purpose. If thou grant me success, I will on the next market day present offerings to thee to the amount of Or he says to another person standing near, See, brother, I have promised to mother so and so, if she will accomplish my wishes in the market '.'

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About nine o'clock each day, the bramhun who in turn performs the duties at the temple, and who receives the offerings of the day, after cleaning and bathing the image, puts on it the garlands of flowers and other ornaments, sweeps the temple, and then throws open the doors, calling out, Victory to the great Kalēē! Victory to the great Kalee!' These compliments on different mornings he changes at pleasure. After this, persons going to bathe, or coming from bathing, approach the door of the temple, and bow to the goddess: and now the daily worship is performed, which occupies about an hour; after which men and women are seen bringing their offerings to the idol, which continue to be presented during the greater part of the day. Some merely present them, without asking for

An adjoining village.

It is said that formerly, especially in times of scarcity, numbers of men were sold at this market.

any blessing: these persons take away a few flowers, or any other trifle of what they have offered, as something that will secure the good of the family; and friends on a visit at the house of such a person beg any thing of this kind, and eat it, or wear it in their hair. Other visitors to the temple leave part of the offerings there, and take away the other part to present to their friends. Others make a vow, while the offering is presented to the image, in some such words as these: Oh! goddess! mother Kalēē! If thou wilt deliver me out of such or such a trouble, or wilt bestow such or such a blessing, I will present to thee [here the petitioner repeats the names of all the offerings or bloody sacrifices].' Disputes arise almost daily in the temple betwixt the worshippers and the priests respecting the offerings, and not unfrequently a violent scramble takes place for the meat-offerings in the presence of the goddess herself: the officiating bramhun says, 'Who is to have these offerings?' to which the worshipper replies, 'Oh! sir! our family priest always receives these things. I must carry them home for him.' Or a man bringing offerings procures a bramhun to go and tell a lie in the presence of the goddess, saying to him, 'Sir, the bramhuns at the temple of Kalee are such notorious cheats, that of all I give to the goddess, she will probably get nothing but a few flowers; and they are so rapacious that I shall never get these offerings out of their hands :' on which this bramhŭn carries the offerings to the temple, and declares, that they belong to the bramhŭns of such a temple, and must be returned to them. By these contrivances the offerer obtains what he has given to the goddess; and, giving part to the bramhun who has extricated him from the rapacious hands of the proprietors of the temple, he takes the remainder home. About three o'clock in the afternoon, food is placed before the goddess, consisting of rice, greens,