the plundered, cutting off their limbs with the most cold-blooded apathy, turning the house of the murdered into a disgusting shambles !-Some of these cruelties, no doubt, arise out of the religion of the Hindoos, and are the poisoned fruits of superstition, rather than the effects of natural disposition: but this is equally true respecting the virtues which have been so lavishly bestowed on this people. At the call of the shastrů, the Hindoo gives water to the weary traveller during the month Voishakhŭ ; but he may perish at his door without pity or relief from the first of the following month, no reward being attached to such an act after these thirty days have expired. He will make roads, pools of water, and build lodging-houses for pilgrims and travellers; but he considers himself as making a good bargain with the gods in all these transactions. It is a fact, that there is not a road in the country made by Hindoos except a few which lead to holy places; and had there been no future rewards held out for such acts of merit, even these would not have existed. Before the kŭlee-yoogů it was lawful to sacrifice cows; but the man who does it now, is guilty of a crime as heinous as that of killing a bramhún he may kill a buffalo, however, and Doorga will reward him with heaven for it. A Hindoo, by any direct act,

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for a fortnight, and expire at last from fatigue and mortification. Those which I saw were liberated at the end of three or four days. Another man had a large bamboo run through his belly, which put an immediate end to his existence. Two persons had their bellies ripped up, just sufficient to admit of the protrusion of a small part of the intestines; and after being secured by the hands and feet at full stretch with cords, were placed in an erect posture upon bamboo rafters, and set adrift in the river, to float up and down with the tide for public view. The number of those who have been beheaded I do not exactly recollect; but they must be somewhere between twenty and thirty. One man was sawn to death, by applying the saw to the shoulder bone, and sawing right down until the bowels gushed out. One woman was beat to death with a large cudgel. These are most of the punishments I have seen and heard of during my stay in this place; but many other instances happened during my absence, which I have not related. As for the crimes for which these punishments were inflicted, I shall only add, the crimes of some deserved death, some were of a trivial nature, and some of the victims were quite innocent.'

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should not destroy an insect, for he is taught that God inhabits even a fly but it is no great crime if he should permit even his cow to perish with hunger; and he beats it without mercy, though it be an incarnation of Bhŭgüvůtēē-it is enough, that he does not really deprive it of life; for the indwelling Brumhu feels no stroke but that of death. The Hindoo will utter falsehoods that would knock down an ox, and will commit perjuries so atrocious and disgusting, as to fill with horror those who visit the courts of justice; but he will not violate his shastrů by swearing on the waters of the Ganges.

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Idolatry is often also the exciting cause of the most abominable frauds. Several instances are given in this work one wilk be found in vol. i. p. 122. and another respecting an image found under ground by the raja of Nudēēya, in vol. i. p. 203h.

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Indeed keeping gods is even a trade among the Hindoos: the only difficulty to be overcome, is that of exciting attention to the image. To do this, the owner of the image frequently goes from village to village, to call the attention of the neighbourhood he also persuades some one to proclaim, that he has been warned in a dream to perform vows to this image; or he repeats to all he sees, that such and such cures have been performed by it. In the years 1807 and 1808, almost all the sick and imaginary sick Hindoos in the south of Bengal presented their offerings to an image called Tarŭk-éshwůrů, at a place bearing this name. The bramhúns owning this image became rich. This excited the attention of some bramhŭns near Nŭdēēya, who proclaimed another image of Shivă, in their possession, to be the brother of Tarŭk-eshwůrů;' and the people of those parts flocked to this image as others had done to the original one.

The author has devoted a volume of this work to the gods.

↳ Plutarch says, that Romulus, when he instituted the Ludi Consuales, to surprise the Sabine virgins, gave out, that he had discovered the altar of the god Consus hid under ground; which discovery attracted great multitudes to the sacrifice.

The next article relates to the Hindoo temples, none of which appear to be distinguished for the elegance of their architecture: they are not the work of a people sunk in barbarism; neither will they bear any comparison with the temples of the Greeks or Romans. They are not constructed so as to hold a crowd of worshippers, who are always accommodated in an area opposite the temple. The room in which the idol is placed is considered sufficiently spacious if it hold the officiating priest, the utensils for worship, and the offerings.

These temples answer none of the ends of a lecture room, nor of a Christian temple. Here the passions are never raised to heaven by sacred music, nor by the voices of a large and devout congregation celebrating the praises of the Deity in the strains of sacred poetry; here no devout feelings are awakened by the voice of prayer and confession, nor are the great truths of religion explained, or enforced upon the mind of an attentive crowd by the eloquence of a public speaker: the daily worship at the temple is performed by the solitary priest with all the dulness, carelessness, and insipidity necessarily connected with a service always the same, repeated before an idol made of a cold stone, and in which the priest has no interest whatever; and when the crowd do assemble before the temple, it is to enter upon orgies which destroy every vestige of moral feeling, and excite to every outrage upon virtue.

The dedication of a temple is a work of great ceremony*, if

We learn from the Ain Akburee, however, that the entire revenues of Orissa, for twelve years, were expended on erecting a temple to the sun.-Maurice's Indian Antiquities.

* Circumambulating a temple is an act of merit, raising the person to a place in the heaven of the god or goddess whose temple he thus walks round. At Benares the devout do it daily. If the circumambulator be a learned man, he repeats the praise of the god as he is walking, and bows to the image every time he arrives at the door of the temple. The ignorant merely walk round, and make the bow. The right hand is always kept towards the object circumambulated.

the building belong to a man of wealth; the expense incurred in presents to the bramhůns and others is also very great. The person who employs his wealth in this manner is considerably raised in the estimation of his countrymen: he frequently also endows the temple, as well as raises it; which is generally done by grants of land. The annual produce of the land thus bestowed, is expended in wages to the officiating priest, in the daily offerings to the idol, and in lighting and repairing the temple. Many temples, however, do not depend entirely on their endowments: they receive considerable sums from occasional offerings, and from what is presented at festivals'. Some temples are supported at an expense so trifling as to astonish a reader not acquainted with the forms of idolatry: many individuals who officiate at temples obtain only the offerings, the value of which does not amount, in many instances, to more than twenty shillings a year. Some few temples are, however, splendidly endowed, and many families receive their maintenance from them. Where an idol has become very famous, and the offerings have amounted to a large sum, even kings have been anxious to lay hold of such a source of revenue.

The images of the gods may be made of almost all the metals, as well as of wood, stone, clay, &c. Most of the permanent images are made of wood or stone; those which are destroyed at the close of a festival, are made of clay. Small images of brass, silver, and gold, are not uncommon. The sculpture of the stone images resembles that of the Popish images of the 12th century; those cast in brass, &c. exhibit a similar progress of the arts. The consecration of an image is accompanied with a number of ceremonies, the most singular of which is that of conveying sight and life to the image, for which there are appropriate formulas, with prayers, inviting the deity to come and

In the year 1809, at the temple of Jügünnat'hů, near Serampore, at ́the car festival, about 570 roopees were presented to the idol, in vegetables, fruits, sweetmeats, garments, and money. About 150 bramhúns, 50 females, and 150 shōōdrus, were entertained daily; and, at the close of the festival, the priests of the temple received 420 roopees.

dwell in it. After this ceremony, the image becomes sacred, and is carefully guarded from every offensive approach. The shastrus contain directions for making idols, and the forms of meditation used in worship contain a description of each idol: but in many instances these forms are disregarded, and the proprietor, though compelled to preserve the identity of the image, indulges his own fancy. Some images are very diminutive, especially those made of the precious metals; but others, if for temporary use, are very large: a stone image of the lingu is to be seen at Benares, which six men with joined hands can hardly grasp. At the festival of Kartikéyŭ, the god of war, an image is sometimes made thirty cubits high. Whatever may have been the case in other countries, idolatry in this has certainly not contributed to carry the arts of painting or sculpture to any perfection.

Any bramhŭn, properly qualified by rank and knowledge, may officiate in a temple, and perform the general work of a priest. There is no order of bramhŭns to whom the priesthood is confined: many bramhŭns employ others as priests; a shōōdrů must employ a bramhŭn, but he has his own choice of the individual; he cannot repeat a single formula of the védús himself without being guilty of the highest offence. There are different offices in which priests are employed; but any bramhun, properly qualified, may perform the ceremonies attached to them all: (see vol, ii. p. 16.) In general, a family, able to bear the expense, employs a priest on a regular allowance: some priests are retained by many families of the same cast; such a person is called the joiners' priest, or the weavers' priest, &c. The bramhuns employed as priests to the shōōdrůs are not in high estimation among their brethren, who never fail to degrade the shōodrů

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I insert a short extract from Bryce's Sketch of the State of British India,' in order to assure the author, that, as it respects Bengal, it is wholly without foundation. 'The laws have always confined a certain proportion of bramhŭns to the service of the pagodas, to the education of youth, and to study.' p. 57. 'No pains are spared in rendering accomplished those females, who, as the fascinating instruments of superstition, are employed in the service of their temples.' p. 54.