panse, and their unceasing motion, tend to inspire ideas peculiarly solemn. They are, accordingly, very favorite objects of Hindoo wor ship. There is scarcely in heaven or earth a name more sacred than Ganges. Its waters are said to descend from above, and to purify from every stain theman who undergoes in them a thorough ablution. To die on its banks, moistened by its stream, is deemed a cure passport to paradise.

Journeys, extending to thousands of miles, are undertaken for the purpose of beholding and bathing in its sacred current; temples are erected upon its banks, where the pilgrims perform their devotions, and hundreds

are daily arriving and departing from them. Many rash devotees even yield themselves to a voluntary death amid its waves, fancying that they thus secure complete felicity in the future world; others devote their offspring to a similar destiny. In the courts of Bengal a portion of the waters of the Ganges is produced, upon which witnesses are required to make oath, this form of attestation being esteemed of all others the most binding, though some scruple to employ an object so holy for this secular purpose. The Nerbudda, the Godavery, the Kistna, the Cavery, and almost every stream that rolls through this vast region, have likewise a sacred character, though none in so eminent a degree as the Ganges.

The Hindoo is also much addicted to a worship which indicates the lowest degradation of the human mind,-that of the brute creation. His most exalted deities, the creators and preservers of the world, scarcely command a reverence equal to that bestowed on the cow. This useful animal is saluted with every expression of profound affection and veneration. She is called the mother of the gods and of three worlds. The highest deities are humbly entreated to appear under the form of

milch kine, as that in which they will be most grateful and serviceable to their votaries. Even their dung is thought to confer a holy character upon every object on which it is smeared. Two great Indian princes, the rajah of Travancore and the Peishwa Ragoba, being each inclosed in the body of a golden cow and then drawn out, were regarded as having experienced a new birth; the statue was immediately cut in pieces and distributed among the Bramins. In their treaties with the British, the native princes on some occasions urged most earnestly that the soldiers should not be permitted to kill a cow within the precincts of their territory.

The monkey also ranks high among the objects of Hindoo worship. The exploits of Hanuman, with his innumerable host of four footed brethren, are among the most conspicuous incidents in the Ramayana Princes and great men often indulge in the strange freak of celebrating with pomp and profusion the marriage of monkeys. The animal, like a great chief, is seated in a palanquin, and followed by a train of singing and dancing girls, amid the display of fireworks.

The temples erected for the celebration of Hindoo worship, appear to have been in ancient times of the most costly and magnificent description.

The pyramidal temples, called pagodas, are numerous in the south of India, and some of them are exceedingly beautiful.

The worship and services paid to the Hindoo deities are, generally speaking, irrational, unmeaning, and often immoral. They include no

provision for instructing the body of the people in the duties of life, or even in what is supposed to be divine truth; but consist merely in acts of blind and senseless adulation to popular divinities. Every image, when lodged in its temple, has a mechanical round of daily homage performed before it, and is furnished with a regular allowance of food, which, after remaining a certain time, is removed and applied to the use of the attendants. On the great annual festivals these offerings are profusely lavished; while the multitudes assembled in front of the temples indulge in indecent songs and extravagant motions. Mr. Ward enumerates the various articles of maintenance bestowed upon Kalee, in her temple at Kaleeghata, among which are twelve thousand goats, two hundred and forty tons of rice, forty-eight hundred weight of sugar, twenty-six thousand four hundred pounds of sweetmeats, and considers them as worth nine thousand pounds annually. Besides the public solemnities, the devotee has a daily service to perform, explained at great length by Mr. Colebrooke and Mr. Ward, but of which we cannot undertake to give even an outline. Fulsome praises addressed to some chosen deity, frequently the repetition of his name for hours together, constitute the favorite occupation of the worshipper.

Devout pilgrimages are 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.

The following is an engraving of the idol itself; it is a block of

wood, having a frightful visage painted black, with a distended mouth

of a bloody color. His arms are of gold, and he is dressed in gorgeous apparel.

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.

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 pro

cession 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 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 unnatural 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 gaily 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