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founded on a principle of policy, and intended to reftrain the natives from migrating into diftant countries for it is remarkable, that the facred rivers I have juft now mentioned, are fo fituated, that there is not any part of India where the inhabitants may not have an opportunity of washing away their fins. The Ganges, which rifes in the mountains of Thibet, with its different branches, runs through the kingdoms of Bengal, Bahar, and Oriffa, and the upper provinces of Oude, Rohilcund, Agra, Delhi, and Lahore. The Kiftna divides the Carnatic from Golconda, and runs through the Vifiapore into the interior parts of the Deccan: and the Indus bounding the Guzurat provinces, feparates Hindoftan from the dominions of

Perfia.

The food of the Hindoos is. fimple, confifting chiefly of rice, ghee, which is a kind of imperfect butter, milk, vegetables, and oriental fpices of different kinds, but chiefly what is called in the caft, chilly, and in the weft, green or Cayenne pepper. The warrior caffe may eat of the flesh of goats, mutton, and poultry, which is dreffed into canyes and pilaws *. Other fuperior caftes may eat poultry and fifh; but the inferior caftes are prohibited from eating flesh or fifh of any kind. Their greatest luxury confifts in

the ufe of the richeft fpiceries and perfumes, of which the great people are very lavifh. Their drefs, in point of richness, is proportioned to their ftations: their pomp and equipage confift in a numerous retinue of fervants of various denominations, who attend all their vifits and excurfions; in the dreffes of those attendants, the elegance of their palanquins, and the caparifons of their horfes, camels, and elephants. It is fuperfluous to obferve, that in confequence of this multiplicity of different ranks, the Hindoos have the highest ideas of fubordination, and pay to their fuperiors the fame ready deference and homage which they expect themselves froin their inferiors.

Their houses cover much ground, and have fpacious galleries and accommodations of various kinds, The apartments are fmall, and. the furniture not very elegant, if we except the richest Perian carpets. The grandeur of their pa. laces confifts in baths, perfumes, temples, gods, and harams. The harams or zenanas, that is, the refidences of the women, are removed from the front of the house, and lighted only from a fquare fpace in the centre of the whole building. The apparel of the women women is inconceivably rich; they have jewels on their fingers and about their necks, and alfo in their ears and noftrils, with brace

Carryes are a kind of fricaffees of mutton, fowl, or fifh; the fauce of which is compofed of dried vegetables, peculiar to the eaft, and fine rice, boiled with very little water, introduced on a separate plate: the fauce of the fricaffee is poured on the rice, and the meat laid above both. The pilaw is fine Patna rice dry-boiled, and fried with ghee (defcribed in page 46, column zd) mixed with various fpices, and particularly the cardamon, brought in on a large dith, in which is concealed amidst the rice, a boiled fowl, or part of a kid, or of a lamb.

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lets not only on their wrifts, but on their arms above their elbows, and on their legs around their ancles.

One particular clafs of women are allowed to be openly proftituted: these are the famous dancing girls. Their attitudes and movements are very eafy, and not ungraceful. Their perfons are delicately formed, gaudily deco'rated, and highly perfumed. By the continuation of wanton attitudes, they acquire, as they grow warm in the dance, a frantic lafcivioufnefs themfelves, and communicate, by a natural contagion, the moft voluptuous defires to the beholders.

Their civil inftitutions refpecting the divifion and fecurity of property, and the internal police of the country, were originally founded on principles of the foundeft political wisdom, and were well calculated to promote the happinefs of the whole nation, as well as that of particular caftes or tribes. But the innovations of conquerors and ufurpers, in feveral inftances, particularly in the tenure of immoveable property, which was originally of a feudal nature, have marred the harmony of the ancient conftitution, and rendered property and perfonal liberty more precarious, lefs defined, and more expofed to chicanery and mifconftruction.

Although the Hindoos are naturally the most inoffenfive of all mortals, yet does their humanity confift more in abftaining from injurious, than in the performance of beneficent actions. There is a wonderful mildness in their manners, and alfo in their laws, which are influenced by their manners;

by which the murder of a huma creature, and of a cow, are the only crimes that are punished by death. Yet with all this gentlenets of difpofition, they are inferior to the boisterous Europeans, with all their vices, in the virtues of compaflion and generofity: they are wanting in that tendernefs which is the moft amiable part of our nature. They are lefs affected by the diftreffes and dan gers, and even the accidental deaths of one another, than any nation I know in the old or new world. Yet they love to excess: a proof either of the inconfiftency of the human character, or that the amorous paffion is not derived from the nobleft part of our nature.

This infenfibility of the Hindoos to the diftreffes and dangers of their fellow-creatures, appears to me a wonderful phænomenon. Perhaps that defpotifm which has long been exercised under the Mogul tyranny, by familiarifing the mind to fcenes of death, has blunted a fenfe of its terrors. Per haps thofe ideas of predeftination and irrefiftible fate, which prevail in Afia and in all defpotic governments, prepares the mind for an acquiefcence in all events. An English gentleman was ftanding by a native of Hindoftan, when an enormous and fierce tiger leaped from a thicket, and carried off a fcreaming boy, the son of one of his neighbours. The Eng. lifhman expreffed fymptoms of the moft extreme horror while the Hindoo remained unmoved. "What," faid the former, "are you unaffected by fo dreadful a fcene "The great God," said the other, "would have it fo." Whatever

may

may be the caufe, it is certain that death is regarded with lefs horror in India than in any other country in the world. The origin and the end of all things, fay the philofophers of India of the prefent times, is a vacuum. A ftate of repofe is the fate of greateft perfection: and this is the ftate after which a wife man afpires. It is better, fay the Hindoos, to fit than to walk, and to fleep than to wake; but death is the best of all.

According to the Gentoo laws, criminals fentenced to death are not to be ftrangled, fuffocated, or poitoned, but to be cut off by the fword; because without an effufion of blood, malefactors are fuppofed to die with all their fins about them; but the fhedding of their blood, it is thought, expiates their crimes. The unjuft punishment, of Nundcomar, who was hanged on a gibbet, against the laws of his country, and even by an ex poft facto English law, was aggravated by that circumftance of horror, that he died without an effufion of blood.

The Hindoos are well acquaint ed with the nature of fimples, and apply them judiciously either in performing cures which require not amputation, or in effecting death by quick or flow poifons. They have be a for ages, in the practice of inoculating for the Imall-pox; on which occafion, as well as on others, they have recourfe to the favourable mediation of charms or fpells.

Although the practice of Hindoo women burning themselves on the funeral piles of their husbands, and embracing in the mean time their dead bodies in their arms,

be not fo general now as it has formerly been, yet does it ftill prevail among fome of the wives of men of high caft and condition: and although this effort of frantic love, courage, and ambition, be deemed an aggrandizement of the family and relations of both hufband and wife, but especially of the wife's, yet their friends and relations conftantly endeavour to diffuade the women who declare their refolutions of burning, from carrying them into execution. Even the Brahmins do not encourage this practice.

The caufes which infpire Hin-. doo women with this defperate refolution, are, I imagine, the following:

In the first place, As the wife has from her earliest infancy been betrothed in marriage to her hufband, and from that time has never been permitted to fee another man; as he is inftructed to believe that he is perfectly accomplished, and taught to refpect and honour him; as after confummation fhe is fhut up from the company, conversation, and even the fight of other men, with ftill greater care if poffible than before, being now debarred from fecing even the father or elder brother of her husband, the bonds. of her affection muft needs be inconceivably ftrong and indiffoluble To an European lady the zenana naturally appcars in the light of an horrible prifon; but the daughters of Afia never confider confinement to the zenana as any hardship. They confider it as a condition of their existence, and they enjoy all the happiness of which they have any conception; their whole defires being

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concentred and fixed on their huf. band, their food, jewels, and female attendants.

In the fecond place, If the wife furvive her husband, fhe cannot marry again; and is treated as an inferior perfon, and an outcaft from her family. Nay, the is obliged in her mournful and hopelefs widowhood, to perform all the offices of a menial fervant.

In the third place, She is flattered with the idea of having immortalized her name, and aggrandized her children, and her own and husband's families.

Laftly, She is rendered infenfible to the pains and horrors of what fhe is to fuffer, by thofe intoxicating perfumes and mixtures which are adminiftered to her after he has declared her final and unalterable refolution;-I fay her final refolution, becaufe one or two declarations of an intention to die with her husband is not fufficient. The ftrength of her refolution undergoes a probation. There is a certain time prefcribed by the Gentoo law, during which her family and friends exert their utmost influence in order to diffuade her from burning; and if the perfifts in her refolution to the end of that period, it is not law ful to ufe any more perfuafions with her to abandon it. If the fhould alter her purpose after that period, he would be punifhed with the lofs of all cafes, and live in a fate of the most complete mifery and contempt. Nay, if an European or Chriftian does but touch her very garment with his finger when he is going to the pile, an immediate ftop is put to the ceremony, fhe is forced to

live an outcaft from her family, and from the Gentoo religion.

You will, doubtlefs, my friend, have curiofity to know in what manner, after all these stimulatives to perfeverance, the tender fex among a foft and effeminate people, fuftains the near approach of a fcene fo full of awe and horror. Amidst her weeping relations and friends, the voluntary victim to love and honour alone appears ferene and undaunted. A gentle fmile is diffused over her countenance: the walks upright with an eafy but firm tep; talks to thofe around her of the virtues of the deceased, and of the joy with which the will be tranfported when her fhade fhall meet with his; and encourages her forrowful attendants to bear with fortitude the fight of those momentary fufferings which the herself is about to feel. Having afcended the funeral pile, fhe lays herself down by the body of her husband, which the fervently embraces. A dofe of narcotic mixtures is then adminiftered for the last time; and inftantly the perfon whofe office it is, fets fire to the pile.

Thus the most determined refolution of which we can form any conception, is found in the weaker fex, and in the foft climes of Alia. It is to the honour of that fex and thofe climes, that the greatest courage they exhibit, is the effect not of the furious impulfes of rage and revenge, but conscious dignity and love.

It might naturally be imagined by an European, that the feveral wives of one man (for polygamy is general throughout all Afa) would regard one another with

mutual

mutual jealoufy and averfion; and that they in reality do, has been afferted by writers of high reputation. The fact, however, is quite otherwife; they vifit one another with great friendship and cordiality; and if they are of the fame cafte, will occafionally eat. together. The husband is reftrained from eating with his wives, either by a regard to cuftom, or, as I have been informed by fome of the Gentoos themselves, by a precept of their religion.

Defcription of the different Nations in the Prefidency of Bombay-of the Natives of the Malabar Coat -their Marriages of the Manners and Customs of the Hindoos, &'c. From the fame Author.

I

KNOW not any place in the world where there is a greater medley of different nations than there is in the prefidency of Bombay. This region being conveniently fituated, not only for commerce by fea with all maritime nations, but alfo for communication by land with the Perfian empire; part of which having been conquered by Timur-Beg, is now a part of the Mogul empire. Here, befides Europeans of all countries, you meet with Turks, Perfians, Arabians, Armenians, a mixed race, the vileft of their fpecies, defcended from the Portuguefe, and the outcafts from the Gentoo religion, &c. The Turks that refort to this place on account of trade, are like the rest of their countrymen, ftately, grave, and referved; and horeft in their dealings, though merchants. The Perfians are more gay, lively, and converfible; but I would truft lefs to their honefty in matters of trade, than I would to the faturnine Turks. The Arabians are all life and fire, and when they treat with you on any subject, will make you a fine oration in flowing numbers, and a musical cadence; but they are the most dishonest of all. The Armenians are generally handfome in their features, mild in their tempers, and in their nature kind and beneficent. They are a kind of Chriftians, and an honour to that fect. The Turks and Perfians are, for the mott D 4.

Notwithstanding the extreme antiquity of moft Indian nations, I am told that in India beyond the Ganges, on the confines of Aracau and Pegu, there is a people (if folitary favages roaming thro' woods in queft of prey, deferve the name of people) that appear to be in the very firft ftage of fociety. They are the only people in the known world that go abfolutely naked, without the fmalleft covering on any part of their bodies. They live on fruit, which grows fpontaneously in the uncultivated deferts they inhabit in great abundance, and on the flesh of animals, which they tear alive and devour raw. They fit on their hams, with their legs and arms difpofed in the manner of monkeys. At the approach of men they fly into the woods. They take care of their offspring, and live in families; but feem to have no ideas of fubordination of rank, or civil government. I have never had occasion to see this race of mortals myself, but I have converfed with feveral perfons who have feen them; all of whom concur in the general account of them, which I have now given you. I am, &c. &c.

part,

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