case the exclusion is not attended with the hateful and ruinous consequences before described. One of them alone abstained from the repast, and as soon as they reached their home, he accused the other ten "It is not necessary that offences before the chief Brahmans of the town. against the usages of the cast should The rumour quickly spread. An asbe either intentional or of great mag- sembly is held. The delinquents are nitude. It happened to my knowledge summoned, and compelled to appear. not long ago, that some Brahmans who They had been alrendy apprised of the live in my neighbourhood, having been difficulty in which they were likely to convicted of eating at a publick enter- be involved; and when called upon to tainment with a Sudra, disguised as a answer the charge, they unanimously Brahman, were all ejected from the protested, as they had previously concast, and did not regain admission into certed that it was the accuser only that it without undergoing an infinite num- was guilty of the fault which he had ber of ceremonies both troublesome and laid to their charge. Which side was expensive. to be believed? Was the testimony of "I witnessed an example of this one man to be taken against that of kind more unpleasant than what I have ten? The result was, that the ten Brahalluded to. In the cast of the Ideyars, mans were declared innocent, and the the parents of two families had met and accuser, being found guilty, was exdetermined on the union of a young pelled with ignominy from the tribe man and girl of their number. The by the chiefs, who though they could usual presents were offered to the young scarcely doubt of his innocence, yet woman, and other ceremonies performed could not help being offended with the which are equivalent to betrothing disclosure be made." among us. After these proceedings, the The author proceeds to describe the young man died, before the time appointed for accomplishing the marriage. generical differences in the sectaries After his death, the parents of the girl, devoted to Brahman, Vishnu, or Siwho was still very young, married her va. The sect of Vishnu is distinto another. This was against the rules guished by one ceremony more riof the cast, which condemned the be- diculous than any that exists even trothed girl to remain in a state of widowhood, although the husband for in the code of Hindoo superstitions. whom she was designed dies before marriage. Accordingly all who had assisted at the ceremony, or who had been present at it, were cut off from the cast, and no one would afterwards form any "As soon as it is publickly known connexion with them. Long after this that any one has given occasion for happened, I have seen some of the indi- the Pahvahdam, by any of the crimes viduals, advanced in age, who remained that have been mentioned, or by any in a solitary state for this reason alone. deep insult cast upon the sect, the vo"Another incident of this kind oc- taries crowd from all quarters to the curs to me, which was rather of a more place where the culprit resides, and serious complexion than the preceding. having assembled to the number someEleven Brahmans, in travelling, having times of more than two thousand, each passed through a country desolated by bringing his sounding plate of brass, war, arrived at length exhausted by and his sankha or great shell, they prohunger and fatigue, at a village, which, ceed to the ceremony. The first step contrary to their expectation, they is to arrest the person who is the cause found deserted. They had brought of their assembling, and then they spread with them a small portion of rice, but a tent at a small distance, which is they could find nothing to boil it in immediately encompassed with several but the vessels that were in the house ranks of partisans assembled for the of the washer man of the village. To occasion. Brahmans, even to touch them would "The chiefs having selected from the have been a defilement almost impossi- multitude a fit person who consents to ble to efface. But being pressed with become the victim for sacrifice, exhibit hunger they bound one another to se- him to the crowd of people collected crecy by an oath, and then boiled their from all parts to witness the sight. rice in one of the pots, which they had A small incision is then made on his previously washed a hundred times. belly, deep enough for the blood to "The Pahvahdam is a ceremony of the most serious kind, since it demands no less than the sacrifice of a human victim, and its resuscitation afterwards. flow; upon which the pretended vic- tious manners. Compared with the tim shams a fainting fit, tumbles on creeds and fables of the Hindoo the ground, and counterfeits death. divinities, the mythology of Greece He is then carried into the tent which is fitted to receive him, and is there laid out as a corpse. division surrounds the house of the in was chaste and sublime, and the worship of Scandinavia rational and "Of the great concourse of people humane. It is not uncommon to gathered together, part watches night find their most sacred pagodas poland day round the tent, which nobody luted by scenes of horrible licenis suffered to approach; while another tiousness, which are alone equalled dividual who has given occasion for the by the dissolute orgies of Otaheite. ceremony. Both parties raise continual cries and frightful howlings, which being mixed with the clanking sound of the brazen plates and the shrill squeak of the sankha, produce a confusion and uproar, in the midst of which it is almost impossible to exist. This overwhelming disorder continued without interruption till the person who was the cause of it pays the fine imposed upon him, which generally exceeds his means. In common with the ancient Egyptians, they offer adoration to birds, snakes, and even vegetables: but their idolatry is often more mischievous. M. Dubois obtained sufficient testimony, that in ancient and modern times they have offered human sacrifices. In a curious analysis of the Atharvana Veda, M. Dubois informs us, that magical rites were sometimes consummated by the immolation of a young girl. In "In the mean time, the inhabitants of the village and of the neighbourhood, finding it impossible to live in the midst of the confusion and disorder occasioned "Indeed, we may easily convince by the fanatical crowd, come to terms ourselves that no nation can have less with the chief, and pay at least a part of repugnance to human sacrifices than the what has been required of the culprit, Hindus, if we examine the conduct which in order to obtain a speedy termina- they exhibit at the present time tion to the Pahvahdam, and to induce many provinces, the natives still can the great multitude to go to their homes. trace, and actually point out to the "The chiefs, when satisfied, repair curious traveller, the ground and situato the tent to conclude the ceremony, tion where their Rajas sacrificed to which is effected by restoring to life their idols the prisoners whom they had the pretended dead man, who lies taken in war. The object of the awful stretched out before them. For this rite was to render their divinities more purpose they chuse one of their number, and, making an incision in his thigh, they collect the blood which runs from it and sprinkle the body of the sham corpse, which being restored by the efficacy of this simple ceremony, is delivered over alive to those who assist at it, and who have no doubt whatever of the reality of the resurrection." placable, and to obtain their favourable aid in battle. I have visited some of those abominable places, which are commonly in the mountains or other unfrequented parts; as if those awful beings who delighted to see their altars moistened with human gore, and their sanctuaries strewed with the carcasses, were themselves conscious of the enormity of the crime, and therefore desired to veil Respecting the various supersti- the horrid spectacle from the eyes of stions which prevailed amongst men. In the secret places where these these degraded beings, Mr. Dubois detestable sacrifices were performed of has been copious and curious in his old, a little temple of mean appearance is generally found, aud sometimes but a communications. With the excep- simple niche, in which the idol is pretion of some imposing dogmas, served, to obtain whose favour so horwhich are only known by a few rid a price is paid. The victim was speculative sages, their religion con- immolated by capitation, and the sists of the grosest polytheism, exhibited in a series of institutions accommodated to ignorance and imbecility, depraved habits, and licen head was lefsed for a time in the અ "I have been conducted to see seve ral of those sad charnel dens, in various. citricts. One of them is not far from Seringapatam, on the hill near which or prisoner of war. What I have heard the fort of Mysore is built. On the of some of the petty Mahratta princes, top of that mountain, the pagoda may confirms my suspicions that human sastill be observed, where the Rajas were crifices are not yet wholly renounced." accustomed to sacrifice their prisoners The courts of justice are not of war, or state delinquents. much more pure than the worship "Sometimes they were satisfied with of their pagodas. The oppression multilating their victims, by cutting off their hands, nose, and ears; which they exercised by the Hindu princes offered up, fresh and bloody, at the and their vicegerents is universal. shrine of the idol, or hung them up, The Hindus have no real property. exposed on the gate of the temple. Their estates are always resumable "But I have also conversed with at the pleasure of their sovereign, several old men, who have entered who is not only the supreme lord, familiarly into the object and circum stances of these sacrifices, and spoke but sole proprietor. The sanctity of them to me as events of their own of an oath is not respected--the days, and as publickly known. Brahmans in particular are addicted to perjury and falsehood. Hence arises the frequent practice of having recourse to ordeals of guilt, most of which are not less inhuman than absurd. "It appears, indeed, that this practice of sacrificing prisoners taken in war, amongst the pagan princes, was not in opposition to our notions of the law of nations, being reciprocal, and acknowledged as the legitimate reprisals of one sovereign upon another. The people look on, without horrour, or even surprise. They still speak of it, without emotion, as a thing just and regular, and as being fitly appropriate to the state of war. M. Dubois has not communicated much that is new respecting the poetry of the Hindus. The Hindu Tales he has selected are curious specimens of their humorous powers, and strikingly display the manners and customs of this ambiguous people, who cannot be classed with civilized or barbarous nations; who "Of late, the intercourse of the Hindus, with the Europeans and Mussalmans, and the just horrour which these invaders have expressed of such atrocious crimes, have nearly effected their total abolition: nearly, I say, because I cannot cling to ignorance like the savage, answer with confidence for what may without emulating his courage or have taken place, under some petty his fidelity; and without the least native princes, who have preserved a tincture of refinement, submit to precarious independence up to the pre: live in habits of voluptuous indulsent day. Neither would I like to risk the falling into their hands, as an enemy gence. VARIETIES. beg leave to present you with a few resemblances, as follows. In his "Fair Isabel," Mr. Polwhele thus describes what he calls "the breath of the wintery night." Echo'd, and rang its whirling vane, The buttress, and the tower assail, Kindled up, a bright-blue flame; Crested or mitred, with menacing look, From the Monthly Magazine, for June, 1818. SIR,-Your correspondent of last Very similar is the following pas- month (Mr. Webb) has given us two sage: "As he heard the night-wind sigh Was it the wind through some hollow stone Like the figures on arras that gloomily glare lines from the ninth night of "Young's Our nature sucb-ill choice ensures ill fate; As they seem thro' the dimness about to come down poem, amid some of the finest poeti From the shadowy wall, where their images frown, As the gusts on the tapestry come and go." Siege of Corinth. Permit me to add another imitation of "The Fair Isabel," which I have just detected in Mr. Read's " Hill of Caves," a poem very recently published. cal flights and justest observations, has in it much wild and inexplicable matter; and this may be expected in a metaphysical work, where there is a great deal of rhapsody and "the muse of fire." The above lines, if they mean any thing, seem to me to mean the opposite position of Mr. Pope's axiom:~ "Peace, O Virtue! peace, is all thy own." A fine calm discovering at the approach of evening, symptoms of a Tempest brooding over the seas-"Our course of life is such, (for Naand the storm at length bursting, is thus pictured: Tho' soft the waters fain would flow Nearer now, the labouring deep It burst against a bellying rock: Rush'd o'er the sea, like furnace smoke; Fair Isabel, Canto Sixth. Thus Mr. Read: Ere eve the breeze which blew so fair, The shadow of a tempest cross'd The troubled deep. Then burst the cloud which o'er them hung! And instant roll'd each eyeball sightless! The impetuous blast; in foamy whiteness Hill of Caves. Mr. Polwhele's simile of "the high-maned troop of horse, tossing fiery froth amidst the sabre's wrath," is to me so perfectly new, that its recurrence in Mr. Read's Poem can never pass for mere accident. ture is always a bad word as applied here,) that, if we adopt ill pursuits, they lead, by consequence, to mischief and misery in this world, whether hell exists or not." Of the last line, it is difficult to say any thing satisfactorily, as it must always be of hell, in its generally accepted meaning. TheNight Thoughts," as Mr. Webb must have observed, abound with bold, mystick, and antithetical language, and imagery often inexplicable, when coolly and philosophically examined; but they have, amid this, and some gross errours, the most sublime and brilliant passages that literature can boast. From the European Magazine, for April, 1818. A Frenchman, who had a dispute with a Turk in Constantinople, and had stabbed him, was condemned to death. The criminal thought on means to save himself; and as he knew that the Emperour was a great lover of elephants, he proposed to him to spare his life, and he would in return teach one of these animals to speak. The emperour, who knew the sense of the elephant, thought it possible, that by pains and art they might be taught to do so; he there- phant were confined in a tower, and fore accepted the proposal of the pri- supplied with abundance of provisoner, and, besides, promised a hand- sions. After a little time he was visome reward if he fulfilled his promise in a certain time. The Frenchman said, that ten years would be wanted to instruct such a very large animal, if he was to teach it to speak the Turkish quite perfectly; but he would be content to suffer the most cruel death at the expiration of that time, if he should not fulfil what he had undertaken. After they had agreed to this, he and a young ele sited by some of his countrymen, who testified their astonishment at his mad promise. "You bring destruction on yourself by it," said one of them.-"Don't fear, gentlemen," said the prisoner; "ten years is a great period of human life; I assure you that before these are expired, one of us, either the Emperoun, the elephant, or I, shall be dead.” POETRY. From the Edinburg Magazine, for May, 1818. THE DIRGE OF TIPPOO SULTAUN.* H From the Canâra. (By the late Dr. John Leyden.) OW quickly fled our Sultaun's state! How soon his pomp has past away! How swiftly sped Seringa's † fate From wealth and power to dire decay! How proud his conquering banners flew! How stately marched his dread array! Soon as the King of earth withdrew His favouring smile, they passed away! His Franks, impatient for the fray,- Were hewn from every massy rock, Whence bright the sparkling rockets shone, And loud the vollied thunder spoke. Their martial pride hath passed away! By circling walls in triple row, • Copied from the original, and presented to the Editors by a gentleman lately returned from India. + Seringapatam. Hill forts. High o'er the portals jarring hoarse All in a moment passed away! His golden stores that wont to lie Unmatched in stormy battle's day ;- Our dauntless hero passed away! In splendid palaces were piled. Of fretted pride, of polish high, Full eighteen sorts of foodful grain; Battle's terrifick flame-mouthed train. How paltry proud Durgoden's state To his in fortune's prosperous day! All in a moment passed away! The silver trumpets shrilling sound, One of the ancient Mahratta heroes, |