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AMONG THE KHONDS IN INDIA.

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blind-folded to the village, and lodged in the house of the Abbaya or Patriarch. If grown up, he is put in fetters: if a child, he is left at perfect liberty. They are eagerly welcomed to every door; and are considered as consecrated beings, till it comes to their turn to be immolated.

Lieut. Macpherson, in his Official Report, thus describes the ceremonies practised on these occasions:From these festivals of sacrifice no one is excluded, and at them all feuds are forgotten.

They are generally attended by a large concourse of people of both sexes; and continue for three days.

The first day and night are spent exclusively in drinking, feasting, and obscene riot. Upon the second morning, the victim, who has fasted from the preceding evening, is carefully washed, dressed in a new garment, and led forth from the village in solemn procession, with music and dancing.

It

The Meria grove, a clump of deep and shadowy foresttrees, in which the Mango, the Bur, the Saul, and the Peepul generally prevail, usually stands at a short distance from the hamlet, by a rivulet which is called the Meria stream. is kept sacred from the axe, and is avoided by the Khond as haunted ground: my followers were always warned to abstain from seeking shelter within its awful shades. In its centre, upon the day of sacrifice, an upright stake is fixed, and, generally between two plants of the Sunkissar or Buzzurdauti shrub, the victim is seated at its foot, bound back to it by the priest. He is then anointed with oil, ghee, and turmeric, and adorned with flowers; and a species of reverence, which it is not easy to distinguish from adoration, is paid to him throughout the day. And there is now infinite contention to obtain the slightest relic of his person; a particle of the turmeric-paste with which he is smeared, or a drop of his saliva, being esteemed, especially by the women, of supreme virtue.

Upon the third morning, the victim is refreshed with a little milk, and palm-sago; while the licentious feast, which has scarcely been intermitted during the night, is loudly renewed. About noon these orgies terminate; and the assemblage issues forth, with stunning shouts and pealing music, to consummate the sacrifice.

As the victim must not suffer bound, nor, on the other

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hand, exhibit any show of resistance, the bones of his arms, and, if necessary, those of his legs, are now broken in several places.

The priest, assisted by the Abbaya, and by one or two of the elders of the village, now takes the branch of a green tree, which is cleft a distance of several feet down the centre. They insert the victim within the rift; fitting it, in some districts, to his chest; in others, to his throat. Cords are then twisted round the open extremity of the stake; which the priest, aided by his assistants, strives, with his whole force, to close. He then wounds the victim slightly with his axe; when the crowd throws itself upon the sacrifice, and exclaiming, "We bought you with a price, and no sin rests on us," strips the flesh from the bones.

Each man bears his bloody shreds to his fields, and from thence returns straight home; and for three days after the sacrifice, the inhabitants of the village which afforded it remain dumb, communicating with each other only by signs, and remaining unvisited by strangers. At the end of this time a buffalo is slaughtered at the place of sacrifice, when tongues are loosened.

May our Readers be led by these harrowing details to pray more earnestly, O Lord, have respect unto Thy covenant; for the dark places of the earth are full of the habitations of cruelty!

PROBABLE EFFECT OF THE GIFT OF AN ENGLISH BIBLE, IN REWAH, NORTH INDIA.

In the last Report of the Calcutta Bible Society, it was stated, that during the previous year a considerable number of portions of the Scriptures had been distributed in the Rewah Country, in the North of India. They were thankfully received by the people; but shortly afterward, the Rajah's son sent a messenger round, ordering all who had received any copies to deliver them up to the Rajah. Last year another visit was paid to the same country; but the distributors, instead of meeting with any difficulty,

IN REWAH, NORTH INDIA.

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were kindly received by the Rajah's son, and every opportunity was afforded them of giving the Word of God to as many as asked for it. It was stated, that the Rajah himself possessed a copy of the Bible, and was a worshipper of the Creator as distinct from the creature. In allusion to this fact, the Rev. J. H. Pratt, Chaplain to the Lord Bishop, related the following interesting circumstance, in his address at the Meeting, when the Report was read:

There is one part of the Report to which I cannot help reverting, since it gives me peculiar pleasure. I allude to that part which relates to Rewah, a large independent State lying between Benares and Saugor. You will recollect, that we were told that Mr. Smith and Mr. Mather had lately been making a Missionary tour through that country, and had been distributing copies of the Holy Scriptures. You will remember, that they had heard that, soon after a previous tour through those parts, the Rajah's son had issued an order that all the Christian books distributed in the district should be immediately delivered up to his father; but that, at their more recent visit, they had been rejoiced to find that the prohibition, from some cause or other, had been taken off, and that copies of the Scriptures were readily received by all the people.

On

I have had the pleasure of visiting that part of India. I was there in company with the Bishop, on his Lordship's recent Visitation through the North-west provinces. Our road lay through Rewah; and we halted there two or three days. The Rajah came, with a great retinue, to pay his respects; and the Bishop afterward returned his visit. one of these occasions, I entered privately into conversation with the Rajah's son, of whom I had never heard before; nor have I since, till this evening: to my surprise, he spoke excellent English. We were speaking about Religion; and on my mentioning the Bible, he manifested some curiosity, and expressed a desire to see the " English Shasters." I promised to send him a copy; and when we reached Benares, this promise was fulfilled, by my sending him a neat English Bible, with a Letter earnestly entreating him to read it; and adding a fervent prayer, that as God had blessed him with

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a knowledge of our language, He would also bless him with a knowledge of our Religion, and that the book I sent might be the means of his becoming wise unto salvation.

Now it is not for me to say that this led to the favourable change to which the Missionaries allude. I leave you to draw the inference. This however is certain, that the Bishop's visit intervened between the two visits made by the Missionaries. And you may enter into my peculiar feelings of joy, upon now hearing, for the first time, this most interesting report.

Doubtless there are multitudes of unknown cases in which the private distribution of the Scriptures has been the means of exciting inquiry, and spreading a knowledge of the Truth. Let the solitary instances that come to light stir us up, my dear friends, to more ardour and diligence in this blessed work.

ANXIETY OF A NEW-ZEALANDER OF RANK FOR THE WORD OF GOD.

We extract the following remarkable account from a Letter of Mr. J. A. Wilson, dated Opotiki, July 5, 1841:

In the middle of June last, one of my Native Teachers returned from a visit to the Uriwera Tribe; bringing with him a Youth of about seventeen, who possesses the hereditary rank of what is styled an Ariki-the greatest dignity, as far as I am capable of discerning, known among the New Zealanders as an applicant for a few books. I told him I had none with me; but if he would go with me as far as Tauranga, I would gratify him, by complying with his request. To this, after a little hesitation, he consented: and upon my arrival there, he accompanied me to Otawao, a distance from Opotiki of not less than 170 miles. By the time he arrives at home, he will have travelled 350 miles. Now this stripling—a fine example indeed for some of the Youths of our own country!-came to me solely with a view of getting a Testament and a few Prayer-books; and the circumstance which led to his visit was this:-Some months ago he came to Waihoutaho, and, upon hearing the Word of Life, became a professor in Jesus: he returned home,

JEWISH ANNIVERSARY AT JESUSALEM.

119 with the good tidings he had heard, to his own people. How far they at first approved of this change in their young Ariki, I know not; but one day, seeing him carry a burden on his back—which part of the body is very sacred, according to the ideas of the Natives, in men of his rank—it had such an effect upon them, that they came to him, and said, if he would procure books, they too would lay aside their native ritenga (a word signifying both their customs and superstitions), and he should become their teacher. He therefore came; has accomplished his errand; and is about to return to his native hills. I doubt not that these blessed oracles will not have been thus sent for in vain.

m

ACCOUNT OF THE OBSERVANCE, AT JERUSALEM, OF THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE DESTRUCTION OF THE TEMPLE.

THE following account is given by the Rev. John Mühleisen, in a Letter dated Alexandria Lazaretto, Aug. 17, 1842:

I recollect to have seen some antique coin, with a representation of the Daughter of Sion sitting under a palm-tree and bewailing her desolation. This is her condition at the present time, as a few remarks will be sufficient to prove. The Jewish Anniversary of the Destruction of their glorious Temple took place on the 17th of July; beginning, however, on the evening of the 16th, after the Sabbath had expired. I went to one of their Synagogues; and found them sitting on the ground, in old garments; each holding a candle in one hand, and the Book of the Prophet's Lamentations in the other. One of the Elders in Israel began chanting these Lamentations in the holy and expressive language of the original. The sight was altogether touching and affecting. Every note was swollen with a sigh, if not broken by a sob; and the mourning congregation gave way to their smothered groans at some particular passages. Here I observed a little boy heartily sobbing, among others; there another in the bosom of his father; and the eyes of both father and son literally flowing with tears; as was the case with many others. I left the spot with the deepest emotion.

In the morning I went again, to join the mourning

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