Shall hail you welcome on his spacious shore Through oceans never plough'd by keel before, Mine every office of the faithful friend. Heaven fent you here for fome great work divine, Vaft are the shores of India's wealthful foil; His cavern'd cliffs with dark-brow'd forefts crown'd, Far to extremeft fea the ridges thrown, By various names through various tribes are known: Two infant rivers pour the crystal tide, Indus ·th' enormous mountain-Froperly an immenfe chain of mountains, known by various names, Caucafus, Taurus, Hemodus, 'Paropamissus, Orontes, Imaus, &c. and from Imaus extended through Tartary to the sea of Kamchatka. Indus the one, and one the Ganges named, To various laws the various tribes incline, Some Sto Ceylon's ifle.-One Captain Knox, who published an account of Ceylon, in 1681, has the following curious paffage: "This for certain, fays he, I can affirm, that oftentimes the devil doth cry with an audible voice in the night: it is very fhrill, almost like the barking of a dog. This I have often heard myself, but never heard that he did any body any harm. Only this obfervation the inhabitants of the land have made of this voice, and I have made it also, that either just before, or very fuddenly after this voice, the king always cuts off people. To believe that this is the voice of the devil these reasons urge; because there is no creature known to the inhabitants that cries like it, and because it will on a fudden depart from one place, and make a noise in another, quicker than any fowl can fly, and because the very dogs will tremble when they hear it; and it is fo counted by all the people."-Knox, Hift. Ceyl. p. 78. We need not have resource to the devil, however, for this quick tranfition of found. Birds which live by fuction in marshy grounds, the bittern in particular, often set up an hideous fcreaming cry by night, and inftantly answer one another at the distance of feveral miles. Some as from heaven receive the Koran's lore, t By Ganges' banks, as wild traditions tell, A clan, whose hope to fhun eternal ill, And here Cambaya spreads her palmy u dales; A warlike realm, where still the martial race From Porus famed of yore their lineage trace. t 149 Narfinga as wild traditions tell.. -Pliny, impofed upon by fome Greeks, who pretended to have been in India, relates this fable. Vid. Nat. Hift. lib. 12. u And bere Cambaya-Now called Gazarate. The inhabitants are ingenious, cultivate letters, and are said to be particularly happy in the agreeable romance. According to ancient tradition, Porus was fovereign of this country. His memory is ftill preferved with an eclat, worthy of that valour and generofity which attracted the esteem of the great Alexander. Caftera. This country was known to the ancients by the name of Gedrofia. Narfinga × here displays her spacious line; Alas, x Narfinga-The laws of Narfinga oblige "the women to throw them"felves into the funeral pile, to be burnt with their deceased hufbands. An ❝ infallible secret to prevent the defire of widowhood." Caftera from Barros, Dec. 4. There are many accounts in different travellers of the performance of this moft barbarous ceremony. The two following are felected as the most picturefque of any in the knowledge of the translator. "At this time (1710) died the prince of Marata, aged above eighty years, The ceremony of his funeral, where his forty-feven wives were burned with his corpfe, was thus: A deep circular pit was digged in a field without the town; in the middle of the trench was erected a pile of wood, on the top of which, on a couch richly ornamented, lay the body of the deceased prince in his finest robes. After numberless rituals performed by the Bramins, the pile was fet on fire, and immediately the unhappy ladies appeared, sparkling with jewels and adorned with flowers. These victims of this diabolical facrifice walked several times about the burning pile, the heat whereof was felt at a confiderable distance. The principal lady then, holding the dagger of her late husband, thus addressed herself to the prince his fucceffor: Here, faid she, is the dagger which the king made use of, to triumph over his enemies: beware never to employ it to other purpose, never to embrue it with the blood of your subjects. Govern them as a father, as he has done, and you shall live long and happy, as he did. Since he is no more, nothing can keep me longer in the world; all that remains for me is to follow him. With these words, the refigned the dagger into the prince's hands, who took it from her without shewing the least sign of grief or compaffion. The princess now appeared agitated. One of her domestics, a Christian woman, had frequently talked with her on religion, and though The never renounced her idols, had made fome impreffions on her mind. Perhaps these impreffions now revived. With a most expreffive look she exclaimed, Alas! what is the end of human happiness! I know I shall plunge myself headlong into hell. On these words, a horror was visible on every countenance; when resuming her courage, fhe boldly turned her face to the burning pile, and calling upon her gods, flung herself into the midst of the flames. The fecond lady was the fifter of a prince of the blood, who was prefent, and affifted at the deteftable facrifice. She advanced to her brother, and gave him the jewels wherewith she was adorned. His paffion gave way, he burst into tears, and fell upon her neck in the most tender embraces. 1 Alas, how vain! these gaudy sons of fear, Trembling, bow down before each hostile spear. Behold embraces. She, however, remained unmoved, and with a refolute countenance, fometimes viewed the pile, and fometimes the affiftants. Then loudly exclaiming, Chiva, Chiva, the name of one of her idols, the precipitated herself into the flames, as the former had done. The other ladies foon followed after, fome decently composed, and some with the most bewildered, down-cast, sorrowful looks. One of them, shocked above the reft, ran to a Christian soldier, whom she beheld among the guards, and hanging about his neck, implored him to fave her. The new convert, stunned with furprize, pushed the unfortunate lady from him; and fhrieking aloud she fell into the fiery trench. The foldier, all shivering with terror, immediately retired, and a delirious fever ended his life in the following night. Though many of the unhappy victims, discovered at first the utmost intrepidity, yet no fooner did they feel the flames, than they roared out in the most dreadful manner; and, weltering over each other, ftrove to gain the brim of the pit; but in vain the affiftants forced them back with their poles, and heaped new fuel upon them. The next day the Bramins gathered the boncs, and threw them into the fea. The pit was levelled, a temple built on the spot, and the deceafed prince and his wives were reckoned among the deities. To conclude, this deteftable cruelty has the appearance of the free choice of the women. But that freedom is only fpecious; it is almoft impoffible to avoid it. If they do, they must lie under perpetual infamy, and the relations, who efteem themselves highly disgraced, leave no means untried to oblige them to it. Princeffes, and concubines of princes, however, are the only perfons from whom this fpecies of fuicide is expected. When women of inferior rank submit to this abominable cuftom, they are only urged to it by the impulfe of a barbarous pride and vanity of oftentation." Extracted from a letter from Father Martin, on the miffion of Coromandel, to Father de Villette, of the Society of Jefus, published at Paris, in 1719. Mr. Holwell, the advocate and warm admirer of the Gentoos, has taken great pains to vindicate the practice of this horrid facrifice, and the principles upon which, he says, it is established. These we have given in the enquiry at the end of this Lufiad. His narrative is as follows: |