I must leave it to the pen of the future historian and poet to give these scenes that just colouring which will harrow up the soul of future generations: I must leave to them the description of these legitimate murders, perpetrated at the command and in the presence of the high-priests of idolatry; who, by the magic spell of superstition, have been able to draw men to quit their homes, and travel on foot a thousand miles, for the sake of beholding an idol cut out of the trunk of a neighbouring tree, or dug from an adjoining quarry ;-to prevail on men to commit murders to supply human victims for the altars of religion;-on mothers to butcher their own children;-on friends to force diseased relations into the arms of death, while struggling to extricate themselves;-on children to apply the lighted torch to the pile that is to devour the living mother, who has fed them from her breasts, and dandled them on her knees. To crown the whole, these priests of idolatry have persuaded men to worship them as gods, to lick the dust of their feet, and even to cut off lumps of their own flesh,* their own headst as offerings to the gods.

SECTION XXXV.

Ceremonies performed on visiting holy places.

THE founders of the Hindoo religion have taught that certain places, (Teert❜hust'hană)‡ are peculiarly sacred; that the performance of religious rites at these places is attended with peculiar merit, and followed by extraordinary benefits. The source and confluence of sacred rivers; places where any of the phænomena of nature have been discovered; or where particular images have been set up by the gods themselves;§ or where some god or great saint has resided; or where distinguished religious actions have been performed-have been pronounced sacred.

Excited by the miraculous accounts inserted in the shastris, multitudes visit these places; others reside there for a time; and some spend the last stages of life at a

* See page 120. tion, and st'hanu, place.

+ See page 316.

The place where persons obtain salvation: from tree, salva§ At Benares Shivă is said to have set up with his own hands an image of the lingă.

holy place, to make sure of heaven after death. Rich men not unfrequently erect temples and cut pools at these places, for the benefit of their souls.

When a person resolves to visit any one of these places, he fixes upon an auspi cious day, and, two days preceding the commencement of his journey, has his head shaved; the next day he fasts; the following day he performs the shraddhŭ of the three preceding generations of his family on both sides, and then leaves his house. If a person act according to the shastrů, he observes the following rules: First, till he returns to his own house, he eats rice which has not been wet in cleansing, and that only once a day; he abstains from anointing his body with oil, and from eating fish. If he ride in a palanqueen, or in a boat, he loses half the benefits of his pilgrimage. If he walk on foot, he obtains the full fruit. The last day of his journey he fasts. On his arrival at the sacred spot, he has his whole body shaved;* after which he bathes, and performs the shraddhu. It is necessary that he stay seven days at least at the holy place; he may continue as much longer as he pleases. Every day during his stay he bathes, pays his devotions to the images, sits before them and repeats their names, and worships them, presenting such offerings as he can afford. In bathing he makes kooshŭ grass images for his relations, and bathes them. The benefit arising to relations will be as one to eight, compared with that of the person bathing at the holy place. When he is about to return, he obtains some of the offerings which have been presented to the idol or idols, and brings them home to give to his friends and neighbours. These consist of sweetmeats, flowers, toolŭsee leaves, the ashes of cow-dung, &c. After celebrating the shraddhŭ, he entertains the bramhuns, and presents them with oil, fish, and all those things from which he abstained. Having done this, he returns to his former course of living. The reward promised to the pilgrim is, that he shall ascend to the heaven of that god who presides at the holy place he has visited.

The following are some of the principal places in Hindoost'hanŭ to which persons go on pilgrimage:

* If it be a woman, she has only the breadth of two fingers of her hair behind cut off. If a widow, her whole head is shaved.

Guya, rendered famous as the place where Vishnoo destroyed a giant. To procure the salvation of deceased relations, crowds of Hindoos perform the shraddhă here, on whom government levies a tax. Rich Hindoos have expended immense sums at this place.

Kashee (Benares). To this place multitudes of Hindoos go on pilgrimage; the ceremonies of religion, when performed at the different holy places in this city, are supposed to be very efficacious. It is the greatest seat of Hindoo learning in Hindoost'hani. Many Hindoos spend their last days here, under the expectation, that dying here secures a place in Shiva's heaven. To prove that a man dying in the very act of sin at this place obtains happiness, the Hindoos relate, amongst other stories, one respecting a man who died in a pan of hot spirits, into which he accidentally fell while carrying on an intrigue with the wife of a liquor merchant. Shivŭ is said to have come to this man in his last moments, and, whispering the name of Brůmha in his ear, to have sent him to heaven. Even Englishmen, the Hindoos allow, may gq. to heaven from Kashee, and they relate a story of an English.man who had a great desire to die at this place. After his arrival there, he gave money to his head Hindoo servant to build a temple, and perform the different ceremonies required, and in a short time afterwards obtained his desire, and died at Kashee. name of my countryman from a sense of shame.

I suppress the

Prйyagй (Allahabad). The Hindoos suppose that the Ganges, the Yumoona and the Suruswütee, three sacred rivers, unite their streams here. Many persons from all parts of India bathe at this place, and many choose a voluntary death here. Government levies a tax on the pilgrims. He who has visited Guya, Kashee and Prayagă, flatters himself that he is possessed of extraordinary religious merits.

Júgunnathi-kshŭtrů (in Orissa).

Several temples and pools attract the attention of pilgrims at this place; but the great god Jagunnat'hŭ is the most famous object of attention to pilgrims, who come from all parts of India at the times of the thirteen annual festivals held in honour of this,wooden god. All casts eat together here, the rise of which custom is variously accounted for.

The Hindoos say, that

200,000 people assemble at this place at the time of drawing the car, when five or six people are said to throw themselves under the wheels of the car every year, as a certain means of obtaining salvation. When asked a bramhun in what way such persons expected salvation, he said, that generally the person who thus threw away his life was in a state of misfortune, and that he thought, as he sacrificed his life through his faith in Júgănnat'hŭ, this god would certainly save him. The pilgrims to this place, especially at the time of the above festival, endure the greatest hardships, some from the fatigues of a long journey, others from the want of necessary support, or from being exposed to bad weather. Multitudes perish on the roads, very often by the dysentery, and some parts of the sea shore at this holy place may be properly termed Golgotha, the number of skulls and dead bodies are so great. In no part of India, perhaps, are the horrors of this superstition so deeply felt as on this spot: its victims are almost countless. Every third year they make a new image, when a bramhun renoves the original bones of Krishnŭ* from the belly of the old image to that of the new one. On this occasion, he covers his eyes lest he should be struck dead for looking at such sacred relics.+ After this, we may be sure, the common people do not wish to see Krishnŭ's bones.

It is a well-authenticated fact, that at this place a number of females of infamous character are employed to dance and sing before the god. They live in separate houses, not at the temple. Persons going to see Jugunnat'hŭ are often guilty of criminal actions with these females. Multitudes take loose women with them, never suspecting that Jŭgünnat'hŭ will be offended at their bringing a prostitute into his presence, or that whoredom is inconsistent with that worship from which they expect salvation, and to obtain which some of them make a journey of four months.

* The tradition is, that king Indri-d yoomne, by the direction of Vishnoo, placed the bones of Krishnů, who had been accidentally killed by a hunter, in the belly of the image of Júg nnat hi.

+ The raja of Burdwan, Kēērtee-Chůndrů, expended, it is said, twelve lacks of roopees in a journey to Jugünnat'hỡ, and in bribing the bramh ́ns to permit him to see these bones. For the sight of the bones he paid two lacks of roopees; but he died in six months afterwards---for his temerity.

The officiating bramhuus there continually live in adulterous connection with them.

At

Before this place fell into the hands of the English, the king, a Marhatta chief, exacted tolls from pilgrims for passing through his territories to Jugŭnnat❜hă. one place the toll was not less than one pound nine shillings for each foot-passenger, if he had so much property with him. When a Bengalee raja used to go, he was accompanied by one or two thousand people, for every one of whom he was obliged to pay the toll. The Honorable Company's government levies a tax of from one

to six roopees on each passenger. For several years after the conquest of Kătăkă by the English, this tax was not levied, when myriads of pilgrims thronged to this place, and thousands, it is said, perished from disease, want, &c.

Some persons, on leaving this holy place, deposit with the bramhŭns of the temple one or two hundred roopees, with the interest of which the bramhons are to purchase rice, and present it daily to Jugŭnnat'hu, and afterwards to dăndees or bramhuns. Deeds of gift are also made to Jugünnat'hŭ all over Hindoost'hanů, which are received by agents in every large town, and paid to the Mot'hu-dharees* at Jūgünnat❜hu-kshůtrů, who by this means (though professing themselves to be mendicants) have become some of the richest merchants in India.

Raméshwürů. (Ramiseram). This place forms the southern boundary of the bramhinical religion. It is famous for containing a temple said to have been erected by Ramă on his return from the destruction of the giant Ravŭnů. None but wandering mendicants visit it.

Chůndrů-shékůrů, a mountain near Chittagong, on which stands a temple of the lingu. Over the surface of a pool of water inflammable air is said to be perceived, from the fire of which pilgrims kindle their burnt-offerings. The water oozes from one side of the rock, and as it falls below, the pilgrims stand to receive the purifying

stream.

* These Mit'hō-dharees are found at every holy place. One person presides over the house, which is the common resort of pilgrims, who are entertained there.