take care to have their full share of the presents at the close of a ceremony. The amount of the fees depends upon the ability and generosity of the person who employs the priest; who is not unfrequently very much dissatisfied with what he receives, and complains to others, that the duties at such a man's house are very heavy, but that he gives only a very trifling fee, and no more of the offerings than a crow might eat.' This man subsists upon the fees and offerings, engaging in no other employment.

The higher orders despise a bramhun who becomes priest to shōōdrus, and refuse to eat with him. Such a person can only be priest to one cast, and is called the joiners' bramhun, or the blacksmiths' bramhun, &c.

The yogees, (mostly weavers,) the chandalus, and the basket-makers, have priests of their own casts, and not from among the bramhuns.

The shastrus point out the proper qualifications of a poorohitu, which are similar to those of a spiritual guide, mentioned in a following article. Some enjoy this office by hereditary succession. When a person, immediately after the performance of a religious ceremony in his family, meets with success in his connections or business, he not unfrequently attributes his prosperity to his priest, and rewards him by liberal presents. On the other hand, if a person sustain a loss after employing a new priest, he lays it at the door of the priest. If at a bloody sacrifice the slayer happen to fail in cutting off the head at one blow, the priest is blamed for having made some blunder in the ceremonies, and thus producing this fatal disaster.

The Acharyu-The person who taught the védŭs used

to be called acharyŭ; and at present the bramhun, who reads a portion of them at the time of investiture with the poita, is called by this name; as well as the person who reads the formularies at a sacrifice. This latter person is generally the poorohitů, but he then assumes the name of acharyŭ. A considerable number of bramhŭns are qualified to discharge the duties of an acharyu; and any one thus qualified may perform them, without any previous consecration or appointment. Twenty or thirty roopees is the amount of the fee of the acharyŭ at festivals.

The Sudushyu.-The Sŭdushyů regulates the ceremonies of worship, but is not employed on all occasions: he is however generally engaged at the festivals; at the first shraddhŭ after a person's death; at the dedication of images, temples, flights of steps, ponds, &c. At the reading of the pooranus also he attends, and points out where the reading or the copy is defective. He receives a fee of ten or fifteen roopees, and sometimes as much as one hundred and fifty. On extraordinary occasions, five or ten sŭdéshyůs are employed.

The Brumha sits near the fire at the time of a burntoffering, and supplies it with wood. The fee to this person is five roopees in cases where the Sudushyů receives fifteen; to which is added a gift of rice, &c.

The Hota throws the clarified butter on the fire in the burnt-offering, repeating the proper formulas. He receives the same fee as the acharyŭ.

The four last-mentioned persons divide the offerings presented to Ŭgnee, and are worshipped at the commencement of a sacrifice; when rings, poitas, clothes, seats of

cloth, or wood, pillows, awnings, brass and copper vessels, &c. are presented to them.

The Hindoo priests wear their usual dress during the performance of any ceremony.

Other priests.-A number of persons are employed as assistants to the priests: as, the Vuroo, who gathers flowers to present to the image, sweeps the temple, &c. The person who buys and collects the things for the offerings is called Udhikarēē; he who performs the ceremonies of worship is called Pōōjŭků; he who cooks for the image, Pachŭků; he who recites the pooranŭ in an assembly is called Pat'hŭků; he who holds the book and corrects the reading and the copy, Dharŭků; he who hears the words, as the representative of the person who is to enjoy the merit arising from the hearing of these stories, is called Shrota; and he who repeats in the evening the meaning of what has been read in the day, Kŭt'hŭků.

The rich Hindoos sit with a large pillow placed at their backs.

CHAP. IV.

OF THE WORSHIP IN THE TEMPLES.

THE daily ceremonies in the temples erected in honour of Shivă are as follows:-In the morning the officiating bramhun, after bathing, enters the templea and bows to Shivů. He then anoints the image with clarified butter or boiled oil; after which he bathes the image with water which has not been defiled by the touch of a shōōdrů, nor of a bramhun who has not performed his ablutions, by pouring water on it, and afterwards wipes it with a napkin. He next grinds some white powder in water, and, dipping the ends of his three fore-fingers in it, draws them across the lingŭ, marking it as the worshippers of Shivů mark their foreheads. He next sits down before the image, and, shutting his eyes, meditates on the work he is commencing; then places rice and dōōrva grass on the lingŭ; next a flower on his own head, and then on the top of the lingŭ; then another flower on the lingu; then others, one by one, repeating incantations: he then places white powder, flowers, vilwů leaves, incense, meat offerings, and a lamp before the image; also some rice and a plantain: he next repeats the name of Shivă, with some forms of praise; and at last prostrates himself before the image. These ceremo

• Pulling off his shoes at the bottom of the steps.

b The Greeks used to smear the statues of their gods with ointments, and adorn them with garlands.

nies, in the hands of a secular person, are concluded in a few minutes; a person who has sufficient leisure spends an hour in them. In the evening the officiating bramhŭn goes again to the temple, and after washing his feet, &c. prostrates himself before the door; then opening the door, he places in the temple a lamp, and, as an evening oblation, presents to the image a little milk, some sweetmeats, fruits, &c. when, falling at the feet of the image, he locks the door, and comes away.

At the temple of Shivů, on the 14th of the increase of the moon in Phalgoonŭ, in the night, a festival in honour of Shivů is kept: the image is bathed four times, and four separate services are performed during the night. Before the temple, the worshippers dance, sing, and revel all night, amidst the horrid din of their music. The occasion of this festival is thus related in the Bhuvishwů-pooranů:-A birdcatcher, detained in a forest in a dark night, climbed a vilwŭ tree under which was an image of the lingu. By shaking the boughs of the tree, the leaves and drops of dew fell upon the image; with which Shivů was so much pleased, that he declared, the worship of the lingu on that night should be received as an act of unbounded merit.

The worship at the temples in honour of the different forms of Vishnoo, is nearly the same as that at the temples of the lingu. Very early in the morning the officiating bramhun, after putting on clean apparel, and touching the

It is reported of some Hindoo saints, that when they went to the temple to awake the god, while repeating the words of the shastrů used on these occasions, the doors always flew open of themselves; reminding us of the European superstition, that the temple of Cybele was opened not by hands, but by prayers.'