inside of a cucumber without opening it, as well as the heart of a man? The sorcerer said yes; and, in order to prove it, a cucumber was brought: he looked at it, never touching it, steadily for some time, with his usual enchantments, and then told the captain he had eaten the whole inside; and accordingly, when it was opened, nothing was found but the rind. This is not impossible; for the devil, of whom they make use in these operations, having, in the order of nature, greater power than all inferior creatures, can, with God's permission, produce these effects, and others more marvellous. The same father told me, that one of these sorcerers, whether it was the same or not I do not know, having been taken for a similar offence, was asked if he could eat the heart of the Portugueze captain? and he replied no; for the Franks had a certain thing upon the breast, which covered them like a cuirass, and was so impenetrable, that it was proof against all his charms. This can be nothing else than the virtue of baptism, the armour of the faith, and the privileges of the sons of the church, against which the gates of hell cannot prevail. To return, however, to my first subject:-This witch of Combru made some difficulty at first to confess her guilt; but seeing herself pressed with threats of death, and being led, in fact, to the public square, where I saw her with the sick young man, she said, that though she had not been the cause of his complaint, perhaps she could cure it, if they would let her remain alone with him, in his house, without interruption; by which she tacitly confessed her witchcraft: For it is held certain in these countries, that these wicked women can remove the malady which they have caused, if it be not come to the last extremity. And of many remedies which they use to restore health to the sufferers, there is one very extraordinary, which is, that the witch casts something out of her mouth, like the grain of a pomegranate, which is believed to be a part of the heart that she had eaten. The patient picks it up immediately, as part of his own intestines, and greedily swallows it; and by this means, as if his heart was replaced in his body, he recovers by degrees his health. I dare not assure you of these things as certainly true, not having myself seen them, surpassing as they do the course of nature. If they are as is said, it can be only in appear. ance, by the illusions of the devil; and if the afflicted recover actually their health, it is because the same devil ceases to torment them. Without dwelling longer upon these curious speculations,-the witch having given hopes that she would cure the patient, the officers promised that she should receive no injury, and they were both sent home; but an archer was set over her as a guard, that she might not escape.-PIETRO DELLA VALLE. Note 45, page 324, col. 1. The Calis. veral arms, and the head surrounded with flames; several fierce animals are also placed under their feet.SONNERAT. Note 46, page 324, col. 1. Sani, the dreadful God, who rides abroad Upon the King of the Ravens. Mr Moor has a curious remark upon this subject: «Sani being among the astrologers of India, as well as with their sapient brethren of Europe, a planet of malignant aspects, the ill-omened raven may be deemed a fit Vahan for such a dreaded being. But this is not, I think, a sufficient reason for the conspicuous introduction of the raven into the mythological machinery of the Hindu system, so accurate, so connected, and so complete in all its parts; although the investigations that it hath hitherto undergone have not fully developed or reached such points of perfection. Now let me ask the reason, why, both in England and in India, the raven is so rare a bird? It breeds every year, like the crow, and is much longer lived; and while the latter bird abounds every where, to a degree bordering on nuisance, a pair of ravens, for they are seldom seen singly or in trios, are scarcely found duplicated in any place. Perhaps, take England or India over, two pair of ravens will not be found, on an average, in the extent of five hundred or a thousand acres. I know not, for I write where I have no access to books, if our naturalists have sought the theory of this; or whether it may have first occurred to me, which it did while contemplating the character and attributes of Sani, that the raven destroys its young; and if this notion be well founded, and on no other can I account for the rareness of the annual-breeding long-lived raven, we shall at once see the propriety of symbolizing it with Saturn, or Kronos, or Time, devouring or destroying his own offspring.-Moor's Hindu Pantheon, p. 311. Note 47, page 326, col. 2. Be true unto yourselves. The passage in which Menu exhorts a witness to speak the truth is one of the few sublime ones in his Institutes. The soul itself is its own witness; the soul itself is its own refuge; offend not thy conscious soul, the supreme internal witness of men!-The sinful have said in their hearts, none see us. Yes, the gods distinctly see them, and so does the spirit within their breasts. The guardian deities of the firmament, of the earth, of the waters, of the human heart, of the moon, of the sun, and of fire, of punishment after death, of the winds, of night, of both twilights, and of justice, perfectly know the state of all spirits clothed with bodies.-O friend to virtue! that supreme Spirit, which thou believest one and the same with thyself, resides in thy bosom perpetually, and is an all-knowing inspector of thy goodness or of thy wickedness. If thou beest not at variance, by speaking falsely, with Yama, the subduer of all, with Vaivaswata the punisher, with that great Divinity who dwells in thy breast,-go not on a pilgrimage to the river Ganga, nor to the plains of Curu, for thou hast no need of expiation.—Ch. viii, p. 84, 85, 86, 91, 92. Note 48, page 326, col. 2. The Calis and Pandaris are the protectresses of cities; each city has its own. They address prayers to these tutelary divinities, and build temples to them, offering to them blood in sacrifice, and sometimes human victims. These objects of worship are not immortal, and they take their name from the city over which they preside, The Aunnays act a considerable part in the history or from the form in which they are represented. They of the Nella Rajah, an amusing romance, for a translaare commonly framed of a gigantic stature, having se- tion of which we are indebted to Mr Kindersley. They The Aunnay Birds. are milk-white, and remarkable for the gracefulness of tial manner. The corners are generally ornamented their walk. the Note 49, page 327, col. 2. The Banian Tree. THE Burghut, or Banian, often measures from twentyfour to thirty feet in girth. It is distinguished from every other tree hitherto known, by the very peculiar circumstance of throwing out roots from all its branches. These, being pendent, and perfectly lax, in time reach the ground, which they penetrate, and ultimately become substantial props to the very massy horizontal boughs, which, but for such a support, must either be stopt in their growth, or give way, from their own weight. Many of these quondam roots, changing their outward appearance from a brown rough rind to a regular bark, not unlike that of the beech, increase to a great diameter. They may be often seen from four to five feet in circumference, and in a true perpendicular line. An observer, ignorant of their nature, might think them artificial, and that they had been placed for purpose of sustaining the boughs from which they originated. They proceed from all the branches indiscriminately, whether near or far removed from the ground. They appear like new swabs, such as are in use on board ships: however, few reach sufficiently low to take a hold of the soil, except those of the lower branches. I have seen some do so from a great height, but they were thin, and did not promise well. Many of the ramifications pendent from the higher boughs are seen to turn round the lower branches, but without any obvious effect on either; possibly, however, they may derive sustenance, even from that partial mode of communication. The height of a full-grown Banian may be from sixty to eighty feet; and many of them, I am fully confident, cover at least two acres. Their leaves are similar to, but rather larger than those of the laurel. The wood of the trunk is used only for fuel; it is light and brittle; but the pillars formed by the roots are valuable, being extremely elastic and light, working with ease, and possessing great toughness: it resembles a good kind of ash.—Oriental Field Sports, vol. ii, p. 113. Note 50, page 327, col. 2. The Well Which they, with sacrifice of rural pride, Have wedded to the Cocoa-Grove beside. It is a general practice, that, when a plantation is made, a well should be dug at one of its sides. The well and the tope are married; a ceremony at which all the village attends, and in which often much money is expended. The well is considered as the husband, as its waters, which are copiously furnished to the young trees during the first hot season, are supposed to cherish and impregnate them. Though vanity and superstition are evidently the basis of these institutions, yet we cannot help admiring their effects, so beautifully ornamenting a torrid country, and affording such general convenience.-Oriental Sports, p. 10. Note 51, page 327, col. 2. Tanks. Some of these tanks are of very great extent, often covering eight or ten acres; and, besides having steps of masonry, perhaps fifty or sixty feet in breadth, are faced with brick-work, plaistered in the most substan with round or polygon pavilions of a neat appearance. Oriental Sports, vol. ii, p. 116. There are two kinds of tanks, which we confound under one common name, though nothing can be more different. The first is the Eray, which is formed by throwing a mound or bank across a valley or hollow ground, so that the rain water collects in the upper part of the valley, and is let out on the lower part by sluices, for the purposes of cultivation. The other kind is the Culam, which is formed by digging out the earth, and is destined for supplying the inhabitants with water for domestic purposes. The Culams are very frequently lined on all the four sides with cut stone, and are the most elegant works of the natives.-BUCHANAN. Where there are no springs or rivers to furnish them with water, as it is in the northern parts, where there are but two or three springs, they supply this defect by saving of rain water; which they do by casting up great banks in convenient places, to stop and contain the rains that fall, and so save it till they have occasion to let it out into the fields: They are made rounding like a (, or half-moon. Every town has one of these ponds, which, if they can but get filled with water, they count their corn is as good as in the barn. It was no small work to the ancient inhabitants to make all these banks, of which there is a great number, heing some two, some three fathoms in height, and in length some above a mile, some less, not all of a size. They are now grown they would use the water, they cut a gap in one end of over with great trees, and so seem natural hills. When the bank, and so draw the water by little and little, as they have occasion, for the watering their corn. These ponds, in dry weather, dry up quite. If they should dig these ponds deep, it would not be so convenient for them. It would, indeed, contain the water well, but would not so well, nor in such plenty, empty out itself into their grounds. In these ponds are allithe woods and down to the rivers, and in the time of gators, which when the water is dried up, depart into small, nor do use to catch people, nevertheless they rains, come up again into the ponds. They are but stand in some fear of them. The corn they sow in these parts is of that sort that is soonest ripe, fearing lest their waters should fail. As ¦ the water dries out of these ponds, they make use of them for fields, treading the mud with buffaloes, and then sowing rice thereon, and frequently casting up water with scoops on it.-KNOX, p. 9. Note 52, page 327, col. 2. The Lotus. The lotus abounds in the numerous lakes and ponds of the province of Garah; and we had the pleasure of comparing several varieties; single and full, white, and ¦ tinged with deep or with faint tints of red. To a near view, the simple elegance of the white lotus gains no accession of beauty from the multiplication of its petals, nor from the tinge of gaudy hue; but the richest tint is most pleasing, when a lake, covered with fall-blown lotus, is contemplated. — Journey from Mirzapur to Nagpur. Asiatic Annual Register, 1806. Note 53, page 327, col. 2. They built them here a Bower, etc. The materials of which these houses are made are al ways easy to be procured, and the structure is so simple, that a spacious, and by no means uncomfortable dwelling, suited to the climate, may be erected in one day. Our habitation, consisting of three small rooms, and a hall open to the north, in little more than four hours was in readiness for our reception; fifty or sixty labourers completed it in that time, and on emergency could perform the work in much less. Bamboos, grass for thatching, and the ground rattan, are all the materials requisite: not a nail is used in the whole edifice: a row of strong bamboos, from eight to ten feet high, are fixed firm in the ground, which describe the outline, and are the supporters of the building: smaller bamboos are then tied horizontally, by strips of the ground rattan, to these upright posts: The walls, composed of bamboo mats, are fastened to the sides with similar ligatures: bamboo rafters are quickly raised, and a roof formed, over which thatch is spread in regular layers, and bound to the roof by filaments of rattan. A floor of bamboo grating is next laid in the inside, elevated two or three feet above the ground; this grating is supported on bamboos, and covered with mats and carpets. Thus ends the process, which is not more simple than effectual. When the workmen take pains, a house of this sort is proof against very inclement weather. We experienced, during our stay at Meeaday, a severe storm of wind and rain, but no water penetrated, nor thatch escaped: and if the tempest should blow down the house, the inhabitants would run no risk of having their brains knocked out, or their bones broken; the fall of the whole fabric would not crush a lady's lap-dog.-SYMES'S Embassy to Ava. Note 54, page 327, col. 2. In this district the long grass called jungle is more prevalent than I ever yet noticed. It rises to the height of seven or eight feet, and is topped with a beautiful white down, resembling a swan's feather. It is the mantle with which nature here covers all the uncultivated ground, and at once veils the indolence of the people and the nakedness of their land. It has a fine shewy appearance, as it undulates in the wind, like the waves of the sea. Nothing but the want of greater variety to its colour prevents it from being one of the finest and most beautiful objects in that rich store of productions with which nature spontaneously supplies the improvident natives.-TENNANT. Note 55, page 328, col. 1. In such libations, pour'd in open glades, to be born again in the bodies of unclean beasts; and until, by repeated regenerations, all their sins are done away, and they attain such a degree of perfection as will entitle them to what is called Mooktee, eternal salvation, by which is understood a release from future transmigration, and an absorption in the nature of the godhead, who is called Brahm.-WILKINS. Note to the Bhagvat Geeta. The divine manes are always pleased with an oblation in empty glades, naturally clean, on the banks of rivers, and in solitary spots.-Inst. of Menu. Note 56, page 328, col. 1. The Surput, or tassel-grass, which is much the same as the guinea grass, grows to the height of twelve or fourteen feet. Its stem becomes so thick as to resemble in some measure a reed. It is very strong, and grows very luxuriantly it is even used as a fence against cattle; for which purpose it is often planted on banks, excavated from ditches, to enclose fields of corn, etc. It grows wild in all the uncultivated parts of India, but especially in the lower provinces, in which it occupies immense tracts; sometimes mixing with, and rising above coppices; affording an asylum for elephants, rhinoceroses, tigers, etc. It frequently is laid by high winds, of which breeding sows fail not to take advantage, by forming their nests, and concealing their young under the prostrate grass.-Oriental Sports, vol. i, p. 32. Note 58, page 328, col. 2. Lo, from his trunk, upturn'd, aloft be flings Of yonder plane, -he moves it to and fro. and may Note 59, page 328, col. 2. Till his strong temples, bath'd with sudden dews, Their fragrance of delight and love diffuse. The Hindoos are enjoined by the Veds to offer a cake, which is called Peenda, to the ghosts of their ancestors, The Hiudoo poets frequently allude to the fragrant as far back as the third generation. This ceremony is juice which oozes, at certain seasons, from small ducts performed on the day of the new moon in every month, in the temples of the male elephant, and is useful in The offering of water is in like manner commanded to relieving him from the redundant moisture, with be performed daily, and this ceremony is called Tar- which he is then oppressed; and they even describe pan, to satisfy, to appease. The souls of such men as the bees as allured by the scent, and mistaking it for have left children to continue their generation, are that of the sweetest flowers. When Crishna visited supposed to be transported, immediately upon quitting Sancha-dwip, and had destroyed the demon who intheir bodies, into a certain region called the Petree Log, fested that delightful country, he passed along the where they may continue in proportion to their former bank of a river, and was charmed with a delicious virtues, provided these ceremonies be not neglected; odour, which its waters diffused in their course : He otherwise they are precipitated into Nark, and doomed, was eager to view the source of so fragrant a stream, but was informed by the natives that it flowed from the temples of an elephant, immensely large, milkwhite, and beautifully formed; that he governed a numerous race of elephants; and that the odoriferous fluid which exuded from his temples in the season of love had formed the river; that the Devas, or inferior gods, and the Apsarases, or nymphs, bathed and sported in its waters, impassioned and intoxicated with the liquid perfume.-WILFORD. Asiatic Researches. Note 60, page 328, col. 2. The antic monkeys, whose wild gambols late They are so numerous on the island of Bulama, says Captain Beaver in his excellent book, that I have seen, on a calm evening, when there was not an air sufficiently strong to agitate a leaf, the whole surrounding wood in as much motion, from their playful gambols among its branches, as if it had blown a strong wind. Note 61, page 328, col. 2. Not that in emulous skill that sweetest bird I have been assured, by a credible eye-witness, that a Note 62, page 328, col. 2. No idle ornaments deface Her natural grace. What Condals should emblaze my ears, Or emerald rows, my stately neck; How each smooth arm, and each soft wrist, See how he kisses the lip of my rival, and imprints Note 63, page 328, col. 2. Sandal-streak. The Hindoos, especially after bathing, paint their faces with ochre and sandal-wood ground very fine in to a pulp. The custom is principally confined to the male sex, though the women occasionally wear a round spot, either of sandal, which is of a light dun colour, or of singuiff, that is, a preparation of vermilion, between the eye-brows, and a stripe of the same running up the The Hindoo Wife, in Sir William Jones's poem, de- front of the head, in the furrow made according to the scribes her own toilet-tasks: Nor were my night thoughts, I confess, Free from solicitude for dress; How best to bind my flowing hair To fix a diamond or a pearl, And where to smooth the love-spread toils How to adjust the golden feic,' And most adorn my forehead sleek; Properly Teica, an ornament of gold placed above the nose. general practice of dividing all the frontal hair equally to the right and left, where it is rendered smooth, and glazed by a thick mucilage, made by steeping hintseed for a while in water. When dry, the hair is all firmly matted together, and will retain its form for many days together.-Oriental Sports, vol. i, p. 271. Note 64, page 328, col. 2. Nor arm nor ankle-ring. Glass rings are universally worn by the women of the Decan, as an ornament on the wrists; and their apply ing closely to the arm is considered as a mark of delicacy and beauty, for they must of course be past over the hand. In doing this a girl seldom escapes without miration.-Buchanan. This temple is to the Hindoos what Mecca is to the Mahommedans. It is resorted to by pilgrims from every quarter of India. It is the chief seat of Brahminical power, and a strong-hold of their superstition. At the annual festival of the Butt Jattra, seven hundred thousand persons (as has been computed by the Pundits in College) assemble at this place. The number of deaths in a single year, caused by voluntary devotement, by imprisonment for non-payment of the demands of the Brahmins, or by the scarcity of provisions for such a multitude, is incredible. The precincts of the place are covered with bones.-Claudius Buchanan. the form of a wing upon each cheek, which wings open and shut and flap as it is carried in a stately chariot, and the idol in the midst of it; and one of the moguls sitting behind it in the chariot, upon a convenient place, with a canopy, to keep the sun from injuring of it. When I, with horror, beheld these strange things, I called to mind the eighteenth chapter of the Revelations, and the first verse, and likewise the sixteenth and seventeenth verses of the said chapter, in which places there is a beast, and such idolatrous worship, mentioned; and those sayings in that text are herein truly accomplished in the sixteenth verse; for the Bramins are all marked in the forehead, and likewise all that come to worship the idol are marked also in their foreheads.Bruton. Churchill's Collection. Note 68, page 329, col. 2. The Chariot of the God. The size of the chariot is not exaggerated. Speaking of other such, Niecamp says, Currus tam horrendæ magnitudinis sunt, ut vel mille homines uni trahendo vix sufficiant.-1. 10. sec. 18. They have built a great chariot, that goeth on sixteen wheels of a side, and every wheel is five feet in height, and the chariot itself is about thirty feet high. In this chariot, on their great festival days, at night, they place their wicked god Jaggarnat; and all the Bramins, being in number nine thousand, then attend this great idol, besides of ashmen and fackeires some thousands, or more than a good many. The chariot is most richly adorned with most rich and costly ornaments; and the aforesaid wheels are placed very complete in a round circle, so artificially, that every wheel doth its proper office without any impediment; for the chariot is aloft, and in the centre betwixt the wheels: they have also more than two thousand lights with them: And this chariot, with the idol, is also drawn with the greatest and best men of the town; and they are so eager and greedy to draw it, that whosoever, by shouldering, crowding, shoving, heaving, thrusting, or any violent way, can but come to lay a hand upon the ropes, they think themselves blessed and happy and, when it is going along the city, there are many that will offer themselves as a sacrifice to this idol, and desperately lie down on the ground, that the Many thousands of people are employed in carrying water from flurdwar to Juggernat, for the uses of that temple. It is there supposed to be peculiarly holy, as it issues from what is called the Cow's Mouth. This superstitious notion is the cause of as much lost labour as would long since have converted the largest province of Asia into a garden. The numbers thus employed are immense; they travel with two flasks of the water slung over the shoulder by means of an elastic piece of bam-chariot-wheels may run over them, whereby they are boo. The same quantity which employs, perhaps, fifteen thousand persons, might easily be carried down the Ganges in a few boats annually. Princes and families of distinction have this water carried to them in all parts of Hindostan; it is drank at feasts, as well as upon religious occasions.-Tennant. A small river near Kinouge is held by some as even more efficacious in washing away moral defilement than the Ganges itself. Dr Tennant says, that a person in Ceylon drinks daily of this water, though at the distance of, perhaps, three thousand miles, and at the expense of five thousand rupees per month! No distinction of casts is made at this temple, but all, like a nation descended from oue common stock, eat, drink, and make merry together.-Stavorinus. Note 67, page 329, col. 1. The seven-headed Idol. The idol of Jaggernat is in shape like a serpent, with seven heads; and on the cheeks of each head it hath killed outright, some get broken arms, some broken legs; so that many of them are so destroyed, and by this means they think to merit heaven.-Bruton. Churchill's Collection. They sometimes lie down in the track of this machine a few hours before its arrival, and, taking a soporiferous draught, hope to meet death asleep.-CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN. Note 69, page 330, col. 1. A harlot-band. There are in India common women, called Wives of the Idol. When a woman has made a vow to obtain children, if she brings into the world a beautiful daughter, she carries her to Bod, so their idol is called, with whom she leaves her. This girl, when she is arrived at a proper age, takes an apartinent in the public place, hangs a curtain before the door, and waits for those who are passing, as well Indians as those of other sects among whom this debauchery is permitted. She prostitutes |