6. For a hundred years more, he made those adora- peculiar, as I since understand, to the north-eastern tions buried up to his neck in the earth. 7. For a hundred years more, enveloped with fire. 8. For a hundred years more, he stood upon his head with his feet towards heaven. parts of Mysoor, the women of which universally undergo the amputation of the first joints of the third and fourth fingers of their right hands. On my arrival at Deonhully, after ascertaining that the request would 9. For a hundred years more, he stood upon the palm not give offence, I desired to see some of these women; of one hand resting on the ground. and, the same afternoon, seven of them attended at my 10. For a hundred years more, he hung by his hand tent. The sect is a sub-division of the Murresoo Wofrom the branch of a tree. kul, and belongs to the fourth great class of the Hin11. For a hundred years more, he hung from a tree doos, viz. the Souder. Every woman of the sect, prewith his head downwards. When he at length came to a respite from these severe mortifications, a radiant glory encircled the devotee, and a flame of tire, arising from his head, began to consume the whole world.»- From the Seeva Pooraun, MAURICE'S History of Hindostan. viously to piercing the cars of her eldest daughter, preparatory to her being betrothed iu marriage, must necessarily undergo this mutilation, which is performed by the blacksmith of the village, for a regulated fee, by a surgical process sufficiently rude. The finger to be amputated is placed on a block; the blacksmith places a chisel over the articulation of the joint, and chops it off at a single blow. If the girl to be betrothed is motherless, and the mother of the boy have not before been subject to the operation, it is incumbent on her to perform the sacrifice. After satisfying myself with regard to the facts of the case, I inquired into the origin of so strange a practice, and one of the women related, with great fluency, the following traditionary tale, which has Dushmanta. I bow to a man of his austere devotion. since been repeated to me, with no material deviation, -SACONTALA. You see a pious Yogi, motionless as a pollard, holding his thick bushy hair, and fixing his eyes on the solar orb. Mark-his body is half covered with a white ant's edifice made of raised clay, the skin of a snake supplies the place of his sacerdotal thread, and part of it girds his loins; a number of knotty plants encircle and wound his neck, and surrounding birds'-nests almost conceal his shoulders. Note 22, page 214, col. 1. That even Seeva's self, The Highest, cannot grant, and be secure. It will be seen from the following fable, that Seeva had once been reduced to a very humiliating employment by one of Kehama's predecessors : Ravana, by his power and infernal arts, had subjugated all the gods and demigods, and forced them to perform menial offices about his person and household. Indra made garlands of flowers to adorn him withal; Agni was his cook; Surya supplied light by day, and Chandra by night; Varuna purveyed water for the palace; Kuvera furnished cash. The whole nava-graha (the nine planetary spheres) sometimes arranged themselves into a ladder, by which, they serv ing as steps, the tyrant ascended his throne: Brahma (for the great gods were there also; and I give this anecdote as I find it in my memoranda, without any improved arrangement) Brahma was a herald, proclaining the giant's titles, the day of the week, month, etc. daily in the palace,-a sort of speaking almanack: Mahadeva (i. e. Seeva) in his Avatara of Kandeh-roo, performed the office of barber, and trimmed the giants beards: Vishnu had the honourable occupation of instructing and drilling the dancing and singing girls, and selecting the fairest for the royal bed: Ganesa had the care of the cows, goats, and herds; Vayu swept the house; Yama washed the linen;-and in this mauuer were all the gods employed in the menial offices of Ravana, who rebuked and flogged them in default of industry and attention. Nor were the female divinities exempted; for Bhavani, in her name and form of Satni, was head Aya, or nurse, to Ravana's children; Laksmi and Saraswati were also among them, but it does not appear in what capacity.-MOORE'S Hindu Pantheon, p. 333. by several others of the sect: «A Rachas (or giant) named Vrica, and in after times Busmaa-soor, or the giant of the ashes, had, by a course of austere devotion to Mahadeo (Seeva) obtained from him the promise of whatever boon he should ask. The Rachas accordingly demanded, that every person on whose head he should place his right hand, might instantly be reduced to ashes; and Mahadeo conferred the boon, without suspicion of the purpose for which it was designed. The Rachas no sooner found himself possessed of this formidable power, than he attempted to use it for the destruction of his benefactor. Mahadeo fled, the Rachas pursued, and followed the fugitive so closely as to chase him into a thick grove; where Mahadeo, changing his form and bulk, concealed himself in the centre of a fruit, then called tunda pundoo, but since named linga tunda, from the resemblance which its kernel thenceforward assumed to the ling, the appropriate emblem of Mahadeo. << The Rachas, having lost sight of Mahadeo, inquired of a husbandman, who was working in the adjoining field, whether he had seen the fugitive, and what direction he had taken. The husbandman, who had attentively observed the whole transaction, fearful of the future resentment of Mahadeo, and equally alarmed for the present vengeance of the giant, answered aloud, that he had seen no fugitive, but pointed at the same time, with the little finger of his right hand, to the place of Mahadeo's concealment. 2 <«<< In this extremity, Vishnou descended, in the form of a beautiful damsel, to the rescue of Mahadeo. The Rachas became instantly enamoured;-the damsel was a pure Brahmin, and might not be approached by the unclean Rachas. By degrees she appeared to relent; and, as a previous condition to farther advances, enjoined the performance of his ablutions in a neighbour Seeva was once in danger even of annihilation: «<In passing from the town of Silgut to Deonhully,» says Co-lized;-Wokul, a husbandman. lonel Wilks, «I became accidentally informed of a sect Murresoo, or Mursoo, in the Hala Canara, signifies rude, uncivi* Dignus vindice nodus. ing pool. After these were finished, she prescribed, as a farther purification, the performance of the Sundia, -a ceremony in which the right hand is successively applied to the breast, to the crown of the head, and to other parts of the body. The Rachas, thinking only of love, and forgetful of the powers of his right hand, performed the Sundia, and was himself reduced to ashes. « Mahadeo now issued from the linga tunda, and, after the proper acknowledgments for his deliverance, proceeded to discuss the guilt of the treacherous husbandman, and determined on the loss of the finger with which he had offended, as the proper punishment of his crime. «The wife of the husbandman, who had just arrived at the field with food for her husband, hearing this dreadful sentence, threw herself at the feet of Mahadeo. She represented the certain ruin of her family, if her husband should be disabled for some months from performing the labours of the farm, and besought the Deity to accept two of her fingers, instead of one from her husband. Mahadeo, pleased with so sincere a proof of conjugal affection, accepted the exchange, and ordained, that her female posterity, in all future generations, should sacrifice two fingers at his temple, as a memorial of the transaction, and of their exclusive devotion to the God of the Ling, «The practice is, accordingly, confined to the supposed posterity of this single woman, and is not common to the whole sect of Murresoo-Wokul. Iascertained the actual number of families who observed this practice in three successive districts through which I afterwards passed, and I conjecture that, within the limits of Mysoor, they may amount to about two thousand houses. The Hill of Sectee, in the talook of Colar, where the giant was destroyed, is (according to this tradition) formed of the ashes of Busmaa-soor: It is held in particular veneration by this sect, as the chief scat of their appropriate sacrifice; and the fact of its containing little or no moisture, is held to be a miraculous proof that the ashes of the giant continue to absorb the most violent and continued rain. This is a remarkable ex- | ample of easy credulity. I have examined the mountain, which is of a sloping form, and composed of coarse granite.»-Hist. Sketches of the South of India, vol. i, p. 442, note. Note 23, page 314, col. 1. A Ship of Heaven. I have converted the Vimana, or self-moving Car of the Gods, into a Ship. Captain Wilford has given the history of its invention,-and, what is more curious, has attempted to settle the geography of the story: A most pious and venerable sage, named RISHI CESA, being very far advanced in years, had resolved to visit, before he died, all the famed places of pilgrimage; and, having performed his resolution, he bathed at last in the sacred water of the Cali, wher ehe observed some fishes engaged in amorous play, and reflecting on their numerous progeny, which would sport like them in the stream, he lamented the improbability of leaving any children: but, since he might possibly be a father, even at his great age, he went immediately to the king of that country, HIRANYAVERNA, who had fifty daughters, and demanded one of them in marriage. So strange a demand gave the prince great uneasiness: yet he was unwilling to incur the displeasure of a saint, whose imprecations he dreaded; he, therefore, invoked Heri, or Vishnu, to inspire him with a wise answer, and told the hoar philosopher, that he should marry any one of his daughters, who, of her own accord, should fix on him as her bridegroom. The sage, rather disconcerted, left the palace; but, calling to mind the two sous of ASWINI, he hastened to their terrestrial abode, and requested that they would bestow on him both youth and beauty: they immediately conducted him to Abhimatada, which we suppose to be Abydus in Upper Egypt; and when he had bathed in the pool of Rupayauvana, he was restored to the flower of his age, with the graces and charms of CA'MA'DE VA. On his return to the palace, he entered the secret apartments, called antahpura, where the fifty princesses were assembled; and they were all so transported with the vision of more than human beauty, that they fell into an ecstacy, whence the place was afterwards named Mohast-han, or Mohana, and is, possibly, the same with Mohannan. They no sooner had recovered from their trance; than each of them exclaimed, that she would be his bride; and their altercation having brought HIRANYAVERNA into their apartment, he terminated the contest by giving them all in marriage to RisHICE'SA, who became the father of a hundred sons; and when he succeeded to the throne, built the city of Suc-haverdhana, framed vimânas, or celestial, self-moving cars, in which he visited the gods, and made gardens abounding in delights, which rivalled the bowers of INDRA; but, having granted the desire which he formed at Maloyasangama, or the place where the fish were assembled, he resigned the kingdom to his eldest son HIRANYAVRIDDAN, and returned, in his former shape, to the banks of the Ca'li, where he closed his days in devotion -WILFORD. Asiatic Researches. Dushmanta. In what path of the winds are we now journeying? Matali. This is the way which leads along the triple river, heaven's brightest ornament, and causes yon luminaries to roll in a circle with diffused beams: it is the course of a gentle breeze which supports the floating forms of the gods; and this path was the second step of Vishnu when he confounded the proud Bali. The island of Fierro is one of the most considerable of the Canaries, and I conceive that name to be given it upon this account, that its soil, not affording so much as a drop of fresh water, seems to be of iron; and, indeed, there is in this island neither river, nor rivulet, nor well, nor spring, save that only, towards the sea-side, there are some wells; but they lie at such a distance from the city, that the inhabitants can make no use thereof. But the great Preserver and Sustainer of all, remedies this incon venience by a way so extraordinary, that a man will be forced to sit down and acknowledge that he gives in this an undeniable demonstration of his goodness and infinite providence. For, in the midst of the island, there is a tree, which is the only one of its kind, inasmuch as it hath no resemblance to those mentioned by us in this relation, nor to any other known to us in Europe. The leaves of it are long and narrow, and continue in a constant verdure, winter and summer; and its branches are covered with a cloud, which is never dispelled, but resolved into a moisture, which causes to fall from its leaves a very clear water, and that in such abundance, that the cisterns, which are placed at the foot of the tree to receive it, are never empty, but contain enough to supply both men and beasts.-MANDELSLO. tree, 'called, in the language of the ancient inhabitants, Garse, i. e. Sacred or Holy Tree, which, for many years, has been preserved sound, entire, and fresh. Its leaves! constantly distil such a quantity of water as is sufficient to furnish drink to every living creature in Hierro; nature having provided this remedy for the drought of the island. It is situated about a league and a half from the sea. Nobody knows of what species it is, only that it is called Til. It is distinct from other trees, and stands by itself; the circumference of the trunk is about twelve spans, the diameter four, and in height, from the ground to the top of the highest branch, forty spans: The circumference of all the branches together, is one hundred and twenty feet. The branches are thick and extended; the lowest commence about the height of an ell from the ground. Its fruit resembles the acorn, and tastes something like the kernel of a pine-nut, but is softer and more aromatic. The leaves of this tree resemble those of the laurel, but are larger, wider, and more curved; they come forth in a perpetual succession, so that the tree always remains green. Near to it grows a Feyjoo denies the existence of any such tree, upon the authority of P. Tallandier, a French jesuit, (quoted in Mém. de Trevoux, 2715, art. 97.) who visited the island. « Assi no dudo,» he adds, « que este Fenix de las plantas es ten fingedo como el de las aves.»-Theat. Crit. Tom. ii, Disc. 2. sect. 65. What authority is due to the testi-thorn, which fastens on many of its brauches, and inmony of this French jesuit I do not know, never having seen his book; but it appears, from the undoubted evidence of Glas, that its existence is believed in the Canaries, and positively affirmed by the inhabitants of Fierro itself. <«< There are,» says this excellent author, « only three fountains of water in the whole island, one of them is called Acof, which, in the language of the ancient inhabitauts, signifies river; a name, however, which does not seem to have been given it on account of its yielding much water, for in that respect it hardly deserves the name of a fountain. More to the northward is another called Hapio; and in the middle of the island is a spring, yielding a stream about the thickness of a man's finger. This last was discovered in the year 1565, aud is called the Fountain of Anton Hernandez. On account of the scarcity of water, the sheep, goats, and swine here do not drink in the summer, but are taught to dig up the roots of fern, and chew them, to quench their thirst. The great cattle are watered at those fountains, and at a place where water distils from the leaves of a tree. Many writers have made mention of this famous tree; some in such a manner as to make it appear miraculous; others again deny the existence of any such tree, among whom is Father Feyjoo, a modern Spanish author, in his Theatro Critico. But he, and those who agree with him in this matter, are as much mistaken as they who would make it appear miraculous. This is the only island of all the Canaries which I have not been in; but I have sailed with natives of Hierro, who, when questioned about the existence of this tree, answered in the affirmative. terweaves with them; and, at a small distance from the Garse, are some beech-trees, bresos, and thorns. On the north side of the trunk are two large tanks, or cisterns, of rough stone, or rather one cistern divided, each half |being twenty feet square, and sixteen spans in depth. One of these contains water for the drinking of the inhabitants, and the other that which they use for their cattle, washing, and such like purposes. Every morning, near this part of the island, a cloud or mist arises from the sea, which the south and easterly winds force against the fore-mentioned steep cliff; so that the cloud, having no vent but by the gutter, gradually ascends it, and from thence advances slowly to the extremity of the valley, where it is stopped and checked by the front of the rock which terminates the valley, and then rests upon the thick leaves and wide-spreading branches of the tree; from whence it distils in drops during the remainder of the day, until it is at length exhausted, in the same manner that we see water drip from the leaves of trees after a heavy shower of rain. This distillation is not peculiar to the Garse, or Til, for the bresos which grow near it likewise drop water; but their leaves being but few and narrow, the quantity is so trifling, that, though the natives save some of it, yet they make little or no account of any but what distils from the Til; which, together with the water of some fountains, and what is saved in the winter season, is sufficient to serve them and their flocks. This tree yields most water in those years when the Levant, or casterly winds, have prevailed for a continuance; for by these winds only, the clouds or mists are drawn hither from the sea. A person lives on the spot near which this tree grows, who is ap and is allowed a house to live in, with a certain salary. He every day distributes to each family of the district seven pots or vessels full of water, besides what he gives to the principal people of the island.' << The author of the History of the Discovery and Con-pointed by the Council to take care of it and its water, quest has given us a particular account of it, which I shall relate here at large. The district in which this tree stands is called Tigulahe; near to which, and in the cliff, or steep rocky ascent that surrounds the whole island, is a narrow gutter or gulley, which commences at the sea, and continues to the summit of the cliff, where it joins or coincides with a valley, which is terminated by the steep front of a rock. On the top of this rock grows a « Whether the tree which yields water at this present time be the same as that mentioned in the above descrip tion, I cannot pretend to determine, but it is probable there has been a succession of them; for Pliny, describing the Fortunate Islands, says, « In the mountains of Ombrion are trees resembling the plant Ferula, from which water may be procured by pressure: What comes from the black kind is bitter, but that which the white yields is sweet and palatable.»-GLAS'S History of the Canary Islands. Cordeyro (Historia Insulana, lib. ii. c. 5.) says, that this tree resembles what in other places is called the Til, (Tilia) the Linden Tree; and he proceeds, from these three letters, to make it an emblem of the Trinity. The water, he says, was called the Agua Santa, and the tree itself the Santa Arvore,-appellations not ill bestowed. According to his account the water was delivered out in stated portions. There is an account of a similar tree in Cockburne's Travels; but this I believe to be a work of fiction. Berual Diaz, however, mentions one as growing at Naco, in Honduras, «Que en mitad de la siesta, por recio sol que hiziesse, parecia que la sombra del arbol refrescava el corazon, caia del uno como rozio muy delgada que confortava las cabezas.»-206. There may be some exaggeration in the accounts of the Fierro Tree, but that the story has some foundation I have no doubt. The islanders of St Thomas say, that they have a sort of trees whose leaves continually are distiling water. (Barbot. in Churckle. 405.) It is certain that a dew falls in hot weather from the lime, a fact of which any person may easily convince himself. The same property has been observed in other English trees, as appears by the following extract from the Monthly Magazine: In the beginning of August, after a sun-shine day, the air became suddenly misty about six o'clock; I walked, however, by the road-side from seven to eight, and observed, in many places, that a shower of big drops of water was falling under the large trees, although no rain fell elsewhere. The road and path continued dusty, and the field-gates showed no signs of being wetted by the mist. I have often noticed the like fact, but have not met with a satisfactory explanation of this power in trees to condense mist.» I am not the only poet who was availed himself of the Fierro Tree. It is thus introduced in the Columbus of Carrara, a singular work, containing, amid many extravagancies, some passages of rare merit: Ecce autem inspector miri dum devins ignis Dum stupet et quærit, cur internodia possit Mox trabis irrigue saliant in frondea sursum Hæc ubi dicta, silet. Tum Virgo ita reddidit, Hospes Nomine Canaria, de quà tenet Insula nomea Illius optarat vultu se noscere, noscit; Et frondes, quarum una fuit. Nidum inde sub illis CARRARA, Columbus. troness of music, is famed for his talents in that science. So great were they, that he became presumptuous; and, emulating the divine strains of Krishna, he was punished by having his Vina placed in the paws of a bear, whence it emitted sounds far sweeter than the minstrelsy of the mortified musician. I have a picture of this joke, in which Krishna is forcing his reluctant friend to attend to his rough-visaged rival, who is ridiculously touching the chords of poor Nareda's Vina, accompanied by a brother bruin on the cymbals. Krishna passed several practical jokes on his humble and affectionate friend: he metamorphosed him once into a woman, at another time into a bear.-MOORE's Hindu Pantheon, p. 204. Note 26, page 317, col. 2. The sacrifice That should, to men and gods, proclaim bim Lord The Raisoo Yug, or Feast of Rajahs, could only be performed by a monarch who had conquered all the other sovereigns of the world.-ALHED. Note to the The Walking-Leaf would have been better than the Life of Creeshna. Canary Bird. Note 25, page 316, col. 2. Nared. Note 27, page 317, col. 2. Sole Rajah, the Omnipotent below. bear sense," says the translator, in what he calls, by a happy blunder, "the idiotism of our tongue." No person has given so complete a sample of the A very distinguished son of Brahma, named Nared, absurdity of oriental titles as the Dutch traveller bears a strong resemblance to Hermes or Mercury: he Struys, in his enumeration of "the proud and blas was a wise legislator, great in arts and in arms, an elo-phemous titles of the King of Siam,-they will hardly queut messenger of the Gods either to one another, or to favoured mortals, and a musician of exquisite skill. His invention of the Vina, or Indian lute, is thus deThe Alliance, written with letters of fine gold, being scribed in the poem entitled Magha: «Nared sat full of godlike glory. The most Excellent, containing watching from time to time his large Vina, which by all wise sciences. The most Happy, which is not in the impulse of the breeze, yielded notes that pierced the world among men. The Best and most Certain successively the regions of his ear, and proceeded by that is in Heaven, Earth, and Hell. The greatest Sweet, musical intervals."-Asiatic Researches, Sir W. JONES. and friendly Royal Word; whose powerful sounding The Vina is an Eolian harp. The people of Am-properties and glorious fame range through the world, boyna have a different kind of Eolian instrument, as if the dead were raised by a godlike power, and which is thus described in the first account of D'Entre- wonderfully purged from ghostly and corporal corrupcasteaux's Voyage: «Being on the sea-shore, I heard tion. At this both spiritual and secular men admire some wind-instruments, the harmony of which, though with a special joy, whereas no dignity may be heresometimes very correct, was intermixed with discord- with compared. Proceeding from a friendly illustri ant notes that were by no means unpleasing. These ous, inconquerable, most mighty and most high Lord; sounds, which were very musical, and formed fiue caand a royal Crown of Gold, adorned with nine sorts of dences, seemed to come from such a distance, that I precious stones. The greatest, clearest, and most godfor some time imagined the natives were having a con- like Lord of unblameable Souls. The most Holy, seecert beyond the road-stead, near a myriameter from the ing every where, and protecting Sovereign of the city | spot where I stood. My ear was greatly deceived re- JUDIA, whose many streets and open gates are thronged specting the distance, for I was not an hundred meters by troops of men, which is the chief metropolis of the from the instrument. It was a bamboo at least twenty whole world, the royal throne of the earth, that is meters in height, which had been fixed in a vertical si-adorned with nine sorts of stones and most pleasant tuation by the sea-side. I remarked between each knot valleys. He who guides the reins of the world, and a slit about three centimeters long by a centimeter and has a house more than the Gods of fine gold and of a half wide; these slits formed so many holes, which, precious stones; they the godlike Lords of thrones and when the wind introduced itself into them, gave agree-of fine gold; the White, Red, and Round-tayl'd Eleable and diversified sounds. As the knots of this long bamboo were very numerous, care had been taken to make holes in different directions, in order that, on whatever side the wind blew, it might always meet with some of them. I cannot convey a better idea of the sound of this instrument, than by comparing them to those of the Harmonica."-LABILLARDIERE. in Search of La Perouse. Voyage Nareda, the mythological offspring of Saraswati, pa phants,-which excellent creatures are the chiefest of the nine sorts of Gods. To none hath the divine Lord given, in whose hand is the victorious sword; who is like the fiery-armed God of Battails, to the most illustrious. The second is as blasphemous as the first, though hardly swells so far out of sense. The highest PADUCCO SYRY SULTAN, NELMONAM WELGACA, NELMOCHADIM MAGIVIITHA, JOUKEN DER |