poor unhappy creature appeared rather dead than alive when she came near the pile; she shook and wept bitterly. Meanwhile, three or four of these executioners, the Bramins, together with an old hag that held her under the arm, thrust her on, and made her sit down upon the wood; and lest she should run away, they tied her legs and hands; and so they burnt her alive. I had enough to do to contain myself for indignation. — BERNIER. Pietro della Valle conversed with a widow, who was about to burn herself by her own choice. She told him, that generally speaking, women were not forced to burn themselves; but sometimes, among people of rank, when a young woman, who was handsome, was left a widow, and in danger of marrying again, (which is never practised among them, because of the confusion and disgrace which are inseparable from such a thing,) or of falling into other irregularities, then indeed the relations of the husband, if they are at all tenacious of the honor of the family, compel her to burn herself, whether she likes it or no, merely to prevent the inconveniences which might take place. Dellon also, whom I consider as one of the best travellers in the East, expressly asserts, that widows are burnt there "de gré, ou de force. L'on n'en voit que trop qui après avoir désiré et demandé la mort avec un courage intrepide, et après avoir obtenu et acheté la permission de se brûler, ont tremblé à la veue du bucher, se sont repenties, mais trop tard, de leur im prudence, et ont fait d'inutiles efforts pour se retracter. Mais lorsque cela arrive, bien loin que les Bramenes soient touchés d'aucune pitié, ils lient cruellement ces malheureuses, et les brulent par force, sans avoir aucun égard à leurs plaintes, ni a leurs cris." - Tom. i. p. 138. It would be easy to multiply authorities upon this point. Let it suffice to mention one important historical fact: When the great Alboquerque had established himself at Goa, he forbade these accursed sacrifices; the women extolled him for it as their benefactor and deliverer, (Commentarios de Alb. ii. 20,) and no European in India was ever so popular, or so revered by the natives. Yet, if we are to believe the antimissionaries, none but fools, fanatics, and pretenders to humanity, would wish to deprive the Hindoo women of the right of burning themselves! "It may be useful (says Colonel Mark Wilks) to examine the reasonableness of interfering with the most exceptionable of all their institutions. It has been thought an abomination not to be tolerated, that a widow should immolate herself on the funeral pile of her deceased husband. But what judgment should we form of the Hindoo, who (if any of our institutions admitted the parallel) should forcibly pretend to stand between a Christian and the hope of eternal salvation? And shall we not hold him to be a driveller in politics and morals, a fanatic in religion, and a pretender in humanity, who would forcibly wrest this hope from the Hindoo widow?"— Historical Sketches of the South of India, vol. i. p. 499. Such opinions, and such language, may safely be left to the indignation and pity which they cannot fail to excite. I shall only express my astonishment, that any thing so monstrous, and so miserably futile, should have proceeded from a man of learning, great good sense, and general good feelings, as Colonel Wilks evidently appears to be. One drops, another plunges in. - I. 14, p. 569. When Bernier was passing from Amad-Avad to Agra, there came news to him in a borough, where the caravan rested under the shade, (staying for the cool of the evening to march on their journey,) that a woman was then upon the point of burning herself with the body of her husband. I presently rose, says he, and ran to the place where it was to be done, which was a great pit, with a pile of wood raised in it, whereon I saw laid a dead corpse and a woman, which, at a distance, seemed to me pretty fair, sitting near it on the same pile, besides four or five Bramins putting the fire to it from all sides; five women of a middle age, and well enough dressed, holling one another by the hand, and dancing about the pit, and a gre it crowd of people, men and women, looking on. The pile of wood was presently all on fire, because store of oil and butter had been thrown upon it: and I saw, at the same time, through the flames, that the fire took hold of the clothes of the woman, that were imbued with well-scented oils, mingled with powder of sandal and saffron. All this I saw, but observed not that the woman was at all disturbed; yea, it was said, that she had been heard to pronounce, with great force, these two words, fire, two, to signify, according to the opinion of those that hold the soul's transmigration, that this was the fifth time she had burnt herself with the same husband, and that there remained but two more for perfection; as if she had that time this remembrance, or some prophetical spirit. But here ended not this infernal tragedy: I thought it was only by way of ceremony that these five women sung and danced about the pit; but I was altogether surprised when I saw that the flame having taken hold of the clothes of one of them, she cast herself, with her head foremost, into the pit; and that after her, another, being overcome by the flame and the smoke, did the like; and my astonishment redoubled afterwards, when I saw that the remaining three took one another again by the hand, continued their dance without any apparent fear; and that at length they precipitated themselves, one after another, into the fire, as their companions had done. I learnt that these had been five slaves, who, having seen their mistress extremely afflicted at the sickness of her husband, and heard her promise him, that she would not survive him, but burn herself with him, were so touched with compassion and tenderness towards this their mistress, that they engaged themselves in a promise to follow her in her resolution, and to burn themselves with her. - BERNIER. This excellent traveller relates an extraordinary circumstance which occurred at one of these sacrifices. A woman was engaged in some love-intrigues with a young Mahomedan, her neighbor, who was a tailor, and could play finely upon the tabor. This woman, in the hopes she had of marrying this young man, poisoned her husband, and presently came away to tell the tailor, that it was time to be gone together, as they had projected, or else she should be obliged to burn herself. The young man, fearing lest he might be entangled in a mischievous business, flatly refused her. The woman, not at all surprised at it, went to her relations, and advertised them of the sudden death of her husband, and openly protested that she would not survive him, but burn herself with him. Her kindred, well satisfied with so generous a resolution, and the great honor she did to the whole family, presently had a pit made and filled with wood, exposing the corpse upon it, and kindling the fire. All being prepared, the woman goes to embrace and bid farewell to all her kindred that were there about the pit, among whom was also the tailor, who had been invited to play upon the tabor that day, with many others of that sort of men, according to the custom of the country. This fury of a woman being also come to this young man, made sign as if she would bid him farewell with the rest; but, instead of gently embracing him, she taketh him with all her force about his collar, pulls him to the pit, and tumbleth him, together with herself, into the ditch, where they both were soon despatched. BERNIER. The Hindoos sometimes erect a chapel on the spot where one of these sacrifices has been performed, both on account of the soul of the deceased, and as a trophy of her virtue. I remember to have seen one of these places, where the spot on which the funeral pile had been erected, was enclosed and covered with bamboos, formed into a kind of bower, planted with flowering creepers. The inside was set round with flowers, and at one end there was an image. - CRAWFURD. Some of the Yogees, who smear themselves with ashes, use none but what they collect from funeral piles, -human ashes! - PIETRO DELLA VALLE. From a late investigation, it appears, that the number of women who sacrifice themselves within thirty miles round Calcutta every year, is, on an average, upwards of two hundred. The Pundits have already been called on to produce the sanction of their Shasters for this custom. The passages exhibited are vague and general in their meaning, and differently interpreted by the same casts. Some sacred verses commend the practice, but none command it; and the Pundits refer once more to custom. They have, however, intimated, that if government will pass a regulation, amercing by fine every Brahmin who attends a burning, or every Zemindar who permits him to attend it, the practice cannot possibly long continue; for that the ceremony, unsanctified by the presence of the priests, will lose its dignity and consequence in the eyes of the people. The civilized world may expect soon to hear of the abolition of this opprobrium of a Christian administration, the female sacrifice; which has subsisted, to our certain knowledge, since the time of Alexander the Great.-CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN. This practice, however, was manifestly unknown when the Institutes of Menu were written. Instructions are there given for the conduct of a widow: "Let her," it is said, "emaciate her body, by living voluntarily on pure flowers, roots, and fruit; but let her not, when her lord is deceased, even pronounce the name of another man. Let her continue till death forgiving all injuries, performing harsh duties, avoiding every sensual pleasure, and cheerfully practising the incomparable rules of virtue, which have been followed by such women as were devoted to one only husband. Many thousands of Brahmins, having avoided sensuality from their early youth, and having left no issue in their families, have ascended nevertheless to heaven; and, like those abstemious men, a virtuous wife ascends to heaven, though she have no child, if, after the decease of her lord, she devote herself to pious austerity; but a widow, who, from a wish to bear children, slights her deceased husband by marrying again, brings disgrace on herself here below, and shall be excluded from the seat of her lord.". - Inst. of Menu, ch. 5, 157-161. Second marriages were permitted to men. - Ibid., 167, 8, 9. Lo! Arvalan appears. — II. 1, p. 569. Many believe that some souls are sent back to the spot where their bodies were burnt, or where their ashes are preserved, to wait there until the new bodies they are destined to occupy be ready for their reception. This appears to correspond with an opinion of Plato, which, with many other tenets of that philosopher, was adopted by the early Christians; and an ordinance of the Romish church is still extant, prohibiting having lights or making merriment in church-yards at night, lest they should disturb the souls that might come thither. CRAWFURD. According to the Danish missionaries, the souls of those who are untimely slain wander about as diabolical spectres, doing evil to mankind, and possessing those whom they persecute.– NIECAMP, i. 10, $ 14. The inhabitants of the hills near Rajamahall believe that when God sends a messenger to summon a person to his presence, if the messenger should mistake his object, and carry off another, he is desired by the Deity to take him away; but as the earthly mansion of this soul must be decayed, it is destined to remain mid-way between heaven and earth, and never can return to the presence of God. Whoever commits homicide without a divine order, and whoever is killed by a snake, as a punishment for some concealed crime, will be doomed to the same state of wandering; and whoever hangs himself will wander eternally with a rope about his neck. Asiat. Researches. Pope Benedict XII. drew up a list of 117 heretical opinions held by the Armenian Christians, which he sent to the king of Armenia, instead of any other assistance, when that prince applied to him for aid against the Mahomedans. This paper was first published by Bernino, and exhibits a curious mixture of mythologies. One of their opinions was, that the souls of the adult wander about in the air till the day of judgment; neither hell, nor the heavenly, nor the terrestrial paradise, being open to them till that day shall have passed. Davenant, in one of his plays, speculates upon such a state of wandering as the lot of the soul after death: I must to darkness go, hover in clouds, Or in remote untroubled air, silent I know no other author who has so often expressed to those who could understand him, his doubts respecting a future state, and how burdensome he felt them. Undying as I am! - II. 3, p. 570. The Soul is not a thing of which a man may say, it hath been, it is about to be, or is to be hereafter; for it is a thing without birth; it is ancient, constant, and eternal, and is not to be destroyed in this its mortal frame. How can the man who believeth that this thing is incorruptible, eternal, inexhaustible, and without birth, think that he can either kill or cause it to be killed! As a man throweth away old garments and putteth on new, even so the Soul, having quitted its old mortal frames, entereth into others which are new. weapon divideth it not, the fire burneth it not, the water corrupteth it not, the wind drieth it not away; for it is indivisible, inconsumable, incorruptible, and is not to be dried away — it is eternal, universal, permanent, immovable; it is invisible, inconceivable, and unalterable. - BHAGVAT GEETA. The It was my hour of folly. - II. 5, p. 570. "Among the qualities required for the proper execution of public business, mention is made, That a man must be able to keep in subjection his lust, his anger, his avarice, his felly, and his pride.' The folly there specified is not to be understood in the usual sense of the word in an European idiom, as a negative quality, or the mere want of sense, but as a kind of obstinately stupid lethargy, or perverse absence of mind, in which the will is not altogether passive: it seems to be a weakness peculiar to Asia, for we cannot find a term by which to express the precise idea in the European languages. It operates somewhat like the violent impulse of fear, under which men will utter falsehoods totally incompatible with each other, and utterly contrary to their own opinion, knowledge, and conviction; and, it may be added, also, their inciination and intention. "A very remarkable instance of this temporary frenzy happened lately in the supreme Court of Judicature at Calcutta, where a man (not an idiot) swore, upon a trial, that he was no kind of relation to his brother, who was then in Court, and who had constantly supported him from his infancy; and that he lived in a house by himself, for which he paid the rent from his own pocket, when it was proved that he was not worth a rupee, and when the person, in whose house he had always resided, stood at the bar close to him. "Another conjecture, and that exceedingly acute and ingenious, has been started upon this folly, that it may mean the deception which a man permits to be imposed on his judg ment by his passions; as acts of rapacity and avarice are often committed by men who ascribe them to prudence and a just assertion of their own right; malice and rancor pass for justice, and brutality for spirit. This opinion, when thoroughly examined, will very nearly tally with the former; for all the passions, as well as fear, have an equal efficacy to disturb and distort the mind: but, to account for the folly here spoken of as being the offspring of the passions, instead of drawing a parallel between it and the impulses of those passions, we must suppose the impulses to act with infinitely more violence upon an Asiatic mind than we can ever have seen exemplified in Europe. It is, however, something like the madness so inimitably delineated in the Hero of Cervantes, sensible enough upon some occasions, and at the same time completely wild, and unconscious of itself upon others, and that, too, originally produced by an effort of the will, though, in the end, overpowering and superseding its functions."— HALHED. But I, all naked feeling and raw life. II. 5, p. 570. By the vital souls of those men who have committed sins in the body, another body, composed of nerves, with five sensations, in order to be susceptible of torment, shall certainly be assumed after death; and being intimately united with those minute nervous particles, according to their distribution, they shall feel in that new body the pangs inflicted in each case by the sentence of Yama. - Inst. of Menu. Henry More, the Platonist, has two applicable stanzas in his Song of the Soul: Like to a light fast lock'd in lantern dark, Mariatale, as Sonnerat spells the name, was wife of the penitent Chamadaguini, and mother of Parassourama, who was, in part, an incarnation of Veeshno. This goddess, says Sonnerat, commanded the elements, but could not preserve that empire longer than her heart was pure. One day, while she was collecting water out of a tank, and, according to her custom, was making a bowl of earth to carry it to the house, she saw on the surface of the water some figures of Grindovers, (Glendoveers,) which were flying over her head. Struck with their beauty, her heart admitted an impure thought, and the earth of the bowl dissolved. From that time she was obliged to make use of an ordinary vessel. This discovered to Chamadaguini that his wife had deviated from purity; and in the excess of his rage, he ordered his son to drag her to the place were criminals were executed, and to behead her. The order was executed; but Parassourama was so much afflicted for the loss of his mother, that Chamadaguini told him to take up the body, and fasten the head upon it, and repeat a prayer (which he taught him for that purpose) in her ear, and then his mother would come to life again. The son ran eagerly to perform what he was ordered, but, by a very singular blunder, he joined the head of his mother to the body of a Parichi, who had been executed for her crimes; a monstrous union, which gave to this woman the virtues of a goddess, and the vices of a criminal. The goddess, becoming impure by such a mixture, was driven from her house, and committed all kinds of cruelties. The Deverkels, perceiving the destruction she made, appeased her by giving her power to cure the small-pox, and promising that she should be implored for that disorder. Mariatale is the great goddess of the Parias; to honor her, they have a custom of dancing with several pots of water on their heads, placed one above the other; these pots are adorned with the leaves of the Margosies, a tree consecrated to her. The watchmen are provided with no offensive weapons excepting a sling; on the contrary, they continue the whole day standing, in one single position, upon a pillar of clay raised about ten feet, where they remain bellowing continually, that they may terrify, without hurting, the birds who feed upon the crop. Every considerable field contains several such sentinels, stationed at different corners, who repeat the call from one to another so incessantly, that the invaders have hardly any opportunity of making a good livelihood in the field. These watchmen are forced, during the rains, to erect, instead of a clay pillar, a scaffolding of wood as high as the crop, over which they suspend a roof of straw, to shelter their naked bodies from the rain. - TENNANT. The Golden Palaces. V. 1, p. 574. Every thing belonging to the Sovereign of Ava has the addition of shoe, or golden, annexed to it; even his majesty's person is never mentioned but in conjunction with this precious metal. When a subject means to affirm that the king has heard any thing, he says, "It has reached the golden ears;" he who obtained admission to the royal presence has been at the "golden feet." The perfume of otta of roses, a nobleman observed one day, "was an odor grateful to the golden nose."-SYMES. A cloud, ascending in the eastern sky, And darkens round, and closes in the night. - V. 3, p. 574. It is usual to place a small, white, triangular flag, fixed to a bamboo staff, of ten or twelve feet long, at the place where a tiger has destroyed a man. It is common for the passengers, also, each to throw a stone or brick near the spot, so that, in the course of a little time, a pile, equal to a good wagon-load, is collected. This custom, as well as the fixing a rag on any particular thorn-bush, near the fatal spot, is in use, likewise, on various accounts. Many brambles may be seen in a day's journey, completely covered with this motley assemblage of remnants. The sight of the flags and piles of stones imparts a certain melancholy, not perhaps altogether devoid of apprehension. They may be said to be of service in pointing out the places most frequented by tigers. Oriental Sports, vol. ii. p. 22. The little songsters of the sky Gently he steals away with silent tread. — V. 9, p. 575. Sit silent in the sultry hour. IV. 2, p. 572. This part of the poem has been censured, upon the ground The tufted lark, fixed to this fruitful land, says Sonnini, that Ladurlad's conduct in thus forsaking his daughter is inspeaking of Egypt, never forsakes it; it seems, however, that consistent with his affection for her. There is a passage in the excessive heat annoys him. You may see these birds, as Mr. Milman's version of Nala and Damayanti so curiously well as sparrows, in the middle of the day, with their bills resembling it in the situation of the two persons, that any one half open, and the muscles of their breasts agitated, breathing might suppose I had imitated the Sanscrit, if Kehama had not with difficulty, and as if they panted for respiration. The been published five-and-twenty years before Mr. Milman's instinct which induces them to prefer those means of subsist-most characteristic specimen of Indian poetry. Indeed, it is ence which are easily obtained, and in abundance, although to him that I am obliged for pointing out the very singular attended with some suffering, resembles the mind of man, coincidence. whom a thirst for riches engages to brave calamities and dangers without number. " Mighty is thy father's kingdom - - once was mine as mighty, There I once appeared in glory -to the exalting of thy pride; | Nala, thus his heart divided into two conflicting parts, Shall I now appear in misery-to the increasing of thy shame?" Nala thus to Damayanti - spake again, and yet again, Wearied out by thirst and famine — to a cabin drew they near, With the princess of Vidarbha - on the hard earth seat them down; with dust. Like a swing goes backward, forward-from the cabin, to and fro. Torn away at length by Kali-flies afar the frantic king, Pollear.-V. 14, p. 575. The first and greatest of the sons of Sevee is Pollear; he Naked, with no mat to rest on wet with mire and stained presides over marriages: the Indians build no house without having first carried a Pollear on the ground, which they sprinkle with oil, and throw flowers on it every day. If they do not invoke it before they undertake any enterprise, they believe that God will make them forget what they wanted to undertake, and that their labor will be in vain. He is rep Weary then with Damayanti- - on the earth he fell asleep. But while on the cold earth slumbered — Damayanti, all dis-resented with an elephant's head, and mounted on a rat; but traught, Nala in his mind by sorrow-might no longer calmly sleep; arose; in the pagodas they place him on a pedestal, with his legs almost crossed. A rat is always put before the door of his chapel. This rat was a giant, called Gudja-mouga-chourin, on whom the gods had bestowed immortality, as well as great powers, which he abused, and did much harm to mankind. Pollear, entreated by the sages and penitents to deliver them, pulled out one of his tusks, and threw it against Gudjamouga-chourin; the tooth entered the giant's stomach, and overthrew him, who immediately changed himself into a rat as large as a mountain, and came to attack Pollear; who Faithful wandering ever with me certain sorrow will she sprung on his back, telling him, that hereafter he should ever bear, be his carrier. "If I do it, what may follow?- what if I refuse to do? Were my instant death the better- or to abandon her I love. But to me too deep devoted-suffers she distress and shame; Reft of me, she home may wander to her royal father's house; But if separated from me- chance of solace may be hers." Long within his heart he pondered — and again, again weighed o'er. The Indians, in their adoration of this god, cross their arms, shut the fist, and in this manner give themselves several blows on the temples; then, but always with the arms crossed, they Best he thought it Damayanti-to desert, that wretched take hold of their ears, and make three inclinations, bending king. the knee; after which, with their hands joined, they address From her virtue none dare harm ber-in the lonely forest their prayers to him, and strike their forehead. They have a way, Her the fortunate, the noble, my devoted wedded wife. robe. "How shall I divide the garment by my loved one unper- great veneration for this deity, whose image they place in all temples, streets, highways, and in the country, at the foot of some tree; that all the world may have an opportunity of invoking him before they undertake any concern; and that travellers may make their adorations and offerings to him before they pursue their journey. —SONNERAT. The Glendoreers. — VI. p. 576. This word is altered from the Grindouvers of Sonnerat, who describes these celestial children of Casyapa as famous Till he found without a scabbard - shining, a well-tempered for their beauty; they have wings, he adds, and fly in the air sword. with their wives. I do not know whether they are the GandThen when half that only garment- - he had severed and harras of the English Orientalists. The wings with which they are attired in the poem are borrowed from the neglected with bewildered mind he story of Peter Wilkins. At a recent sale of manuscripts, the fled. Yet, his cruel heart relenting- -to the cabin turns he back; On the slumbering Damayanti-gazing, sadly wept the king; "Thou that sun nor wind hath ever-roughly visited, my love! author's assignment of this book to Dodsley for ten guineas was brought to light, and it then appeared that his name, which till then had been unknown, was R. Paltock. Nothing more has been discovered concerning him. His book, however, is a work of great genius, and I know that both Sir Walter Scott On the hard earth in a cabin-sleepest with thy guardian and Mr. Coleridge thought as highly of it as I do. His winged gone. people are the most beautiful creatures of imagination that Thus attired in half a garment-she that aye so sweetly ever were devised. I copy his minute description of the smiled, graundee, as he calls it ;-Stothard has made some delightful Like to one distracted, beauteous - how at length will she drawings of it in the Novelist's Magazine. awake! "She first threw up two long branches, or ribs, of the How will❜t fare with Bhima's daughter-lone, abandoned by whalebone, as I called it before, (and indeed for several of its her lord, properties, as toughness, elasticity, and pliableness, nothing I Wandering in the savage forest-where wild beasts and ser- have ever seen can so justly be compared to it,) which were pents dwell! jointed behind to the upper bone of the spine, and which, May the suns and winds of heaven-may the genii of the when not extended, lie bent over the shoulders on each side woods, of the neck forwards, from whence, by nearer and nearer apNoblest, may they all protect thee - thine own virtue thy best proaches, they just meet at the lower rim of the belly in a sort guard." of point; but, when extended, they stand their whole length To his wife of peerless beauty on the earth, 'twas thus he above the shoulders, not perpendicularly, but spreading outspoke. Then of sense bereft by Kali-Nala hastily set forth; wards, with a web of the softest and most pliable and spongy membrane that can be imagined in the interstices between them, reaching from their root or joint on the back up above the hinder part of the head, and near half way their own length; but, when closed, the membrane falls down in the middle upon the neck, like a handkerchief. There are also two other ribs, rising, as it were, from the same root, which, when open, run horizontally, but not so long as the others. These are filled up in the interstice between them and the upper ones with the same membrane; and on the lower side of this is also a deep flap of the membrane, so that the arms can be either above or below it in flight, and are always above it when closed. This last rib, when shut, flaps under the upper one, and also f.lls down with it before to the waist; but it is not joined to the ribs below. Along the whole spinebone runs a strong, flat, broad, gristly cartilage, to which are joined several other of these ribs, all which open horizontally, and are filled in the interstices with the above membrane, and are jointed to the ribs of the person just where the plane of the back begins to turn towards the breast and belly; and, when shut, wrap the body round to the joints on the contrary side, folding neatly one side over the other. place for the successful devotion of the pious. There Casyapa, father of the immortals, ruler of men, son of Marichi, who sprang from the self-existent, resides with his consort Aditi, blessed in holy retirement. - We now enter the sanctuary of him who rules the world, and the groves which are watered by streams from celestial sources. Dushmanta. I see with equal amazement both the pious and their awful retreat. It becomes, indeed, pure spirits to feed on balmy air in a forest blooming with trees of life; to bathe in rills dyed yellow with the golden dust of the lotus, and to fortify their virtue in the mysterious bath; to meditate in caves, the pebbles of which are unblemished gems; and to restrain their passions, even though nymphs of exquisite beauty frolick around them. In this grove alone is attained the summit of true piety, to which other hermits in vain aspire. -SACONTALA. Her death predoom'd To that black hour of midnight, when the Moon Unwilling to behold The unhappy end of guilt! - VI. 4, p. 576. I will now speak to thee of that time in which, should a devout man die, he will never return; and of that time in which, dying, he shall return again to earth. "At the lower spine are two more ribs extended horizontally when open, jointed again to the hips, and long enough to meet the joint on the contrary side across the belly: and from the hip-joint, which is on the outermost edge of the hip-bone, runs a pliable cartilage quite down the outside of the thigh and leg to the ankle; from which there branch out divers other ribs, horizontally also when open, but, when closed, they encompass the whole thigh and leg, rolling inwards across the back of the leg and thigh, till they reach and just cover the cartilage. The interstices of these are filled up with the Those holy men who are acquainted with Brahma, departsame membrane. From the two ribs which join to the lowering this life in the fiery light of day, in the bright season of the spine-bone, there hangs down a sort of short apron, very full moon, within the six months of the sun's northern course, go of plaits, from hip-joint to hip-joint, and reaches below the unto him: but those who depart in the gloomy night of the buttocks, half way or more to the hams. This has also sev- moon's dark season, and whilst the sun is yet within the eral small limber ribs in it. Just upon the lower spine-joint, southern path of his journey, ascend for a while into the reand above the apron, as I call it, there are two other long gions of the moon, and again return to mortal birth. These branches, which when close, extend upon the back from the two, Light and Darkness, are esteemed the World's eternal point they join at below to the shoulders, where each rib has ways: he who walketh in the former path returneth not; a clasper, which reaching over the shoulders, just under the whilst he who walketh in the latter cometh back again upon fold of the uppermost branch or ribs, hold up the two ribs flat the earth.-KREESHNA, in the Bhagvat Geeta. to the back, like a V, the interstices of which are filled up with the aforesaid membrane. This last piece, in flight, falls down almost to the ankles, where the two claspers, lapping under each leg within-side, hold it very fast; and then, also, the short apron is drawn up, by the strength of the ribs in it, between the thighs, forward and covers as far as the rim of the belly. The whole arms are covered also from the shoulders to the wrist with the same delicate membrane, fastened to ribs of proportionable dimensions, and jointed to a cartilage on the outside in the same manner as on the legs. It is very surprising to feel the difference of these ribs when open and when closed; for closed they are as pliable as the finest whalebone, or more so; but, when extended, are as strong and stiff as a bone. They are tapering from the roots, and are broader or narrower, as best suits the places they occupy, and the stress they are put to, up to their points, which are almost as small as a hair. The membrane between them is the most elastic thing I ever met with, occupying no more space, when the ribs are closed, than just from rib to rib, as flat and smooth as possible; but, when extended in some postures, will dilate itself surprisingly. "It is the most amazing thing in the world to observe the large expansion of this graundee when open, and, when closed, (as it all is in a moment, upon the party's descent,) to see it fit so close and compact to the body as no tailor can come up to it; and then the several ribs lie so justly disposed in the several parts, that instead of being, as one would imagine, a disadvantage to the shape, they make the body and limbs look extremely elegant; and, by the different adjustment of their lines on the body and limbs, the whole, to my fancy, somewhat resembles the dress of the old Roman warriors in their buskins; and, to appearance, seems much more noble than any fictitious garb I ever saw, or can frame a notion of to myself." Mount Himakoot. — VI. 3, p. 576. Dushmanta. Say, Matali, what mountain is that which, like an evening cloud, pours exhilarating streams, and forms a golden zone between the western and eastern seas? Mutali. That, O king! is the mountain of Gandharvas, named Hémacúta: the universe contains not a more excellent Indra. — VI. 4, p. 577. The Indian God of the visible Heavens is called Indra, or the King; and Divespetir, Lord of the Sky. He has the character of the Roman Genius, or chief of the Good Spirits. His consort is named Sachi; his celestial city, Amaravati; his palace, Vaijayanta; his garden, Nandana; his chief elephant, Airerat ; his charioteer, Matali; and his weapon, Vajra, or the thunderbolt. He is the regent of winds and showers, and, though the East is peculiarly under his care, yet his Olympus is Meru, or the North Pole, allegorically represented as a mountain of gold and gems. He is the Prince of the beneficent Genii. - Sir W. JONES. A distinct idea of Indra, the King of Immortals, may be collected from a passage in the ninth section of the Geeta. "These having, through virtue, reached the mansion of the king of Suras, feast on the exquisite heavenly food of the Gods; they who have enjoyed this lofty region of SWERGA, but whose virtue is exhausted, revisit the habitation of mortals." He is the God of thunder and the five elements, with inferior Genii under his command; and is conceived to govern the eastern quarter of the world, but to preside, like the Genius or Agathodamon of the ancients, over the celestial bands, which are stationed on the summit of MERU, or the North Pole, where he solaces the Gods with nectar and heavenly music. The Cinnaras are the male dancers in SWERGA, or the Heaven of Indra, and the Apsaras are his dancing girls, answering to the fairies of the Persians, and to the damsels called in the Koran hhúru lûyun, or, with antelope's eyes. — Sir W. JONES. |