Reverent he kneels, and lifts his rational eyes To her as if in prayer; And when she pours her angel voice in song, Entranced he listens to the thrilling notes, Till his strong temples, bathed with sudden dews, Their fragrance of delight and love diffuse.1 12. Lo! as the voice melodious floats around, The Tigress leaves her toothless cubs to hear; By that enchanting song; The antic Monkies, whose wild gambols late, When not a breeze waved the tall jungle grass, 1 The Hindoo poets frequently allude to the fragrant juice which oozes, at certain seasons, from small ducts in the temples of the male elephant, and is useful in relieving him from the redundant moisture, with which he is then oppressed; and they even describe the bees as allured by the scent, and mistaking it for that of the sweetest flowers. When Crishna visited Sanc'ha-dwip, and had destroyed the demon who infested that delightful country, he passed along the bank of a river, and was charmed with a delicious odour, which its waters diffused in their course. He 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 Apsaras, or nymphs, bathed and sported in its waters, impassioned and intoxicated with the liquid perfume. Wilford, Asiatic Researches. 2 "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." 3 "I have been assured, by' a credible eye-witness, that two wild antelopes used often to come from their woods to the place where a more savage beast, Sirajuddaulah, entertained himself with concerts, and that they listened to the strain with an appearance of pleasure, till the monster, in whose soul there was no music, shot one of them, to display his archery. A learned native of this country told me that he had frequently seen the most venomous and malignant snakes leave their holes, upon hearing tunes on a flute, which, as he supposed, gave them peculiar delight. An intelligent Persian, who repeated his story again and again, and permitted me to write it down from his lips, declared, he had more than once been present when a celebrated lutanist, Mirza Mohammed, surnamed Bulbul, was playing to a large company, in a grove near Shiraz, where he distinctly saw the nightingales trying to vie with the musician; sometimes warbling on the trees, sometimes fluttering from branch to branch, as if they wished to approach the instrument whence the melody proceeded, and at length dropping on the ground, in a kind of ecstasy, from which they were soon raised, he assured me, by a change of the mode. I hardly know," says Sir William Jones, "how to disbelieve the testimony of men who had no system of their own to support, and could have no interest in deceiving me."-Asiatic Researches. * Properly Teica, an ornament of gold placed above the nose. + Pendents. Seita Cund, or the Pool of Seita, the wife of Rani, is the name given to Shook the whole wood 2, are hush'd, and silently Hang on the cluster'd tree. All things in wonder and delight are still; Only at times the Nightingale is heard, Not that in emulous skill that sweetest bird Her rival strain would try 3, A mighty songster, with the Maid to vie ; She only bore her part in powerful sympathy. 13. Well might they thus adore that heavenly Maid ! Or Grove, or Lake, or Fountain, 4 The Hindoo Wife, in Sir William Jones's poem, describes her own toilet-tasks: Nor were my night thoughts, I confess, Free from solicitude for dress; How best to bind my flowing hair With art, yet with an artless air, My hair, like musk in scent and hue, And where to smooth the love-spread toils Bright circlets for my well-form'd nose; How each smooth arm, and each soft wrist, See how he kisses the lip of my rival, and imprints on her forehead an ornament of pure musk, black as the young antelope on the lunar orb! Now, like the husband of Reti, he fixes white blossoms on her dark locks, where they gleam like flashes of lightning among the curled clouds. On her breasts, like two firmaments, he places a string of gems like Musk-spot, nor sandal-streak 1, nor scarlet stain, Ear-drop nor chain, nor arm nor ankle-ring, Nor trinketry on front, or neck, or breast, Marring the perfect form: she seem'd a thing Of Heaven's prime uncorrupted work, a child Of early nature undefiled, A daughter of the years of innocence. And therefore all things loved her. When she stood Beside the glassy pool, the fish, that flies Quick as an arrow from all other eyes, Hover'd to gaze on her. The mother bird, When Kailyal's step she heard, Sought not to tempt her from her secret nest, But hastening to the dear retreat 3, would fly To meet and welcome her benignant eye. 14. Hope we have none, said Kailyal to her Sire. Said she aright? and had the mortal Maid No thoughts of heavenly aid, . . No secret hopes her inmost heart to move With longings of such deep and pure desire, As Vestal Maids, whose piety is love, Feel in their ecstasies, when rapt above, Their souls unto their heavenly Spouse aspire? Why else so often doth that searching eye Roam through the scope of sky? Why, if she sees a distant speck on high, Starts there that quick suffusion to her cheek? 'Tis but the Eagle in his heavenly height; Reluctant to believe, she hears his cry, And marks his wheeling flight, Then pensively averts her mournful sight. Why ever else, at morn, that waking sigh, Because the lovely form no more is nigh Which hath been present to her soul all night; And that injurious fear Which ever, as it riseth, is represt, Yet riseth still within her troubled breast, That she no more shall see the Glendoveer! 15. Hath he forgotten me? The wrongful thought Would stir within her, and though still repell'd With shame and self-reproaches, would recur. a radiant constellation; he binds on her arms, graceful as the stalks of the water-lily, and adorned with hands glowing like the petals of its flower, a bracelet of sapphires, which resemble a cluster of bees. Ah! see how he ties round her waist a rich girdle illumined with golden bells, which seem to laugh as they tinkle, at the inferior brightness of the leafy garlands which lovers hang on their bowers, to propitiate the god of desire. He places her soft foot, as he reclines by her side, on his ardent bosom, and stains it with the ruddy hue of Yavaca.-Songs of Jayadeva. The Hindoos, especially after bathing, paint their faces with ochre and sandal-wood ground very fine into 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 front of the head, in the furrow made according to the 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 linseed for awhile in water. When dry, the hair is Days after days unvarying come and go, Approaches them in their sequester'd bower. And hast no cause for farther hope or fear; High-fated Maid, thou dost not know What eyes watch over thee for weal and woe! Even at this hour, Searching the dark decrees divine, Kehama, in the fulness of his power, Perceives his thread of fate entwine with thine. The Glendoveer, from his far sphere, With love that never sleeps, beholds thee here, And in the hour permitted will be near. Dark Lorrinite on thee hath fix'd her sight, And laid her wiles, to aid Foul Arlavan when he shall next appear; For well she ween'd his Spirit would renew Old vengeance now, with unremitting hate; The Enchantress well that evil nature knew, The accursed Spirit hath his prey in view; And thus, while all their separate hopes pursue, All work, unconsciously, the will of Fate. 16. Fate work'd its own the while. A band And reach'd the bower wherein the Maid abode. XIV. JAGA-NAUT.4 1. Joy in the City of great Jaga-Naut! Joy in the seven-headed Idol's shrine! A virgin-bride his ministers have brought, A mortal maid, in form and face divine, all firmly matted together, and will retain its form for many days together.”—Oriental Sports, vol. i. p. 271. 2" Glass rings are universally worn by the women of the Decan, as an ornament on the wrists; and their applying closely to the arm is considered as a mark of delicacy and beauty, for they must of course be passed over the hand. Ia doing this a girl seldom escapes without drawing blood, and rubbing part of the skin from her hand; and as every welldressed girl has a number of rings ou each arm, and as these are frequently breaking, the poor creatures suffer much from their love of admiration.” — Buchanan. 3 There is a beautiful passage in Statius, which may be quoted here: it is in that poet's best manner :"Qualis vicino volucris jam sedula partu, Jamque timens quâ fronde domum suspendat inanem, 4 "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. Many thousands of people are employed in carrying water from Hurdwar 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 bamboo. 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 castes is made at this temple, but all, like a nation descended from one common stock, cat, drink, and make merry together."-Stavorinus. "The idol of Jaggernat is in shape like a serpent, with seven heads; and on the checks of each head it hath 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. Great Jaga-Naut hath found his mate! the God Will ride abroad! To-night will he go forth from his abode ! Ye myriads who adore him, Prepare the way before him! 3. Uprear'd on twenty wheels elate, Huge as a Ship, the Bridal Car appear'd; Loud creak its ponderous wheels, as through the gate The Image of the seven-headed God A bridal statue rather might she seem, 4. O silent night, how have they startled thee And thou, O Moon! whose quiet light serene Filleth wide heaven, and bathing hill and wood, Spreads o'er the peaceful valley like a flood, How have they dimm'd thee with the torches' glare, "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. 2 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." - v. i. 10. § 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 chariot-wheels may run over them, whereby they are 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. 1 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 apartment 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 herself for a certain price, and all that she can thus acquire she carries to the priest of the idol, that he may apply it to the service of the temple. Let us, says the Mohammedan relater, bless the almighty and glorious God, that he has chosen us, to exempt us from all the crimes into which men are led by their unbelief. — Anciennes Relations. "Incited, unquestionably," says Mr. Maurice," by the hieroglyphic emblem of vice so conspicuously elevated, and so strikingly painted in the temples of Mahadeo, the priests of that deity industriously selected the most beautiful females that could be found, and, in their tenderest years, with great pomp and solemnity, consecrated them (as it is impiously called) to the service of the presiding divinity of the pagoda. They were trained up in every art to delude and to delight; and to the fascination of external beauty, their artful betrayers added the attractions arising from mental accomplishments. Thus was an invariable rule of the Hindoos, that women have no concern with literature, dispensed with upon this infamous occasion. The moment these hapless victims reach maturity, they fell victims to the lust of the Brahmins. They were early taught to practise the most alluring blandishments, to And the double double peals of the drum are there, 7. Where art thou, Son of Heaven, Ereenia! where O Maid! thou feelest, but believest it not; 8. She needs that faith, she needs that consolation, For now the Car hath measured back its track Of death, and hath re-enter'd now its station. There, in the Temple-court with song and dance, A harlot-band, to meet the Maid, advance. The drum hath ceased its peals; the trump and gong Are still; the frantic crowd forbear their yells; And sweet it was to hear the voice of song, And the sweet music of their girdle-bells, Armlets and anklets, that, with cheerful sound, Symphonious tinkled as they wheel'd around. roll the expressive eye of wanton pleasure, and to invite to criminal indulgence, by stealing upon the beholder the tender look of voluptuous languishing. They were instructed to mould their elegant and airy forms into the most enticing attitudes and the most lascivious gestures, while the rapid and graceful motion of their feet, adorned with golden bells. and glittering with jewels, kept unison with the exquisite melody of their voices. Every pagoda has a band of these young syrens, whose business, on great festivals, is to dance | in public before the idol, to sing hymns in his honour, and in private to enrich the treasury of that pagoda with the wages of prostitution. These women are not, however, regarded in a dishonourable light; they are considered as tredded to the idol, and they partake of the veneration paid to him. They are forbidden ever to desert the pagoda where they are educated, and are never permitted to marry; but the offspring. if any, of their criminal embraces, are considered as sacred to the idol: the boys are taught to play on the sacred instruments used at the festivals, and the daughters are devoted to the abandoned occupations of their mothers."-Indien Antiquities. "These impostors take a young maid, of the fairest they can meet with, to be the bride, (as they speak and bear the besotted people in hand,) of Jagannat, and they leave her all night in the temple (whither they have carried her) with the idol, making her believe that Jagannat himself will come and embrace her, and appointing her to ask him, whether it will be a fruitful year, what kind of processions, feasts, prayers, and alms he demands to be made for it. In the mean ! Where art thou, Son of Heaven, Ereenia, where? Anguish and agony, and hopeless prayer, There trembling as she lay, The Bramin of the fane advanced And came to seize his prey. She thought her own deliverer had been near; And in the fiendish joy within his eyes, 11. Where art thou, Son of Heaven, Ereenia, where ? Seize him! the Enchantress cried; time one of these lustful priests enters at night by a little back-door into the temple, deflowereth this young maid, and maketh her believe any thing he pleaseth; and the next day, being transported from this temple into another with the same magnificence, she was carried before upon There are no Gods on earth to give him aid; Hemm'd round, he is overpower'd, beat down, and bound, And at the feet of Lorrinite is laid. 12. Meantime the scatter'd members of the slain, And that foul Spirit upon vengeance bent, Lo! here, quoth Lorrinite, thou seest thy foe! To that dread scene of durance and despair, To chain him in the Tombs. Meantime do thou, 13. Her words the accursed race obey'd; Forth with a sound like rushing winds they fled, And of all aid from Earth or Heaven bereft, Alone with Arvalan the Maid was left. But in that hour of agony, the Maid Deserted not herself; her very dread Had calm'd her; and her heart Knew the whole horror, and its only part. Yamen, receive me undefiled! she said, And seized a torch, and fired the bridal bed. Up ran the rapid flames; on every side They find their fuel wheresoe'er they spread; Thin hangings, fragrant gums, and odorous wood, That piled like sacrificial altars stood. Around they run, and upward they aspire, And, lo! the huge Pagoda lined with fire. 14. The wicked Soul, who had assumed again A form of sensible flesh for his foul will, Still bent on base revenge and baffled still, Felt that corporeal shape alike to pain Obnoxious as to pleasure: forth he flew, Howling and scorch'd by the devouring flame; Accursed Spirit! Still condemn'd to rue, The act of sin and punishment the same. Freed from his loathsome touch, a natural dread Came on the self-devoted, and she drew Back from the flames, which now toward her spread, And, like a living monster, seem'd to dart Their hungry tongues toward their shrinking prey. Soon she subdued her heart; "O Father!" she exclaim'd, "there was no way But this! And thou, Ereenia, who for me Sufferest, my soul shall bear thee company." the chariot of triumph, on the side of Jagannat her bridegroom: these Brahmans make her say aloud, before all the people, whatsoever she hath been taught of these cheats, as if she had learnt it from the very mouth of Jagannat." -Bernier. |