SANYAS, COMMONLY CALLED

CHARAK PUJA.

THE sketch on the opposite page is taken from one of the paintings in the Missionary Museum, recently received from Calcutta. The description which accompanied it we subjoin, that our readers may have some idea of the horrid abominations of Indian idolatry- and may be thus led more than ever to labour for its downfall:

This is an abominable festival in honour of Shib, when many Hindus, assuming the name Sanyásis, inflict on themselves the greatest cruelties, under the idea that such proceedings are highly agreeable to that dreaded god. It is held on the 28th, 29th, 30th, and 31st days of Chaitra, corresponding with the 8th, 9th, 10th, and 11th of April; but those persons who wish to be very meritorious on this occasion, prepare themselves during the whole month of Chaitra, by performing various ceremonies, and abstaining from different kinds of food-from spices, common salt, oil, and other gratifications-and by sleeping on coarse blankets or on rushes.

Brahmans, Rhettriyas, and Vacshyas, take no share in this festival, except as spectators. The celebration of it is confined to the Sudrás; and even among them, only the very lowest classes take an active part in it. However, the Káyastas (writer caste) and other respectable Sudrás, often hire individuals from the dregs of the population to act on their behalf, and to inflict the usual cruelties on themselves, but reserving, of course, for their own benefit, the merits accruing from these practices. The Sudrás who perform those penances on their own account, do it generally to fulfil a vow, which, when sick, or suffering under any other calamity, either they themselves, or their relations on their behalf, had made. During the month of Chaitra, all these Sanyásis, although Sudrás, wear the paitá, or sacred cord, in the manner the Brahmans do.

On the first day of the festival, the Sanyásis keep a partial feast, which consists in their eating only such food as has been cooked in one pot at the same time.

On the second day, which is called the fruit day (Thalerdin), the Sanyasis assemble in great numbers, and wander from village to village, begging from the inhabitants whatever fruits may be in season; and when

they have gathered a great quantity, they deposit them in the temple of Shib. In the afternoon they go about in the same manner, begging fire-wood, and collect it in an immense heap opposite to Shib's temple. They then assemble on that spot, and regale themselves with the fruits that were presented to them in the morning; but perfect silence is required to reign at this meal; and if any human voice is heard, all eating must directly cease. In order, therefore, to avoid such a disastrous consequence, they take care to continue striking a gong, whose sound is sure to drown any voice that perchance might be uttered among them or in the neighbourhood. Bundles of thorns are subsequently placed before the temple, and the Sanyásis cast themselves on them; and, to bring the matter to a close, fire is put to the pile, which soon blazes briskly, after which the Sanyásis scatter the embers about, dance over them, and throw them in the air at each other.

The third day, early, the work of piercing the tongue and sides commences. At Calcutta this is done at the celebrated temple of Kálighat, to which immense crowds resort, having with them drums and other instruments of music, and also spits, canes, ramrods, and different other articles, to pass through their tongues or sides. Some, with tinkling rings on their ancles, are dancing in a most frantic way, and exhibiting the most indecent gestures, whilst others are rending the air with their shouts and filthy songs. Arrived at Kalighat, they proceed to the great temple, where several blacksmiths are in attendance, ready, for a trifling fee, to pierce their tongues, cut their sides, or perform any operation the Sanyasis may desire. They then thrust through their pierced tongues, spears, swords, bamboos, hukalituties, &c.; and through their sides, ropes, the ends of which two persons hold before and behind, as in the picture, whilst the wretches dance backwards and forwards, making indecent gestures, the ropes rubbing their raw flesh all this time. Others, again, stick in their sides the pointed handles of iron shovels, containing fire. Into this fire they every now and then throw Indian pitch, which for the moment blazes very high. Some monstrous shows (gajan) of paper vessels, elephants, and other fanciful and ridiculous pageants, are then exhibited and carried about; and at noon the crowds retire to their

houses. The whole scene has a fiendish appearance, and' the effect produced by these abominable and degrading superstitions is painful and sickening in the extreme. On the evening of this day, the Sanyásis pierce the skin of their foreheads, and place a rod of iron on it, and on this rod fasten a lamp, which is kept burning nearly all the night, whilst the devotees are sitting opposite to, or in, Shib's temple, singing his praises, or calling upon him.

On the fourth day, in the afternoon, the Charak, or swinging, takes place. Iron hooks are fastened in the backs of the Sanyásis, after which they are suspended on a cross-beam, placed on the top of a high post, and which turns on a pivot, and is whirled round by means of ropes with great rapidity. These swinging posts are generally erected in the most conspicuous places of the towns and villages; and often from five to ten men swing, the one after the other, on one post. It is not very uncommon for the flesh of their back to tear, and then these poor deluded victims of superstition fall on the crowd below, and are either killed themselves or kill those upon whom they fall. An awful instance of this happened at Chinsurah some years ago.

On this day, some Sanyásis cast themselves also from a bamboo stage, on iron spikes or knives stuck in bags of straw. These instruments, however, are generally in a reclining posture, so that, when the person falls, they almost constantly are pressed down by his weight, and fall horizontally, instead of entering his body.

The deluded votaries of Shib inflict many other kinds of cruelties on themselves at this period. One only, as it is rather singular, will be mentioned. Some Sanyásis bedaub their lips with mud, and on this they scatter some mustard, or any other kind of small seed; they then lie down on their backs, near Shib's temple, and do not move, nor eat, nor drink, until the seed has commenced germinating, which seldom happens before the third or fourth day.

On the following day, viz., the 1st of Barsák, or 12th April (the Hindu New Year's-day), some cooked rice, with broiled fish, is taken by a Brahman, accompanied by the Sanyasis, to the place where the dead bodies are burned, and there offered to departed spirits, after which the Sanyásis shave, bathe, and relinquish their paitá, and the festival is at an end.

POPISH LEGEND OF THE PRESENT DAY. WE are often told that Popery has changed its character, and is no longer the mystery of iniquity which our fathers found it to be; but although it can assume many disguises, it remains ever the same. The following legend presently, or lately, circulated "with approbation," at Leghorn and elsewhere, is a proof of this; and it is a melancholy fact, that such a piece of horrid blasphemy should be found in the streets of one of the largest and most civilized towns in Italy, as well as one of the most important sea-ports of the Mediterranean-the resort of thousands of English and other sailors and merchants, and altogether one of the last places, even in that beautiful but degraded land, where we should have looked for an instance of priestly imposition so gross as this. We obtained the paper from a Christian friend, resident at Leghorn, who furnished us with the following translation. The original, which is in the form of an ordinary handbill, may be seen in the Missionary Museum.*

66

A STATEMENT MADE BY OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST TO THE

SISTERS ELIZABETH, MARTHA, AND BRIDGET, desirous to have some of the particulars of his Passion, to whom he appeared after prayers, and said—

"First learn, my dear sisters, that I had one hundred and twelve boxes on the ear; I had three blows with the fist upon the mouth; from the time I was taken in the garden till I reached the house of Annas, I fell seven times; I was driven to the earth one hundred and five times; I had one hundred and eighty stripes upon the back, thirty-two blows on the legs; was pulled up in the air by the beard and the hair thirty-two times; I had one mortal thrust; at the post I had six thousand six hundred and sixty-six stripes; I sent forth out of my mouth one *At the top of the hand-bill appears a rude wood-cut representing a man praying before a crucifix, accompanied by the following narrative:

"A good servant of God being in prayer before the host (literally Jesus sacramented), had it in vision that some cities were greatly distressed with most horrible earthquakes, thunders, and thunderbolts-that, by placing above the doors, windows, and houses, the following words, CHRISTUM (so in original) STAT NOBISCUM,' those places should be delivered. Wherefore, the earthquake having made most terrible ruin of cities, houses, and towns, those places alone were miraculously delivered which had written on them the above mentioned words, and the Supreme Pontiff concedes plenary indulgence."