factor, of respectable appearance ;) when, going up to him, the Missionary asked if he had been convinced by the arguments he had heard in favour of the Christian religion? After a moment's hesitation, What will you give me,' said the native, 'to become a Christian?'-'The blessings of our holy religion will reward you,' replied the Missionary. That will not do,' returned the native; but I'll tell you what-If f you will give me a lac of rupees, and two English ladies for my wives, I'll consider of it.' The Missionary was indignant; and, but for the timely interference of the Mayor, matters might have taken a serious turn." .P. 44.

At Monghier three Brahmins were performing their annual penance as the travellers passed through. A wooden pole about twenty feet high, was fixed upright in the ground, and from three very long bamboos placed horizontally across this staff the three ascetics were suspended by large iron hooks passed through the fleshy part of their backs, immediately under the shoulder. They hung for about a quarter of an hour, swinging round with wonderful velocity. A breadth of cloth was tied round the waist of each, and fastened to the hook in order to prevent a fall in case the flesh gave way, and it was understood that each exhibitor underwent six months probation beforehand, in which his back was daily prepared by gradual boring. The part grows callous by friction, and is so hardened, that at the time of suspension no blood is drawn from it; a circumstance which the priests artfully ascribed to a miracle. The principal actors in this mummery are ranked by the populace almost as deities, and generally collect money enough to support themselves for the remainder of their lives. Another penance which Mrs. A. D. afterwards witnessed, must occasion far more real suffering.

"Going out one evening earlier than usual, we espied a man seated on a square of ground, measuring about six feet across, (a little raised,) surrounded by a fire made of a kind of peat, and himself besmeared, head and all, with ashes. A more deplorable object I never beheld. Upon inquiry, we found that he sat thus, with his legs doubled under him, and his head bare, from sun-rise to sun-set, in pursuance of a vow; that he was a Brahmin, and this a voluntary penance and a dreadful penance it must have been; for the fire was within his reach all the way round, and he kept constantly replenishing it. No one but a Hindoo, or one of Don 'Juan's friends, could have supported it. I do really think that he must have washed himself with something, and so become fireproof; otherwise, with the heat of the sun and fire together he must surely have been melted; or perhaps his safety lay in having nothing to melt, for he was literally only skin and bone." P. 254.

Of two stories which Mrs. A. D. heard at Bankipore, we believe the second; the first is too good to be true.

6

"A malefactor having committed some crime for which he was sentenced to be hanged, received the awful fiat with so much coolness, that the Judge was disposed to believe the man had not understood him, and accordingly caused it to be repeated by one of the native counsellors. The man replied, that he understood the Judge very well. 'You are to be hanged to-morrow,' repeated the barrister. "Saheb ko koosi,' as the gentleman pleases,' returned the culprit, and followed his conductor out of court, apparently unconcerned. A few days elapsed before the sentence could be put into execution; and when brought forth, as they supposed, to suffer the punishment of his crime, there appeared quite a different person. This being reported to the Judge, he was ordered to be brought before him, and it was discovered that the other had given this man three rupees to be hanged in his place. The former one had of course made his escape; and, strange as it may appear, the substitute was afraid of being dis charged, lest he might insist upon his refunding the three rupees, which he had spent, he said, on metais, cakes of which they are particularly fond, made of sugar and flour.

"Another instance, though of a less serious nature, occurred on the person of a palankeen bearer in our service, who asked leave to go to his village and be married. This was the only time of the year they do marry. His master told him that he could not spare him immediately, but that, before the marrying season was over, he should go. A, eha Saheb, very well, Sir,' replied the bearer, 'next year will do as well.'" P. 63.

When a Hindu wishes to marry, the bride is introduced to her intended husband, but is not allowed to remain with him. The males and females of the two families about to be connected feast together, with the customary separation of the sexes, as long as the girl's parents can afford it. Three years then elapse, during which, the betrothed remains in a particular apartment of her father's house, from which she is not permitted to move unveiled. After this apprenticeship, she is considered capable of the duties of a housewife; the contract is drawn up and the guests are invited. The invitations are conveyed by sending cloves or cardamum seeds, according to the wealth of the parties. The entertainments last for three days; during the two first, only intimate friends are expected: on the second, all the women, except the bride and her relatives under seven years of age, proceed to the house of the bridegroom, and tinge his head and the palms of his hands with mindy, a sweet smelling shrub, producing when bruised, a brilliant red. Clad in a yellow turban and waistband, with yellow cloth shoes, and bestrid

ing the best and richest caparisoned horse he can get, the happy youth returns with the procession. On his arrival the feast is renewed by the men under an awning, by the women within the house. The bride is then conveyed from her father's house in a covered cart, followed by a huge train of presents; for each relative is in duty bound to make some offering on the occasion, and escorted by the bridegroom's friends, shouting, curvetting, flourishing swords, firing matchlocks, and each in some part of his dress ornamented with a scrap of yellow colour. The ceremony concludes with a wedding supper. The use of mindy is not confined to nuptials only, it is a general article in the toilet; and is as constantly required for the roots of all their nails, as Solmah is to heighten the brilliancy of the eyes. One other custom regarding the person, is not peculiar to the East; we know many an English fair one who would not suffer her locks to encounter the scissors, unless while the moon is on the increase.

The tenacity of the Hindoos as to caste, is illustrated by the following melancholy narrative.

"A young Hindoo girl, of superior beauty, had by chance been seen and admired by a youth of the same religion but of inferior caste. Knowing the latter to be an insurmountable barrier to the parents' consent, he at length prevailed on her to elope with and marry him in his own village. Her family soon discovered their retreat, and contrived by stratagem to get her again in their power. Accordingly her mother was despatched to negotiate the pretended reconciliation, and prevail on her to return, in order that the marriage might be properly celebrated at her father's house. The poor girl, delighted at the prospect of so fortunate an issue, readily accompanied her mother, and was received by her father and brother with open arms. When three days had elapsed, and no marriage feast been proclaimed, she began to suspect the treachery, and determined on seizing the first opportunity of returning to the husband she had chosen. A favourable one seemed to present itself; but she had not been gone long, before she was overtaken by her brother, who affected to sympathize with, and offered to see her safe home. The road lay through an unfrequented path, which taking advantage of, he drew his sword, and severed her head from the body. She was found the next morning weltering in her blood. The father and brother were immediately apprehended, and, wonderful to relate, not only confessed the crime, but exulted in the accomplishment of it; nor was it in the power of the Judge to punish them; for, unhappily, the Mahometan law, by which natives of every description are tried, is so arbitrary as to invest

The meanest peasant in these provinces wears a sword.

-parents with unlimited authority over their children, even to the depriving them of life; and it being proved in evidence that the son only obeyed his father's orders, they were both acquitted," P. 67.

We need not extract nor comment upon the often told tale of the burning of a Hindu widow. One of these sacrifices occurred during Mrs. A. D's. stay at Allahabad. It appears to have been quite voluntary on the part of the woman. Her father himself and the European authorities in vain endeavoured to dissuade her. She was the wife of a Brahmin, and was firmly resolved, according to her own declaration, to immortalize her name, and shew her family the way to heaven. The origin of the custom is variously imputed to the jealousy of the men, and to a necessary precaution against poison-ing.

The train of servants attendant upon a family in India, is not a little disproportioned to European notions of comfort; but the manifest distinctions of religion and of caste, make it necessary to have a separate individual for almost every separate domestic employment. There must be the Khansommah, or house steward; two Kismutdars, or table waiters, to each person of the family, who scrupulously confine themselves to that one to which they are assigned; an abdar or butler; a masauljie or under footman; a set (eight or ten) of palankeen bearers; a hircarah or running footman, a sirdar or head bearer, and his assistant, and two dirjees or tailors.

"The idea one has of a tailor in England, by no means answers the description of a dirjee in India. They are properly speaking, sempsters, or as sempstress in the female, so sempster in the male. They make up no gentlemen's clothes, except they be of cotton; but are exceedingly expert in making ladies' dresses, especially from a copy, which they imitate with the greatest exactness. I once knew of a ridiculous circumstance that happened in this way. Gentlemen in India, during the hot season, wear fine white jackets, made of shirt cloth. One of these being a little torn at the elbow, was given to the dirjee to repair, and he put a small patch upon it: a short time afterwards, the gentleman to whom it belonged, wished to have some new ones made, and this being inadvertently given for a pattern, all the new ones appeared with precisely the same patch on each elbow." P. 99.

To these must be added the women servants and the washerman's family. If there are children, each has its separate attendant; and after all, if there is a farm, the following out-door officers are yet wanting:-a bhery-wallah, or shepherd; a moorgy-wallah, or poultry-man; a soor-wallah,

or swine-herd; a gorry-wan, or ox-herd; a mahawat, or elephant-driver; a sur-wan, or camel-driver; a syce, or grasscutter to each horse; a carpenter, two or three gardeners, and a clashie to pitch tents and flog the other servants. All these live somewhere about the premises, and belong even to a moderate establishment.

Sadut Alli, the Nawaab of Lucknow, lives magnificently, and is very fond of the English. His table out-does that of our own Duke of Newcastle, when minister. That nobleman always placed one French and one English dinner upon his board: to these the Nawaab of Lucknow adds one Hindostannee. Wine, of course, he cannot drink; but he heartily pledged Mrs. A. D. in English syrup, (cherry brandy.) Our Government placed him on the throne, to which he was the legitimate successor, but which he had nearly lost by usurpation; and his gratitude has always been strongly marked. In Lord Lake's campaign against the Mahrattas, he volunteered to the army six hundred camels, five hundred horses, one hundred and fifty elephants, one thousand bullocks, and any number of waggons which were needed. In the second campaign he advanced twelve lacs of rupees, (£150,000,) without interest for eighteen months. Having received a large package of Worcester china, he invited the whole Settlement to a breakfast a la fourchette. One hundred persons sat down to such an entertainment as the Arabian Nights describe; but the English could scarcely preserve their gravity, when they perceived more than twenty most inappropriate vessels filled with milk, and arranged down the centre of the table. The guests did not explain the mistake, and the host was somewhat mortified at their abstinence from that which he had, with so much care and display, provided as a favorite beverage. "I thought" he observed innocently, "that the English were very fond of milk."

The Nawaab is a man of gallantry, and "knowing Mrs. A. D's predilection for poetry," he presented her with some sentimental Persian lines, written by a contemporary of Mahomet, of which the lady in turn presents the English reader with a translation, written (as we presume) by Mrs. A. D. herself. It is really a very nice copy of verses; but we think there is more amusement to be found in the following prose translation of a native letter, written by a gentleman, who, during the fair traveller's absence, had promised to visit her baby.

"To the Begum

of exalted rank, source of radiance and dignity, may her good fortunes be perpetual!! "After representing to the Presence illumining the world, that