that period is long since gone; she is now thirteen or fourteen years old, and is very tall and lusty, resembling a married woman of thirty. I hear, also, that your neighbours are whispering things to your disadvantage; and those who are more bold speak out: with astonishment, they say among themselves, How can that family eat their rice with comfort, and sleep with satisfaction, while such a disreputable thing exists among them? At present, they are exposed to shame, and their deceased friends are suffering through their retaining a girl from marriage beyond the period which nature has prescribed. All this I hear, and as a relation, am blamed, and

therefore I speak.

2d Man. You need not, Sir, urge me to this-I am myself so uneasy, that I cannot sleep. What can I do? I am helpless. This must be done, but it is not in the power of my hands : birth, marriage, and death are all under the direction of the gods; can any one say, when they will happen? When the flower blows, the fragrance will be perceived. This is work that cannot be pushed. Proposals have been received from many places; but these things require to be well weighed ; we want a young man who is a kooleenu, of a religious family, rich, honourable, handsome, and clever. If the bridegroom be faulty, all will go wrong. I cannot put a string round the neck of my daughter, and throw her into the ditch. Therefore, calling the ghutukus, and well arranging every thing, this business shall be brought to a close. At present, Sir, however, I must put this burden on my head, and leave it there my father is very ill; he has reached a great age; eighty or ninety years; two or three doctors attend him, and administer various medicines, which will involve me in an expense of one or two hundred roopees. I doubt whether he will return from this journey or not; medicines seem to take no effect, from which I learn, that it is all over; he eats nothing, except a little milk; as people say, My bread is all expended;" so it is, I fear, with him; he has eaten all he will do on earth.

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1st Man. See! Take care! Take care! This is the heaviest of all losses to a family. As long as we have not had to carry father and mother to the Ganges, all remains well.Children are born to drive away danger from parents, and to secure their happiness after death. Hitherto your father has carried your burden; it is now your duty, now the evil day is come upon him, to become his servant. Those are our friends, who remain near us in danger and at death. He who

does not assist a parent at these times, is his father's ordure. (They go to see the old man.)

Oh! Ramu-Lochunu! There is no hope of your father. Death has stopt up all the doors, and is ready to secure his prey. It is not advisable to keep him any longer in the house; you had better make the journey to the Ganges.Who can tell what will take place in the night. Yumu has seized the locks of us all; when he will carry us off, he will tell nobody therefore while there is time, stop the sluices. 2d Man. Ah! Sir, the burden has fallen upon me all at once my father used to manage every thing: I ate and walked about. I know nothing of what is best; you, Sir, are well versed in all these things: you have done these last offices for many; having been once sick, a man becomes a physician; let whatever is necessary be done, that I may not be blamed.

Another neighbour. Here is no need of hesitation: the play is up with the old man ; let him be carried to the Ganges, and there cause him to hear the Ramayunu; and, according to circumstances, do the needful. This is not a child, that its death should be the cause of sorrow; he is an old man ; carry him with joy to the Ganges.

1st Man. I hear, that your mother will go with the old man. 2d Man. I hear so from the women, and indeed I expected it; for she was always with my father, and waited upon him with the greatest attention; she spoke to me also, begging me to mind religion, and not be unhappy; and then, as is usual, she took no farther notice of worldly things.

1st Man. Well, it will then be necessary to buy a new garment for her; some pitch, clarified butter, sandal-wood, parched rice, a few kourees, red lead, red thread, two bamboo levers,

The Hindoos write with a reed, and hold their pen with the whole grasp of the hand. They seldom use a seal for their letters, but write on the folds of the back, that which they consider equivalent to an oath of secrecy: that is, they make certain signs, which are known to indicate the seven seas, the four vedus, and the sun and moon, by the names of all which, each person into whose hands the letter comes is bound, as by an oath, not to violate its contents.-Before the entrance of Europeans into India, there was no post; letters, &c. were always sent to a distance by private messengers. The native merchants are, however, now very glad to avail themselves of the post, by which mercantile transactions are so exceedingly facilitated.

The directions on their letters to us would appear singular enough. Thus a man directs to his patron: To my supporter's (mentioning the same) excellent feet," I write this, A woman directs to her son, "To the fortunate H-, my son, more beloved than my own life, long life to thee." The son directs, "To my mother, the worshipful goddess Shree-Mutee, to your water-lily feet, possessed of the fortune of Shree."

Deaths and Funeral Ceremonies.-When a person is on the point of death, his relations carry him on his bed, or on a litter, to the Ganges. The litter consists of some bamboos fastened together, and slung on ropes. Some persons are carried many miles to the river; and this practice is often attended with very cruel circumstances; a person, in his last agonies, is dragged from his bed and friends, and carried, in the coldest or the hottest weather, from whatever distance, to the river side, where he lies, if a poor man, in the open air, day and night, till he expires.

When a person is brought down to the river side, if he is able to see his friends, they go to him. One of them perhaps, addresses a few words to him: "O Khooru!* do you know me ?" 66 Yes, I do." "How are you?" "I am well. What need is there that I should stay here, if Gunga will but give me place."-" True. Khooru, that is all that's left now." If the dying man is speaking to a superior, he says "Through your blessing let me go to Gunga;" if to an inferior, he says, "Pray for me, that Gunga may receive me." He then, perhaps, speaks of his worldly troubles : "One thing respecting which I am uneasy is, I have not given in marriage my two daughters here are also five children for whom I have not been able to provide-nor is there so much as ten roopees for my funeral offerings;-but you are here; do you contrive that my family do not remain uncleant for want of the means of performing these last rites; and see that these two daughters are married to the children of good men." The other replies, "Oh! Chaoru! put away these thoughts: repeat the names of the gods." Some

*Khooru signifies uncle. The Hindoos call one another by the names of relations, though there is no relationship. When two neighbours meet, the elder addresses the younger by the name of brother. A younger addresses an elder by the names uncle, elder brother, or grand-father's brother (t'hakoor dada.)

+ Gunga, Ganges.

The members of a family remain unclean, and are cut off from all hopes after death, till this ceremony is performed.

other person says, "Oh! Khooru! Khooree* wishes to come and see you what say you? He makes a sign for her to come; or, he says, "I am going-what can she do? Here are people to wait upon me she will only increase grief." Some one again addresses him: Oh! Khooru! perform Voiturunee." He consents; when the ceremony is performed.

As death approaches, the relations exhort the sick man, if he is a regular Hindoo, to repeat the names of Narryunu, Brumha, Gunga, his guardian deity, and those of other gods. If he is a voishnuvu, they tell him to repeat the name of Muha-probhoo, Krishnu, Radha, &c. The poor call upon different deities indiscriminately. The dying man repeats these names as well as he is able; the relations vehemently urge him to go on calling upon these gods, in which they also join him eight or ten voices are heard at once thus employed. If the doctor is present, and should declare that the patient is on the point of expiring, he tells them to let him down into the water up to the middle. When there is no doctor, his friends attend to this according to their own judgment. Just before or after being thus immersed, they spread the mud of the river on the breast, &c. of the dying man, and with one of their fingers write on this mud the name of some deity; they also pour water down his throat; shout the names of different deities in his ears, and, by this anxiety after his future happiness, hurry him into eternity; and, in many cases, it is to be feared, prevent recovery, where it might reasonably be expected. If the person, after lying in the water some time, should not die, he is brought up again, and laid on the bank, and the further progress of the disease is watched by the relations. Some persons who are carried down to the river side revive, and return home again ; but scarcely any instances are known of persons surviving after this half immersion in water. In cases of sudden and alarming sickness, many are actually murdered by these violent means of sending men to Gunga. If a Hindoo should die in his house, and not within sight of the river, it is considered as a great misfortune, and his memory is sure to be stigmatized for it after death.

*Khooree, aunt.

That is, perform the ceremonies for securing a passage across the river of death. These ceremonies consist of certain gifts to Vishnoo, as a cow, or the value of a cow: or the commutation of this, a trifling sum in kourees. Rice, clarified butter, &c. are also offered to Vishnoo.

Immediately after the person is dead, and in many cases before this event, preparations are made for burning the body. Sometimes the wood is brought and placed by the side of the sick person while he is living. About 300 lbs. of wood are sufficient to consume a body. A hole is dug in the earth by one of the relations of the deceased; over which the wood is placed. The body is then laid on, and the heir at law having lighted some straw, walks round the pile three times, with face averted, and touches the mouth of the deceased with the fire; after which those present set fire to the pile; and the body is consumed. In some parts of Hindoostan the body is buried in the earth, and the funeral service is said to be very solemn and affecting. The officiating bramhun on these occasions addresses the respective elements in the following

manner:

O EARTH! to thee we commend our brother; of thee he was formed; by thee he was sustained; and unto thee he now returns!

O FIRE! thou hadst a claim in our brother; during his life he subsisted by thy influence in nature; to thee we commit his body; thou emblem of purity, may his spirit be purified on entering a new state of existence !

O AIR! while the breath of life continued, our brother respired by thee; his last breath is now departed; to thee we yield him!

O WATER! thou didst contribute to the life of our brother : thou wert one of his sustaining elements. His remains are now dispersed; receive thy share of him, who has now taken an everlasting flight.

Condition of Hindoo Females.-The lives of the Hindoo females are always spent in a state of degradation, if not in hardship, and misery. The institution of infant marriages, is to them the source of many and great evils. The contract is made without the consent or knowledge of the parties. Affection of course has nothing to do in the cause, and fiequently the parties not liking each other never live together. Another more serious objection to this custom arises from the number of females left in a widowed state even while children, and who, being forbidden by the laws to marry again, generally become outcasts in society.

To this unfeeling custom is to be added another, still more barbarous, and which falls upon the whole body of females, that of denying them even the least portion of education; the most direful calamities are denounced against the woman who shall dare to aspire to the dangerous pre-eminence of being

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