falling due, and, of course, if Mr. James Forrest's more of them than in divers peeps, obtained by torchclaim is unsatisfied, and your stock seized, all your creditors will come upon you at once. I do not quite see at this moment what is best to do; but I possess nearly all the money you want, and you shall have it, though it will need some judgment in the application, and many changes, as you say, must be made in your expenses, lest you should be again in a similar dilemma, and I have no power at all to help you. Let us both go at once to Mr. Hatten, and if you will be guided by his advice, I promise that you shall have the means.' light, through the open doors of the richly-gilded palankeens, which bore these objects of a nation's worship to the sea. Several of these palkees I passed in the great, bazaar, when returning from our evening drive. The interiors were hung with wreaths and festoons of chumpa and mogree blossoms, and were decorated with gold, jewels, and rich brocade, while supported by cushions sat the Hindoo god of wisdom, the great Gunputtee, whose early accident, as related in the Purans, so mortifyingly furnished him with the elephant's proboscis. Around the palankeens flashed Oh, Fanny, Fanny! where is your worldly wisdom? torches, throwing their red glare upon the jewelled What a chance you have lost for the resuscitation head of the deity, while tomtoms in advance, and of all his delinquencies! When will such another shrill pipes from the rear, added to the noise and disopportunity occur for the revival of old grievances; cord. Horsemen and footmen, Brahmins, and the or reminding of advice unheeded, and sage counsel wealthy of the island, attended these processions, and neglected? What an excellent plea you have thrown ere the stars shone forth, thousands of elephantaway for refusing to assist, and prudently doubting | headed gods were consigned to the deep waters. "if it would be of any use to help!" What can you be thinking of? I believe I know what she would answer to the question,-"I am thinking of Him who bade us, if our brother trespass against us seven times in a day, and seven times in a day turn again to us saying, I repent, to forgive him.' ووو Very joyfully did William Forrest agree to his sister's proposal, and in a month the whole of his debts were paid by her; the furniture of the gay drawing-room sold; the room converted into the useful place they at first intended; the smart nurse replaced by an active country servant; Marion behind the counter of fancy stationery; the dandy shopmen gone, and every man and woman in the house working diligently for the eye of Him, whose servant has bidden us not to be "slothful in business;" but "whatever our hand findeth to do, to do it with our might." PRINCES AND PRIESTS; OR, ORIENTAL BY MRS. POSTANS. EVERY body, on the 25th of August, 184-, was to be seen with an image of Ganese, the elephantheaded deity, in his hand, for it was the great festival of the "Ganese chatworthee." The poorer folks danced about little plaster images, adorned with necklaces and ear-jewels of red and green pigment; others paraded effigies of wood, with no speculation in the eyes that so of talc did glare withal; while some extolled the merits of a god of cloth, a "guy," stuffed very hard, and clad in blue, while all the snippings of a tailor's cutting-room seemed to have been put in requisition for his ears and trunk. Some idols were of stone, curiously carved: the material differed with the rank of the worshipper; but he would have been thought a luckless householder indeed, who did not to-day refresh the Lares of his hearth, and anoint a new Ganese, fated to a watery grave when the sun sank upon the western wave. Among the rich, these idols were costly, but I had not an opportunity of seeing VOL. VIII. The great procession connected with this festival is to be seen at Baroda, where the Guicowar, as its Hindoo patron, makes the most of it. Wisdom, one would think, was supreme in the dominion of his highness, if we might judge of it by the distinctions with which it is annually treated, did not facts assure us of the contrary; however, not only does Ganese ride forth on this his fête day in the finest of all fine palankeens, but the prince attends him; and not only the prince, (who, like the pope, might afford to appear humble one day in the year, for the sake of his creed,) but the British Resident is there too, with the sepoys of a British army, and the national music of England, with elephants, and trumpets, and banners, and a shouting multitude; and all to do honour to an idol of wood or stone! We cannot tell how long respect for the prejudices of the Guicowar may command this consideration at our hands. Some admirable papers, written by a missionary at Baroda, have already appeared on the subject, which well deserve attention; for, independently of the grief and pain such duty must cause to many European officers called on to command this guard of honour to a Hindoo deity, it is quite certain that Hindoos, when they witness these marks (as they consider them,) of homage, and respect, believe that we do absolutely respect the objects of the ceremony, and that our rule in India is, somehow or other, a permitted one, on the part of their gods, whose supremacy we are obliged, for our own security's sake, to acknowledge by such public demonstrations of respect. I have been told by intelligent natives that it is really matter of popular opinion, that it is not the prince, but the deity we so honour; that it is not a courteous form, by which we seek to keep order, but a voluntary act of absolute homage; and, if this is indeed so, the fact deserves attention. Natives have frequently told me, with regard to the Mohurrum, Hooli, and other similar observances, that if European officers did not attend processions and natches, the sepoys and natives generally would care much less about them, and not be encouraged L to spend the large sums they now do, on dancing | his way, in the posture of a frog, to every temple of women, lights, and decorations. The sepoys are flat- renown in western India! He looked old and tered at the presence of their superiors, and set emaciated, as one who really to the letter performed greater value on the occasions which seem to interest his vow, and did so, moreover, from a sincere belief them. I confess I had never viewed the matter in both in its necessity and in its value. this light, but had ever considered the accepting such invitations as mere acts of courtesy, necessary to encourage and keep up good feeling between the native subordinates and their European superiors; but the assurances I have since received on the matter, from sound authority, place these concessions in a very different and very important point of view. The month Shrawun requires the celebration of more festivals than any of the rest of the Hindoo year, and consequently the priestly class are in full feather. "The meer's house being situated between two great bazaars, and on the high road from two important temples, that of Juggernath Sunkersett and that on Malabar Hill, fakirs pass by, and are seen about it, at all hours and in all varieties. The earliest abroad I observed to be a man who, at five every morning, was so freshly smeared with wood ashes, that the only dark portions of his body were the pupils of his wily, malignant-looking eyes; he wore a high crown, like the cap of Osiris, of peacocks' feathers, and a tiger's skin over his shoulders; he carried a dish and staff, and, I suspect, creates an impression very advantageous to his own interests. This worthy is generally followed by a man carrying a child, frightfully crippled, in a basket slung by a bamboo over his shoulder; the man wears ochre-coloured garments, and the child roars out something or other in praise of Mahdeo which neither he nor any one else can understand. Then comes an old fakir, dragged along by a coolie in a little cart, covered with brickdustlooking cloth, and rests from place to place, until they have made the tour of every temple in the " quartier,' and the wise man's scrip is full; and there are scores of others smeared with white dust, and laden with heavy beads; all scowling and malignant beings, intent on the robbery of their fellow men. رو It was but a few days before the festival, as I was riding up from Tardeo to the Sunkersett temple, that I saw a strange creature on the road, who I imagined might be one of the huge monkeys from Guzzerat, which the Brahmins delight in petting, in honour of their god Huniman; and I fancied the creature might have wandered beyond the precincts of the temple, to look about him a little and get an appetite for fresh mangoes and his morning rice. Having no sympathy with Huniman's votaries in this particular taste for the long-armed Guzzeratces, I was about to turn my horse along a bye-path, when I remarked that several of the fruit people, toddy sellers, and others, on their way to the bazaar, salaamed to this creature and made way for it. Now, really, even to the monkey who boards at a temple, I thought this was going too far, and thus having my suspicious roused by it, I rode forwards, and soon saw that it was a poor creature who, in penitential mood, and to gain credit for a work of merit, was absolutely hopping A few days after this, I saw another man near the same temple, stretched along upon the ground, who was measuring his length towards Nassik; but I had my doubts of him, for he was of stalwart frame, and looked amazingly as if he got up and walked sturdily along under the shelter of the jungles, when no one was on his path; for he was a healthy, muscular looking rogue, whose motives I suspected to be none of the purest. I asked the Brahmin, Nana Narain, about them both, and he first shook his head, and then nodded it, with a very incredulous air; and when I asked him if he thought them sincere, he said, “Oh, no!— they did these foolish things for what they could get! There were not so many as there used to be, for people did not encourage them now." He said, the few now here went, in consequence of its being Shrawun, to the Mahdeo and Sivaite temples, because, as some part of it was a great fast, such penances were more likely to be a good means of collecting alms. In the Bharut and Ramayan, Mahratta plays, that were performed here at the Dewalli sometimes, these people were often introduced "to make laughter." They called themselves Sanyassi's, but they were generally only beggars. People sometimes educated their children, he said, to this sort of life, as a trade, and taught them very curious things," by which they better imposed upon the people; such as remaining for days without food and water, charming snakes, and seeming to wound themselves with daggers, but it was "all nonsense." Now, albeit Nana Narain was a strict Brahmin,' and, as such, his criticism on devoteeism was valuable, yet, I had seen men, Sanyassi's, near Girnar, and in other of the jungles of Western India, leading the lives of anchorites, and certainly without other inducement than they derived from the approval of their consciences. I mentioned these, and Nana Narain allowed their existence. It was, he said, a part of Hindooism, and in old times was extensively practised, but not in these days; the examples were now very rare; and the imitations (part of modern corruption,) that were generally to be met with, deserved punishment, rather than encouragement, because it brought into ridicule that which was really, and originally, good. It seems, that in old times, when a man determined on a life of holiness, he was required to pass through four stages of initiation. At eight years of age, he was invested with the Brahminical cord; the first state; in the second, he studied the attributes of the deities, and that control of the universe their powers had created; in the third stage, he married, became a householder, studied the social virtues, and lived as a man of the world. In the fourth, the devotees became Sanyassi, "holy;"-they retired to the jungles, and devoted their lives to meditation; they were compelled to shave their heads, they were for bidden to live in houses; they dared neither to possess nor to use money; silk, as an article of raiment, was forbidden them; and if wearing garments at all, such were directed to be of flax, cotton being forbidden. It is right that a man should be educated, to become eventually a Sanyassi, and pass blameless through his stages of initiation; but occasionally, when the fear of death falls upon a rich man, he gives all his goods in charity, through the agency of Brahmins, and, with certain ceremonies, is made a Sanyassi, which of course is supposed to secure for him every description of blessing that the Hindoos believe can attend the transition states after death. An instance of this kind occurred but a few months ago at Nassik: A man of enormous wealth, having eaten a great many water-melons, believed himself seized with spasmodic cholera, and at the point, as he thought, of finding himself either a dog or a rajah, as the case might be; and, being anxious to ensure the latter result, he called the Brahmins, and making over to the great temple the whole of his enormous wealth, the ceremonies were performed, and the dying man admitted to the benefits of Sanyassi-ship, as completely as if, instead of making and hoarding money all his life, he had, from the tender age of eight years, been employed in works of charity. Strange to say, however, notwithstanding that pots of milk had been placed about the room, grains of rice strewn under the charpoy, strings of leaves placed over his head, and I don't know how many little images of Devi brought in, and smcared with oil in the sick man's chamber, before he thought of becoming Sanyassi, and without any effect whatever, the moment his worldly goods were willed away to that great temple with the huge silver bells, by the side of the Holy Gunga, Nature began the work of a hakeem, and the man was cured! In four-and-twenty hours he was as well as the fattest Brahmin in Nassik; but he was a Sanyassi notwithstanding. He had not one pice in the world, wherewith to go forth and buy a handful of parched grain; nor dared he beg, for this also is forbidden; so, after some struggles, he took a staff and a platter, and went forth; what the liberal gave him, that he ate; he dared not return to his house, but lay on the road-side, and as he did so, perhaps, thanked Nature little enough for her interference, for to pass away under cholera into a condition of rajahship, must be pleasanter to the imagination than to endure the reality of a Sanyassi, malgré lui, after the manner of the victim at Nassik. How the Brahmins must have chuckled as they noted him with his staff and platter, day by day, they passing by, in fine linen, to the great temple, where they had divided the spoil! devotees attract attention, who so zealously perform their ablutions in the sacred stream; while here and there we see the procession of a native prince, his elephants and horsemen, or a carrier of the sacred water, with his vessels covered with crimson cloth and circled with silver bells; or we have a string of bullocks laden with bags of human bones, to be deposited here by those who cannot afford a journey to Benares;-and the scene is strange, and full of interest; but, as we stand gazing thereon, and feeling that here, indeed, we are in the stronghold of the corruptest Brahminism, a priest from the great temple passes by;-a troop of truculent-looking sepoys follow him, with swords, and cloths as shields wrapped round their left hands; and the Brahmin himself, though he deigns not to lift his eyes, scowls horribly on the ground, and, at the moment that he passes, lifts his hand, and holds his left ear between his finger and thumb, to save him from the Evil Eye, as the shadow of a Feringee may chance to fall on him. Seeing this, the sepoys scowl also, and hold their ears, evidently longing, however, to use their swords instead, and you feel it is so, and are relieved when they have passed. We are sure that Brahmin whom we have in our mind's eye as we now write of his class, is at least a true disciple of the Dhurma Subbha! he will never yield to innovation;—he will never spare a widow, nor save a Rajpoot girl, nor forbid an aged father to bury himself alive! Not he!-the Purans are all in all to him, and he will insist upon them to the last. The city swarms with Missionaries, some able, all zealous, but they will do no good with him! Bigotry and ignorance go hand in hand in this case: "'tis not that the man is rich in argument, but that he is poor in knowledge;"-ignorant of every thing, he doubts nothing;-he asks not of the truth that is in him, but his self-sufficiency convinces him that error is everywhere else; and whether it be so or not, never gives his mind a moment's trouble on the matter, but rests as he is, satisfied with the blind homage of his hoodwinked people. It was on a fine July evening while walking on the Valade, a good raised road which saves the "flats" of Bombay from the farther encroachments of the sea, and leads by ways of pleasantness to the pretty woods of Mahim, that I suddenly perceived one who has been rather lionized of late in Bombay, the Persian prince Aga Mohamed, with his brother and some portion of his retinue. The prince was, as princes should be, of a rather portly presence, with beard and moustache equally luxuriant in growth, black and silk-like; his costume consisted of a chintz body-coat girded with a cashmere cummerbund, red satin trowsers, and one of the tallest lamb's-skin caps, probably, ever brought from Bokhara. His highness bestrode what seemed but a sorry nag, unless, indeed, like many such ap Altogether, they are a dreadful set of people, the Brahmins of Nassik. The place itself is considered as the Benares of western India, and the people per-parently pitiable looking animals in the East, unseen sist in calling the river Godavery the Gunga; and when full it is very beautiful in its several windings; and the temples that crowd its banks are handsome and picturesque; and the groups of pilgrims and qualities rendered him a very Bucephalus to the modern hero he had the honour to bear. However this may have been, the starved appearance of the nag was amply compensated by the pomp, pride, and circum |