confideration, rain was always an evil, and that it would be a happy circumstance were it never to rain. A maxim of this kind from a race of men, in other refpects really endued with fome degree of fenfe, and frequently with no fmall fhare of penetration and cunning, ought, methinks, to be confidered as an indelible religious or fuperftitious notion entertained by them from their infancy, rather than as an idea taken up on due deliberation and confequent conviction. At the fame time, though they did not appear to be of a very chilly nature, they never fhewed the leaft figns of being difpleafed with the botteft days of fummer. "The more fimple of every race of Hottentots, or the common run of them, from which number very few deserve to be excepted, have fo firm a confidence in fuch cheats of either fex, as fet up for magicians and conjurors, that they even fometimes folicit thefe people to put a ftop to the thunder and rain. Though the Hottentots are fo fuperftitious, yet they are not, as far as I know, in the least afraid of being in the dark. They feem, however, to have fome idea of fpirits, and a belief in a future ftate, as they accost their friends as foon as they are dead with reproaches for leaving them fo foon; at the fame time, admonishing them henceforth to demean themfelves properly; by which they mean, that their deceafed friends fhould not come back again to haunt them, nor allow themselves to be made use of by wizards, to bring any mifchief on those that furvive them. "There is a genus of infects (the mantis), called by the colonifts the Hottentot's god; but fo far are they from worfhipping these infects, that they have more than once catched fome of them, and given them me to stick needles through them, by way of preferving them, as I did with other infects. There is, however, a diminutive fpecies of this genus of infects, which fome think it would be a crime, as well as very dangerous, to do any harm to; bur this we have no more reafon to look upon as a kind of religious wor fhip, than we have to confider in the fame light, a certain fuperftitious notion prevalent among many of the more fimple people in our own country, who imagine, that three fins will be forgiven them, if they fet a cock-chafer on its feet that has happened to have fallen upon its back. "The moon, according to Kolbe, receives a kind of adoration from the Hottentots. But the fact is. that they merely take the opportunity of her beams, and at the fame time of the coolness of the night, to amuse themselves with dancing; and confequently, have no more thoughts of worshipping her than the Chriftian colonists, who are seen at the fame time strolling in great numbers about the fireets, and pa rading on the stone steps with which their houfes are ufually encircled." The The MANNER in which the HINDOOS treat their WOMEN, [From Mr. SULLIVAN's Philosophical Rhapsodies. ] Tis not eafily reconcileable to drefs herfelf in jewels and fine ple boafting of fome refinement, as the Hindoos may justly do, fhould in the most public manner be guilty of every fpecies of indelicacy to their females. Many nations have the custom of immurring their women; but the Hindoos are fingular, I think, in the groffness of their ordinances relative to them. "A woman," fay they in their code of laws, "is never fatisfied with man -no more than fire is fatisfied with burning fuel, or the main ocean with receiving the rivers, or the empire of death with the dying of men and animals. She has fix qualities: the firft, an inordinate defire of jewels and fine furniture, handfome cloaths, and nice victuals; the fecond, immoderate luft; the third, violent anger; the fourth, deep refentment; the fifth, the good of others appears evil in her eyes; the fixth, the is invariably addicted to bad actions. For thefe reafons, it is evident, the Creator formed her for no other purpofe than that children might be born from her.""A wife fhall not," continue they, growing with the fubject," a wife fhall not difcourfe with a stranger; but she may converfe with a Sinaffee (a wandering prieft), a hermit, or an old man. She fhall not laugh without drawing the veil before her face. She fhall not eat (unless it be phyfic) until the has ferved her husband and her guests with victuals. She shall not, while her hufband is on a journey, divert herfelf by play, nor fhall fee any public fhow, nor fhall laugh, nor fhall hear mufic, nor fhall fit in the window, nor fhail ride out, nor fhall behold any thing rare; but the fhall faften well the door of the house, and remain private; and fhall not eat any dainty victuals, and fhall not blacken her eyes with eye powder, and fhall not view her face in a mirror: fhe fhall never exercife herself in any fuch agreeable employment during the absence of her husband.” "After these tender dogmas, with refpect to unhappy woman-who fhould be nourished like unto the ewe lamb-who fhould grow up with her husband and with his children-who fhould eat of his own meat and drink of his own cup, and lay in his bofom, and be unto him as a fecond daughter: after thefe tender dogmas, the hoary-headed Brahmins, whom the frost of age must have rendered cal lous to all the finer difpofitions of the foul, in the excefs of their wif dom, and parental care, farther more ordained, "That a man, both night and day, fhould keep his wife in fuch fubjection, that the should never be the mistress of her own actions; for fhould fhe have her will, though fprung from a fuperior caft, fhe yet would go aftray." "When fentiments, fuch as thefe, could prevail, when they could formally be interwoven with the laws of the land, conjecture would naturally lead one to conclude, that the brutal fubordination would be carried a step farther; that an abfolute authority with refpect to the lives of women would have been granted; at leaf, that the privilege of cafting them afide would have have been allowed, when no longer captivating, or when the love of variety might urge their lords to feek enjoyment in the company of others. But the laws of the Brahmins, we will do them justice, have been more generous in this refpect. No man is permitted to repudiate his wife at pleasure. Even "fhould a calamity happen to any perfon, he may not give away his wife to another man, without that wife's confent: if the is willing, he then, indeed, has power to give her away." "It is fomewhat ftrange, notwithstanding all this feverity of difpofition, all this contemptuous treatment of the women of Hindoftan, that the men are aftonifh ingly conftant to their wives; that the women are remarkably chafte; and that adultery is a crime feldom to be heard of among them. As there is no country, however, where fuch a general pofition can unexceptionably be admitted, fo in Hindolan it has been ordained, that "if the wife of a Brahmin, by her own confent, fhall commit adultery with a Sooder, the magiftrate fhall cut off the hair of her head, anoint her body with ghee (butter), and caufe her to be led through the whole city naked, and riding upon an afs, and cast her out on the north fide of the city, or caufe her to be eaten by dogs," "But as human nature is every where the fame, and as pallion is too often paramount to reafon, the intercourfe of the fexes in Hindoftan is probably as general and as well understood as in any other part of the world. The blood freezes not in the neighbourhood of the equator. There is a tribe of people in Hindoftan, who, in appear ance, anfwer the defcription of Elijah the Tifhbite, "who was an hairy man, and girt with a girdle about his loins," who are prefcribed continence and mortification. But I fhrewdly fufpect thefe holy men, thefe fenaffees, or wandering faints, that they do more good towards keeping up the population of the East than the poor husbands imagine, who charitably admit them into their houfes. The droves in which they travel through Hindoftan are inconceivable: many thoufands of them may be feen at a time, all of them athletic fellows, and none of them over bafhful. "I will not repeat to you, what I know you must have heard, of the practice of the fenaffee to leave his flipper or his ftaff at the door, when he is at prayers with the lady of the houfe. The fact, however, I believe to be as it is reprefented; and I believe it to be farthermore expected by the elect of Brahma, that on fight of that fignal, the hufband is not to interrupt the pair at their devotions. But the fenaffees, though infinitely esteemed, are not exclufively warranted to plume themfelves on the favour of the ladies: they have fellow-labourers in the vineyard. There is a caft of people on the Malabar fide of India, called Naïres, who, it it faid, are allowed to claim a privilege of gallantry; a privilege fuperior even to that of the fenaffees; for what the latter procure by ftealth and impofition, the Naïres, infift upon as a right inherent in their tribe. From thefe circumftances, therefore, whatever the renure by which the intercourfe is held, it may naturally be concluded, the Hindoos are not outrageoufly virtuous; but that the men and women are of much the fame complexion with those of other climates." The ed on the orders he had received, and the mirza rofe to indicate how near they might approach, to which limits this curious company foon came. I did not fail to meet, in order to obferve them the nearer, and procure myfelf the pleasure of being acquainted with thefe good folks. When I came within a certain distance, they all rofe, and the moft remarkable of them, to whom I addreffed myself, faluted me by taking off his bonnet, and inclining his body. "The fame ceremony had been obferved, by their deputy, to the mirza, at which I was the more furprifed, because the Turks never uncover the head, except for their own ease; and that, when they are alone, or in company with their moft intimate friends. It is for this reafon that European ambaffadors, and their attendants, go to the audiences of the grand feignior with their heads covered; for, to prefent themfelves otherwife before a Turk, would be a want of refpect. I fhall have other more important remarks to make relative to the fimilarity of customs between us and the Tar tars. "The little information I gained from my Noguais, was owing, no doubt, to the want of afking them proper questions. The fatisfaction, however, which novelty always brings, made the clofe of this day agreeable enough. I reconciled my felf very well to my fupper; but as to my people, Tartarian cookery owed all its fuccefs with them to their great hunger, which finds every thing good. They underflood not the doctrine of amufing themfelves with their wants, and I was apparently the object of their lamentations. But I perceived they only wifhed my perfonal eafe, that they might acquire the right of freely bewailing their own individual privations. By faring as they did only could I filence them; and I give this receipt to all travellers, as the best they can follow. "No people are more abfemious: millet and mare's milk are their habitual food, and yet they are exceedingly carnivorous. A Noguais might wager that he would eat a whole fheep, and gain his bet, without danger of indigeftion. But their appetites are retrained by their avarice, which is fo great, that they generally debar themieives of every thing they can fell. If any accident kill one of their cattle, they then, only, regale upon his fleth; and this not unless they find it time enough to bleed the dead animal. They follow this precept of Mahomet, likewife, with refpect to bears that are distempered: they carefully obferve each stage of the difeafe, that they may feize the moment when, their avarice condemned to lofe the value of the beast, their appetite may fill afford them fome confolation, by killing it an instant before its natural death. "The fairs of Balta, and others eftablished on their frontiers, are the emporiums to which they annually bring their immenfe flocks and herds. The corn they grow in fuch abundance, finds a ready vent by the Black Sea, as well as their fleeces, whether they confift of the whole produce of their flocks, or only the pelades. To thefe objects of commerce are added fome bad hides, and great quantity of haresfkins. "Thefe different articles, united, annually produce the Tartars confiderable fums, which they only receive in ducats of gold, Dutch or Venetian: but the ufe they make of thefe annihilates every idea of wealth, which fuch numerical enor declared neceffary, for cleanlinefs to thofe in the neighbourhood of rivers-for internal purification to those who might refide at a greater distance. But this was still found inadequate to Brahminical defires. Impofition had gone abroad-the root was deeply taken; and hence the clay even of the beds of rivers was capable of being turned to tolerable account. The clay, therefore, was brought into ufe; and it ftill continues as a moft neceflary ingredient in many of their religious ceremonies. "The Ganges, as the largest, has always been confidered as the moft holy river in Hindoftan. Thofe who bathe in it, are peculiarly fanctified ever after; and as a type of it, are marked on the forehead with a yellow mixture. The water itself is fent in jars, fealed by the Brahmins, all over the peninfula of India, and fold at an enormous price. Hindoo princes, living at many thousand miles diftance, will drink no other, though the carriage of it costs them prodigious fums of money. "The most extraordinary infance, however, of fenfelefs fuperition in the Hindoos, relative to this element, is in that monstrous, that inhuman custom, of expofing their fick by the fides of rivers, there to die. It is not uncommon for them even to ftuff the mouths and noftrils of the difeafed with the mud of the banks, (Hindoo extreme unction!) that a speedier period may be put to their exilence. But can any thing be more barbarous? Conceive an aged, or an infirm being, borne down to low-wa 1785. ter-mark on a pallet, probably not bereft of fenfe or reafon, and there left to be washed away by the return of the tide, or to be destroyed by the first ravenous crocodile or tyger! Think not I here exagge rate. The fact is incontestable. L have known inftances of it myself. Nay, a very few years only have clapfed fince an opulent, and a most reputable Hindoo, at the English fettlement of Calcutta, in Bengal, was twice refcued from the jaws of death by a gentleman who was his friend, and who forcibly dragged him from his relations, who, at his own exprefs command, had carried him on his funeral bier, and had firetched him out, to await an inevitable death on the fhores of the Ganges! "A practice among the Tartars, fomewhat fimilar, and another among the Americans, have already occurred to us. I do not recollect many other fuch fhocking blots in the human character. The Troglodyte, indeed, when either age or infirmities had made life uneafy to him, or when he had become ufelefs to fociety, feldom declined voluntarily putting an end to his exiftence; or if he did, a friend was allowed to whisper to him the law of his tribe which enjoined it. If he then behaved well, the previous omiffion was forgiven, and his name was enrolled with the rest of his countrymen : but, on the contrary, if he hesitated at the blow, the brand of coward was ftamped upon his character; he was ftrangled by his companions, and left by them to rot, with his memory, in infamy and difgrace." |