90 MARRIAGE PROCESSION. Roy,* who lives in this neighbourhood, and has a menagerie of animals and birds only inferior to that at Barrackpoor. This privilege of being attended by armed men is one greatly coveted by the wealthy natives of India, but only conceded to the highest ranks. Among the Europeans no person now claims it in Calcutta, save the chief-justice and the commander-in-chief, each of whom is attended in public, besides his silver sticks, by four or five spears, very elegantly worked, the poles of silver, and the blades generally gilt, with a place for the hand covered with crimson velvet, and a fringe of the same colour where the staff and blade join. The natives, however, like to have swords and bucklers, or muskets carried before them, and some have lately ventured to mount sentries at their gates, equipped very nearly like the regular troops in the pay of Government. One of these the Baboo soon afterwards pointed out to me, at the great house of the Mullich family, near the entrance of Calcutta. I had afterwards however reason to know that this was without permission, and that Rooplaul Mullich got severely censured for it by the Persian secretary, whose functions extend to the regulation of precedence among the natives throughout India, and indeed to many of the duties of our Herald's College. March 5, Friday.-This evening I preached the first of a course of Lent Lectures on the Sermon on the Mount. Unfortunately I have all these to write de novo, my books and papers being as yet inaccessible, and I have very little time for either reading or composition. I must however do my best. The church was extremely well attended, far indeed beyond my expectations. In our way there we passed a marriage procession. The sort of palanquin in which the bridegroom was carried was according to the old Indian fashion, much handsomer than that now in use, but probably not so convenient. The vehicle of the bride was a common mehannah palanquin, closed up, and looking like a coffin. The number of torches carried before and on every side of the bridegroom was a practical illustration of the glorious simile of the rising sun in the Psalms. By the way ought not the word on, (Canticles iii. 7.) which our translators render" bed," to be "litter," or "palanquin?" It appears from what before that Solomon had made a journey in it-" coming up from the wilderness like pillars of smoke," with all the dust of his bearers round him, and escorted by 70 warriors during his nightly journey. Nor are four-post beadsteads used (see ver. 9.) in any goes * He was subsequently made Rajah Bahadur by Lord Amherst, and to his munificent donation of 20,000 S. rupees, is the erection of the Central School for the education of native females in Calcutta, mainly to be attributed. Other charitable institutions are likewise largely indebted to his liberality.-ED. part of the East. "Pereant qui nostra ante nos!" I find the same thought in Harmer, though in the midst of so much nonsense, that I am almost ashamed of my own conjecture. I believe it, however, to be right, though it has got into bad company. March 3.-I had an interesting visit this morning from Rhadacant Deb, the son of a man of large fortune, and some rank and consequence in Calcutta, whose carriage, silver sticks, and attendants, were altogether the smartest I had yet seen in India. He is a young man of pleasing countenance and manners, speaks English well, and has read many of our popular authors, particularly historical and geographical. He lives a good deal with Europeans, and has been very laudably active and liberal in forwarding, both by money and exertions, the education of his countrymen. He is secretary, gratuitously, to the Calcutta School Society, and has himself published some elementary works in Bengalee. With all this he is believed to be a great bigot in the religion of his country's gods-one of the few sincere ones, it is said, among the present race of wealthy Baboos. When the meeting was held by the Hindoo gentlemen of Calcutta, to vote an address of thanks to Lord Hastings on his leaving Bengal, Rhadacant Deb proposed as an amendment that Lord Hastings should be particularly thanked for "the protection and encouragement which he had afforded to the ancient and orthodox practice of widows burning themselves with their husband's bodies"-a proposal which was seconded by Hurree Mohun Thakoor, another wealthy Baboo. It was lost, however, the cry of the meeting, though all Hindoos, being decidedly against it. But it shows the warmth of Rhadacant Deb's prejudices. With all this I found him a pleasing man, not unwilling to converse on religious topics, and perhaps even liking to do so from a consciousness that he was a shrewd reasoner, and from anxiety, which he expressed strongly, to vindicate his creed in the estimation of foreigners. He complained that his countrymen had been much misrepresented, that many of their observances were misunderstood both by Europeans and the vulgar in India, and that for instance, the prohibition of particular kinds of food, and the rule of caste, had a spiritual meaning, and were intended to act as constant mementos of the duties of temperance, humanity, abstraction from the world, &c. He admitted the beauty of the Christian morality readily enough, but urged that it did not suit the people of Hindostan; and that our drinking wine, and eating the flesh of so useful and excellent a creature as the cow, would, in India, be not only shocking, but very unwholesome. I said that nobody among us was required to eat beef if he did not like it. He however shook his head, and said that the vulgar of India would eat beef readily enough if they were allowed to do so. He asked 92 HINDOOSTANEE PENTATEUCH. me several questions respecting the doctrines of the Church of England, on which I hope I gave him satisfactory information, (preferring to remove his prejudices against us, rather than to make any direct attack on his own principles). His greatest curiosity, however, was about the Free-masons, who had lately been going in solemn procession to lay the first stone of the new Hindoo College. "Were they Christians?" "Were they of my Church?" He could not understand that this bond of union was purely civil, convivial, or benevolent, seeing they made so much use of prayer; and was greatly surprised when I said, that in Europe both Christians and Mussulmans belonged to the society; and that of the gentlemen whom he had seen the other day, some went to the Cathedral, and some to Dr. Bryce's church. He did not, indeed, understand that between Dr. Bryce and the other chaplains any difference existed; and I had no desire, on finding this, to carry my explanations on this point further. He asked, at length, "if I was a mason?" "If I knew their secret?" "If I could guess it?" "If I thought it was any thing wicked or Jacobinical?" I answered, that I was no mason; and took care to express my conviction that the secret, if there was any, was perfectly harmless; and we parted very good friends, with mutual expressions of anxiety to meet again. Greatly indeed should I rejoice, if any thing which I can say would be of service to him. I have for these few years past been reading the Hindoostanee Pentateuch, with my "Moonshee," or teacher, who has never seen it before, and is highly delighted with its beauty and eloquence, particularly with the account of Paradise, the flood, and the fall of man. "It must have been a delightful place," said he, when reading of Eden and its four rivers. He asked me many and some very interesting questions, and I began almost to hope that what I had the opportunity of saying to him, would, joined to the excellence of the Scriptures themselves, have gradually some effect, when one day he manifested a jealousy of the superiority of our Scriptures over those of his countrymen, and brought me a book, which he assured me greatly resembled the work of Moses, begging me to read it, which I readily promised. It was a translation into English of the "Supta Sati," a portion of the "Marcumdeya Purana," and recounts the exploits of a certain goddess, named "Maha-Maya," (Great Delusion,) produced by the combined energies of all the deities united, in order to defeat the demons and giants. Some parts of it are not unlike the most inflated descriptions in the Edda; and though a strange rhapsody, it is not devoid of spirit. But it has not the most distant approach to any moral lesson, or to any practical wisdom. The translator is a Brahmin from Madras, now in Calcutta soliciting subscriptions for the sufferers by famine on the Coromandel coast. He called on me the other day for this purpose; for which also he had contrived to assemble a numerous meeting of wealthy natives, an event so unusual as to excite much surprise among those Europeans whom I have heard mention it. None of the sums subscribed were very large, but it is a new thing to see a charitable feeling of this kind awakened among them. I felt myself bound to subscribe, if it were only to show them that in such undertakings Christians would gladly co-operate with them, and even entrust their money to their distribution. On talking, however, with one of the most liberal of the subscribers, (Vomanundun Thakoor,) I found they had not the same confidence in each other which I placed in them. "Ramaswani Pundit," he said, "may be a very good man, but I took care at the meeting that all the money subscribed should be lodged with the house of Palmer and Co., and distributed at Madras by the English committee there. I do not know the Madras Pundits-but I know that Europe gentlemen have character to lose." The external meanness of all the shops, depositories, and warehouses in this great city is surprising. The bazars are wretchedness itself, without any approach to those covered walks, which are the chief glory of the cities of Turkey, Russia, and Persia, and which, in a climate like this, where both the sun and the rains are intolerable, would be more than any where else desirable. Yet I have read magnificent accounts of the shops and bazars of Calcutta. But they were in the same authors who talk of the picturesque appearance of its "Minarets," whereas there is absolutely no single minaret in Calcutta ; nor, so far as I have seen or heard, in any of its neighbouring towns. Hamilton's book, where this is mentioned, is generally regarded as very correct. How could such a mistake occur in a matter, of all others, the most obvious to the eye? There are many small mosques, indeed, but the Muezzins all stand at the door, or on some small eminence adjoining. Minarets there are none. Perhaps he confounded the church and steeple, and supposed that mosque and minaret were synonymous. But none of the mosques are seen in any general view of Calcutta, being too small, too low, and built in too obscure corners to be visible, till one is close upon them. They rather, indeed, resemble the tombs of saints, than places for public worship, such as are seen in Turkey, Persia, and the south of Russia. Though diminutive, however, many of them are pretty, and the sort of eastern gothic style in which they are built, is to my eye, though trained up to reverence the pure English style, extremely pleasing. They consist generally of a parallelogram of about thirty-six feet by twelve, or hardly so much, surmounted by three little domes, the apex of each terminated by a 94 FESTIVAL OF CHURRUCK POOJAH. flower, with small but richly ornamented pinnacles in the angles. The faces of the building are covered with a good deal of Arabesque tracery, and pierced with a small door, of gothic form, in the centre of one of the longest faces, and a small window, of almost similar form, on each side. Opposite to the door, which opens eastward, and on the western side, is a small recess, which serves to enshrine the Koran, and to direct the eyes of the faithful. to the "Kibla" of Mecca. The taste of these little oratories is better than their materials, which are unfortunately, in this part of India, nothing but brick covered with plaster while they last, however, they are really great ornaments to the lanes and villages where they occur, and might furnish some advantageous hints, I think, to the Christian architects of India. March 25.-Our friends, Mr. and Mrs. Stowe, arrived, well, and in good spirits, after a very tedious voyage. April 9.-The Hindoo festival of "Churruck Poojah" commenced to-day, of which, as my wife has given an account in her journal,* I shall only add a few particulars. * One of the Hindoo festivals in honour of the goddess Kali commenced this evening. Near the river a crowd was assembled round a stage of bamboos, 15 feet high, composed of two upright, and three horizontal poles, which last were placed at about five feet asunder. On this kind of ladder several men mounted, with large bags, out of which they threw down various articles to the by-standers, who caught them with great eagerness; but I was too far off to ascertain what they were. They then one by one raised their joined hands over their heads, and threw themselves down with a force which must have proved fatal had not their fall been broken by some means or other. The crowd was too dense to allow of my discovering how this was effected; but it is certain they were unhurt, as they immediately re-ascended, and performed the same ceremonies many times. On the 10th we were awakened before day-break, by the discordant sounds of native musical instruments, and immediately mounted our horses, and rode. to the Meidan. As the morning advanced we could see an immense crowd coming down the Chowringhee road, which was augmented by persons joining it from all the streets and lanes of the city. We entered the crowd, taking the precaution of making the saees walk close by my horse's head, who was frightened at the music, dancing, and glare of torches, accompanied at intervals by the deep sound of the gong. "The double double peal of the drum was there, In the midst of this crowd walked and danced the miserable fanatics, torturing themselves in the most horrible manner, and each surrounded by his own particular band of admirers, with music and torches. ***** Their countenances denoted suffering, but they evidently gloried in their patient endurance, and probably were supported by the assurance that they were expiating the sins of the past year by suffering voluntarily, and without a groan, this agony. We had considerable difficulty in making our way through the crowd; but when we had arrived at a short distance from the scene of action, the coup d'œil was beautifully picturesque, and forcibly reminded me of an English race-course: |