90

HINDOO PRIVILEGES.

usual crowd of market-people and passengers. A man followed him laughing, and shaking his apron to frighten him, which the animal however to all appearance scarcely heeded. Some carrion had probably attracted him, but it is seldom that they venture to shew themselves so early and in such public places. A little further we passed a sort of Sepoy, dressed very splendidly in the native style, with a beautiful Persian gun and crooked hanjar, but no bayonet. My companion pointed him out with much glee, as one of the attendants of Baboo Budinâth 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 Chiefjustice 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 the blade join. The natives, however, like to have swords and bucklers, or musquets carried before them, and some have lately ventured to mount sen

'He was subsequently made Raja Bahadur by Lord Amherst, and by 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.

MARRIAGE PROCESSION.

91

tries 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 Heralds' 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 , (Canticles iii. 7.) which our translators render "bed" to be "litter," or "palanquin ?" It appears from what goes before that Solomon had

92

RHADACANT DEB.

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 bedsteads used (see ver. 9.) in any 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 8.-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

RHADACANT DEB.

93

thanked for "the protection and encouragement which he had afforded to the ancient and orthodox practice of widows burning themselves with their husbands' 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 shews 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, that for instance, the prohibition of particular kinds of food, and the rules 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 me several questions respecting the doc

V

94

HINDOOSTANEE PENTATEUCH.

trines 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 should be of service to him.

I have for these few days past been reading the Hindoostanee Pentateuch, with my "Moonshee," or teacher, who has never seen it before, and is highly