sort of spire or shrine on his head. They are used, it appears, as a sort of hatchment, being erected on the death of wealthy Hindoos, near their dwelling-houses, but, differing in this respect from hatchments, are generally suffered to remain till they fall in pieces. These are of wood. Most of the Hindoo idols are of clay, and very much resemble in composition, colouring, and execution, though of course not in form, the more paltry sort of images which are carried about in England for sale by the Lago di Como people. At certain times of the year, great numbers of these are, in fact, hawked about the streets of Calcutta in the same manner, on men's heads. This is before they have been consecrated, which takes place on their being solemnly washed in the Ganges by a Brahmin Pundit. Till this happens, they possess no sacred character, and are frequently given as toys to children, and used as ornaments of rooms, which when hallowed they could not be, without giving great offence to every Hindoo who saw them thus employed. I thought it remarkable that though most of the male deities are represented of a deep brown colour, like the natives of the country, the females are usually no less red and white than our porcelain beauties as exhibited in England. But it is evident from the expressions of most of the Indians themselves, from the style of their amatory poetry, and other circumstances, that they consider fairness as a part of beauty, and a proof of noble blood. They do not like to be called black, and though the Abyssinians, who are sometimes met with in the country,

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PORTUGUESE IN INDIA.

are very little darker than they themselves are, their jest books are full of taunts on the charcoal complexion of the "Hubshee." Much of this has probably arisen from their having been so long subjected to the Moguls, and other conquerors originally from more northern climates, and who continued to keep up the comparative fairness of their stock by frequent importation of northern beauties. India too has been always, and long before the Europeans came hither, a favourite theatre for adventurers from Persia, Greece, Tartary, Turkey, and Arabia, all white men, and all in their turn possessing themselves of wealth and power. These circumstances must have greatly contributed to make a fair complexion fashionable. It is remarkable, however, to observe how surely all these classes of men in a few generations, even without any intermarriage with the Hindoos, assume the deep olive tint, little less dark than a Negro, which seems natural to the climate. The Portuguese natives form unions among themselves alone, or if they can, with Europeans. Yet the Portuguese have, during a three hundred years' residence in India, become as black as Caffres. Surely this goes far to disprove the assertion, which is sometimes made, that climate alone is insufficient to account for the difference between the Negro and the European. It is true, that in the Negro are other peculiarities which the Indian has not, and to which the Portuguese colonist shows no system of approximation, and which undoubtedly do not appear to follow so naturally

INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE ON COMPLEXION.

69

from the climate, as that swarthiness of complexion which is the sole distinction between the Hindoo and the European. But if heat produces one change, other peculiarities of climate may produce other and additional changes, and when such peculiarities have 3 or 4000 years to operate in, it is not easy to fix any limits to their power. I am inclined after all, to suspect that our European vanity leads us astray in supposing that our own is the primitive complexion, which I should rather suppose was that of the Indian, half-way between the two extremes, and perhaps the most agreeable to the eye and instinct of the majority of the human race. A colder climate, and a constant use of clothes, may have blanched the skin as effectually as a burning sun and nakedness may have tanned it, and I am encouraged in this hypothesis by observing that of animals the natural colours are generally dusky and uniform, while whiteness and a variety of tint almost invariably follow domestication, shelter from the elements, and a mixed and unnatural diet. Thus while hardship, additional exposure, a greater degree of heat, and other circumstances with which we are unacquainted, may have deteriorated the Hindoo into a Negro, opposite causes may have changed him into the progressively lighter tints of the Chinese, the Persian, the Turk, the Russian, and the Englishman.

My wife and little girl having returned from their cruise to the Sandheads much benefited by the change of air, we went on the 7th of January,

70

FIRE-WORKS AT SERAMPOOR.

1824, to Titty-ghur, a convenient and comfortable house, in a beautiful situation, most kindly lent to us for a couple of months, by Dr. Wallich. It is on the banks of the river, about two miles from Barrackpoor, and in the middle of the Company's experimental botanic garden. The weather is now very delightful, and we are comparatively free from the dense fogs which at this season beset Calcutta and Chowringhee.

On the 10th of January there was a display of fire-works at Serampoor, in honour of the patron saint at the Roman Catholic chapel, which we saw to great advantage from our bholiah, stationed opposite to it on the river. They were, we were told, procured from China by one of the Roman Catholic Portuguese merchants. I thought them very good, and the forms of most of them were new to me. One was a striking imitation of the foliage of a tuft of bamboos, being, in fact, really a cluster of long and slender bamboos, with fireworks affixed to them, which very beautifully gave the effect of the graceful curve of that elegant plant, and even the form of its leaves. There was also another, a sort of Roman candle, which sent up flames, in shape and action, as well as the noise they emitted, not unlike large pigeons, and therefore called Chinese doves. A great crowd of boats and people were on the river to see these fire-works, which are a very popular exhibition with the lower orders.

Returning one day from Calcutta, I passed by two funeral piles, the one preparing for a single

person, the other nearly consumed, on which a Suttee had just taken place. For this latter purpose a stage had been constructed of bamboos about eighteen inches or two feet above the ground, on which the dead body had been laid, and under which, as my native servants told me, the unhappy widow had been stretched out, surrounded with combustibles. Only a heap of glowing embers was now seen here, besides two long bamboos, which seemed intended to keep down any struggles which nature might force from her. On the stage was what seemed a large bundle of coarse cotton cloth, smoking, and partially blackened, emitting a very offensive smell. This my servants said was the husband's body. The woman they expressly affirmed had been laid below it, and ghee poured over her to hasten her end, and they also said the bamboos had been laid across her. I notice these particulars, because they differ from the account of a similar and recent ceremony, given by the Baptist Missionaries, in which it is said that the widow is laid by the side of her husband, on the platform, with her arm embracing him, and her face turned to him. Here I asked repeatedly, and received a different account. Yet the Missionaries have had every possible opportunity of learning, if not of actually witnessing, all the particulars of the ceremony which they describe. Perhaps these particulars vary in different instances. At all events it is a proof how hard it is to gain, in this country, accurate information as to facts which seem most obvious to the senses. I felt very sick at heart, and