Vast crowds of mendicants and poor people fill the roads at the time of a large shraddhŭ for two or three days together, each of whom obtains a roopee, or half a roopee; sometimes nothing. The lower orders expend three hundred, two hundred, or one hundred roopees at a shraddhŭ. Many persons reduce themselves to beggary to procure the name of having made a great shraddhů. If a man delay this ceremony, the priest urges him repeatedly to what he calls his duty. According to the Hindoo law, a person cannot inherit an estate who has not performed the shraddhů.

The monthly shraddhŭ for the first year after the death of the parent, is upon a very small scale, and the expense is from ten roopees to twelve anas.

Beside these, there are other shraddhŭs for deceased ancestors, as, in every month at the total wane of the moon ; on the last fifteen, or ten, or five days of the moon in Bhadrů; once during the first fifteen days of the moon in Ugrŭhayŭnů; and again in the same month, in Poushu, and Maghud, on the eighth of the wane of the moon; in Voishakhŭe and Shravŭnă, on any of the first fifteen days

• Some of the mendicants come journies of four or five days.

b In this shraddhŭ the flesh of cows was formerly offered in sacrifice. In the kulee-yogŭ this is forbidden, and that of deer or goats is substi tuted.

This shraddhŭ is performed principally with herbs.

d In this shraddhů bread is chiefly used.

• Barley is the principal thing used in this shraddhů. At this time the Hindoo women scatter the husks of barley in the public roads, in imitation it is said of the mother of Růghoo-nündŭnů, compiler of a number of the smritees.

f The newly descended rain is the principal article in this shraddhů.

of the moon. At some of these times all Hindoos perform this ceremony; at other times only a few persons. The expense is trifling, as scarcely any persons are entertained at them.

SECT. XXXVIII.-Purifications.

A HINDOO becomes unclean by various circumstances, during which he is interdicted almost every religious ceremony, and forbidden to shave or cut his nails. In the act of purification the person shaves the head, bathes, and puts on clean apparel.

A Hindoo becomes unclean after the death of persons related to him by birth. If a child die before he has teeth, the family bathe immediately, and become clean; or if a child die before its ears are bored, the family remain unclean one night. If a woman miscarry, the family become impure for ten days. After a birth, all the members of the family in a direct line become unclean. A woman in her courses is unclean for three days; but on the fifth day, after bathing, she may again perform religious ceremonies. Every person is considered as in some measure unclean while in a state of sickness, and from some religious services a sick person is wholly excluded. A bramhun becomes unclean by the touch of a shōōdrů, a dog, a Mŭsŭlman, a barbarian, &c. and all casts, by touching a woman in her courses, a dead body, ordure, urine, the food of other casts, &c.

SECT. XXXIX.-Atonements for Offences.

THE ancient Hindoo laws on this subject are very numerous, and in many instances very severe and unjust. By these laws the whole property of the country was put into a state of requisition by the bramhŭns. At present, very few offences expose a person to the penalties of the canon law: among these, however, are the killing a bramhŭn, a religious mendicant, or a woman; striking a bramhŭn; killing a cow. Slight atonements are also offered by some when labouring under certain diseases, and for unintentional offences.

I here insert some extracts from the work on atonements called Prayŭshchittŭ-Nirnŭyů.-There are nine sorts of sins requiring atonements: 1. Jatee-bhrungshŭ-kůrů, in which is included the eating of onions, defrauding relations, &c. 2. Shunkurēē-kůrůnů, viz. sodomy. 3. Upatrēē-kŭrŭnů, which includes receiving presents from barbarians; bramhuns entering into trade; and bramhŭns serving shōōdrus.' 4. Mŭlavŭhů, in which is included destroying insects; eating fruit which has lain near a person who has drank spirits; excessive grief for a trifling loss; and stealing wood, fruit, or flowers. 5. Průkēērnnůků, which includes various offences against the cast. 6. Oopŭpatŭků, which includes many actions: among the rest, killing cows; becoming priest to the low casts; a person's selling himself; forsaking father, mother, sons; neglecting the védŭs, or consecrated fire; giving a daughter in marriage to a younger brother before the elder; giving a younger son in marriage

• In many places bramhuns, at present, become clerks, cooks, &c. to the higher classes of shōōdrüs.

before the elder; in the two last cases also becoming priest at the time of such marriage; usury in lending goods; not completing a vrůtů; selling a pool of water, a garden, a son, &c.; not performing any one of the sungskarŭs; forsaking a friend; obtaining instructions from a disciple; killing a woman, or a shōōdrů, a voishyů, a kshůtriyů, &c.; cutting green trees for fire-wood; neglecting to pay debts; subduing or driving away a person not an enemy by the power of incantations; denying a future state, &c. 7. Unoopatŭků, which includes many different actions, viz, a son's having intercourse with a woman who is a wife (though of another cast) to his father; adultery with an uncle's wife; with the wife of a grandfather; with an aunt by the mother's side; with the wife of a king; with a father's sister; with the wife of a shrotriyŭ bramhŭn; with the wife of a priest; with the wife of a teacher of the védŭs; with the wife of a friend; with the friend of a sister; with any woman in the line of consanguinity; with any woman of a cast superior to that of the man; with the wife of a chandalŭ; with a virgin, the daughter of a bramhŭn; with a woman while in her courses; with a woman who has embraced the life of a brůmhucharinēē. 8. Mŭhapatŭků, which includes five different offences, viz. killing bramhŭns; a bramhun's drinking spirits, or a shōōdru's intercourse with the wife of a bramhŭn; stealing gold from a bramhun to the amount of a gold mohur; adultery with the wife of a gooroo, viz. with the wife of a father, if she be of a superior cast, or if she be of the same cast. Whoever commits these actions is called mŭhapatŭkēē, and whoever lives in familiar habits with this person becomes also mŭhapatukee: this includes sleeping on the same bed; sitting together on one seat; eating together; drinking out of one cup; eating together of food cooked in one vessel; becoming priest to a mŭhapatukēē; teaching the védus to such an offender. If a

person converse with a mŭhapatŭkēē, or touch him, or if the breath of this offender fall upon him, and these familiarities be continued for twelve months, this person also becomes mŭhapatŭkēē. 9. Ütipatukŭ includes incest with a person's own mother, or daughter, or son's wife.

If a person kill a bramhăn, he must renounce life, or offer the prajapŭtyŭ atonement for twenty-four years1; or, in case of inability, he must offer 360 cows with their calves, and 100 cows as a fee; or 470 roopees, besides 24 roopees as a fee. If a person murder a bramhunee, whose husband is ignorant of the védus, the offender must perform the prajapŭtyŭ atonement for six years. This may be commuted for ninety cows and calves, or 270 kahŭnus of kourees. For murdering the wife of a kshůtriyŭ, this atonement must be repeated three years; of a voishyŭ, one year and a half; and of a shōōdrů, nine months. If the woman were with child, or in her courses, the atonement must be doubled. If a bramhŭn, or a kshůtriyů, murder a kshŭtriyŭ, the prajapŭtyŭ atonement must be repeated for three years. This may be commuted for forty-five milch cows and their calves, or 135 kahŭnus of kourees. If a bramhun,

The following is the law respecting this atonement :-The offender, for three days, is to eat, each day, only twenty-six mouthfuls of rice, clarified butter, milk, &c. boiled together; for the next three days he must eat in the evening twenty-two mouthfuls; for the next three days he is to ask for nothing, and, unless spontaneously given him, to eat nothing. If any food be given him, it must be twenty-four mouthfuls of the same kind of food as mentioned above; for the next three days he must eat nothing. If he abstain from food on those days in which he is allowed to take food if given to him, he does not commit a fault. If a person be unable to fast so long, he may make a commutation by fasting six days. If a person be not able to fast six days, he may be exempted, on making an offering of a cow and calf; or, in case of inability to do this, he may offer three kahŭnůs of kourees.