6. Mother's brothers; 7. Father's sisters; 8. Mother's sisters; 9. Sisters and brothers; 10. Fathers-in-law.

An eleventh person is sometimes added, viz. the family spiritual teacher (guru).

Let no one suppose that the process of performing Śrāddhas at Gaya is either simple or rapid. To secure the complete efficacy of such rites, a whole round of them must be performed at about fifty distinct places in and around Gaya, besides at the most holy spot of all-the Vishņupada temple-the time occupied in the process being at least eight days, and sometimes protracted to fifteen, while the money spent in fees to the officiating priests (who at Gaya are called Gaywals=Gaya-pālas, regarded by some as an inferior order of Brahmans) is never less than Rs. 40. But only the poorest are let off thus easily. The Mahārāja of Kaśmir, who is a very strict Hindu, and performed Śraddhas at Gaya the other day on his way to Calcutta, is reported to have distributed Rs. 15,000 to the Gaywal Brahmans.

With regard to the Śraddhas I myself witnessed at Gayā, they were all performed in colonnades and open courts round the Vishnu-pada temple. One example will suffice. The party celebrating the rite consisted of six men, who were of course relations, and one Gaywal. The men sat on their heels in a line, with the officiating Gaywal (sometimes called Panda) priest at their head. Twelve pindas were formed of rice and milk, not much larger than the large marbles used by boys (called 'alleys'). They were placed with sprigs of the sacred Tulsi plant in small earthenware platters. Then on the top of the pindas were scattered kuśa grass and flowers. I was told that the pindas in the present case were typical of the bodies of the twelve ancestors for whom the Śraddha was celebrated. The men had kuśa grass twisted round their fingers, in token of their hands being perfectly pure for the due performance of the rite. Next, water was poured into the palms of their hands, part of which they sprinkled on the

ground, and part on the pindas. One or two of the men then took threads off their clothes and laid them on the pindas, which act is alleged to be emblematical of presenting the bodies of their departed ancestors with garments.

Meanwhile Mantras, or texts, were repeated, under the direction of the Gaywal, and the hands were sometimes extended over the pindas as if to invoke blessings. When all the Mantras were finished, and one or two added to pray for pardon if any minute point in the ritual had been omitted, the whole rite was concluded by the men putting their heads to the ground before the officiating Brahman and touching his feet. Of course the number of pindas varies with the number of ancestors for whom the Śraddhas are celebrated, and the size of the balls and the materials of which they are composed differ according to the caste and the country of those who perform the rite. I saw one party in the act of forming fourteen or fifteen pindas with oatmeal, which were of a much larger size than large marbles. This party was said to have come from the Dekhan. Sometimes the pindas were placed on betelleaves with pieces of money (afterwards appropriated by the priests), and sometimes the water used was gradually taken out of little pots by dipping stalks of kusa grass into the fluid, and sprinkling it over the balls. At the end of all the ceremonies the earthen platters employed were carried to a particular stone in the precincts of the temple and dashed to pieces there. No platter is allowed to be used a second time.

Amid this crash of broken crockery, the tedious round of rites, ceremonies, and vain repetitions, which, if they effect nothing else, certainly serve to enrich a goodly company of Brahmans, is perhaps not inappropriately concluded.

INDIAN ROSARIES1.

ROSARIES seem to be common in nearly all religious systems which attach more importance to the repetition, than to the spirituality, of prayers. It might be supposed, à priori, that to no one would a rosary be more useless and meaningless than to a Christian, who is taught when he prays to enter into his closet, to avoid vain repetitions, to pour out his heart before his Father in secret, and to cultivate spiritual intercessions which cannot be uttered.' Yet we know that in some Christian countries rosaries are regarded as indispensable aids to devotion. Palladius, who lived in the fourth century, tells of a certain abbot who used to repeat the Lord's prayer 300 times every day, and who secured a correct enumeration of the repetitions by dropping small pebbles into his lap.

The Kuran enjoins prayers five times a day, and good Muslims are very particular in going through prescribed forms morning, noon, and evening. It cannot, therefore, be matter of wonder that the use of rosaries (called tasbih, 'praise,' and furnished with tassels called shamsa) is common among Indian Muhammadans. In all probability they were common among Hindus and Buddhists long before the Christian era. Indeed, the Indian name for a rosary well expresses its meaning and use even in Roman Catholic countries. It is called in Sanskrit japa-mālā, 'mutteringchaplet' (and sometimes smaraṇī, 'remembrancer'), because

1 This article and that on Samadh appeared first in the Athenæum.

by means of its beads the muttering of a definite number of prayers may be counted. But the pious Hindu not only computes his daily prayers as if they were so many rupees to be added to his capital stock in the bank of heaven, he sets himself to repeat the mere names of his favourite god, and will continue doing so for hours together.

When I was at Benares, I went early one morning to inspect the temple of the goddess Anna-pūrṇā. A devotee was seated at the door, with a rosary in his hand, muttering ‘Rām, Rām, Rām' incessantly. When I had occasion to pass by a long time afterwards, I found him seated in precisely the same position, and engaged in precisely the same occupation, except that instead of repeating the god's name he prefixed to it that of his wife Sita. I have no doubt that the whole day was divided between Rām and Sītā-ram, and an accurate account kept of the total number of repetitions.

In this respect Hinduism is behind the most corrupt forms of Christianity. It has been calculated that about ninety names and attributes are applied to Christ in the Bible. But no Romanist, however ignorant and superstitious, so far as I know, attaches any merit or efficacy to the repetition of the mere names of God.

Muhammadans reckon ninety-nine sacred names, or rather attributes, of the Deity. Some consider that the principal name, Allah, must be counted separately. The tale is thus brought up to one hundred. I saw only ninety-nine names carved on Akbar's marble tomb near Agra, Akbar, 'the Great One,' being one of the ninetynine. (See note at the end of this chapter.)

The voracious appetite of a Hindu in any matter connected with religious superstition far outdoes that of any other nation on earth. If one hundred titles of the Deity will satisfy the piety of an earnest-minded Muslim, nothing short of that number multiplied by ten will slake the devotional cravings of an ardent Hindu. The worshippers of Vishnu adore him by 1,000 sacred

names, and the votaries of Siva by 1,008 names. The whole catalogue is given in the Maha-bharata and the Purānas.

Curiously enough among the names of Śiva occur Haya, 'a horse,' and Gardabha, an ass' (Mahā-bhārata XIII. 1149), which the Vedantist has no difficulty in accepting as suitable titles of the One universal Being with whom the god Śiva and every existing thing in the universe is identified.

It is not unreasonable to conjecture that the original invention of rosaries is due to India. They were as much the offspring of necessity as was the invention of the Sūtras, or brief memorial rules for the correct performance of the complicated ritual. No other country in the world stands in such need of aids to religious exercises. Vaishnavas, Saivas, Buddhists, Jains, and Muhammadans depend upon these contrivances for securing the accurate discharge of their daily round of interminable repetitions.

The rosary of a Vaishnava is made of the wood of the Tulasi (vulgarly Tulsi), or holy basil, a shrub sacred to Vishnu, and regarded as a metamorphosis of Rama's pattern-wife Sitā. This rosary should consist of 108 smooth beads. That worn by Saivas consists of thirty-two and sometimes sixty-four berries of the Rudraksha tree (Elæocarpus). These seeds are as rough as the Tulsi beads are smooth, and are generally marked with five lines, the roughness symbolizing, I suspect, the austerities connected with the worship of Śiva, and the five lines standing for the five faces or five distinct aspects of the god.

The Musalman tasbih contains one hundred beads, which are generally made of date-stones, or of the sacred earth of Karbala. They are used in repeating the hundred names of God or certain words of the Kuran, every decade of beads being separated by a tassel. Some Sunnis are prohibited from employing rosaries, and count by means of the joints of their fingers.

It might be wearisome if I were to attempt a description