forth, with his fore-feet tied, to a stake at a short distance, amidst the shouts of the groupe before me, who screamed with delight. As soon as it was bound, two or three persons began to torture it, which they did by putting the tail in their mouths, and tearing off the flesh with their teeth. While they were doing this, the Manjie brought a young pig, and killed it near the divinity of the village (in honour of whom the sacrifice was observed), who was represented under the figure of three unformed black stones. A young man then brought a bamboo tray, having on it Indian corn, boiled rice, and flour, and a vessel of water, with which he washed the stones and the ground about them, and sprinkled a fresh green bough, which a few minutes before had been fastened in the ground beside it. He then took the kudoom, a sacred stool, and placed it on the stones; and, mixing the flour with water in a small brass cup, smeared it over the stool, the idol, and on the ground about it, and the green bough, and in like manner strewed the rice and Indian corn. The Manjie now arose; and, dashing a vessel in his hand violently on the ground, took a sword, and going up to the victim, with one blow cut its ham-strings, and brought it to the ground. They now loosed it from the stake, and dragged it toward the shrine, when the parties commenced cutting at the neck with their swords. I never before saw a sight so barbarous: for a long time, while they continued cutting at it, it struggled and forced itself round the shrine, till at last, exhausted from loss of blood, it fell down, and suffered its butchers to hack away. When the head was separated, they placed it before their god; and a young man took up some of the blood in his hands, and sprinkled it over the sacred stool and branch, and also threw some on the bystanders. The persons possessed of evil spirits came forward at the same time, and caught up some of the blood, which they seemed to drink with eagerness. "This horrid sight appeared to give them the greatest pleasure: and I am almost inclined to think, that they have these sights to gratify a barbarous inclination, as much as to conciliate the favour of their gods; for they never could have allowed themselves to put a creature to so much torture, if they had not been gratified in doing it. I should observe, that just as the animal was about to be killed, the people before me began dancing, leaping, and running about; making a noise like the barking of a dog, and crying out 'kaso! kaso!' (blood! blood!) The people of the village, and those present from neighbouring ones, were more or less intoxicated, without exception of age or sex. In the party before me were six women, who, though but just able to stand, were keeping up the dance; and poor little children, for whom I felt most, as they seemed the most hopeful part of the assemblage, were instructed to practise all the excesses of their elders. My good little boys and Chand kept close to my side all the time; and when I came away, they followed me, without a wish to stay behind." * The Hill country, Bishop Heber was informed, "is very beautiful and naturally fertile; but, in many parts of it, there is a great scarcity of water; a want which the people urge as an excuse for their neglect of bathing. As so much rain falls, this might, and would by a civilized people, be remedied ; but the Puharrees neither make tanks nor have any instruments proper for digging wells. The thick * Miss. Reg. 1827, pp. 545, 6. Chand is one of the Hill people in Mr. Christian's service. jungle makes the hills unwholesome to Europeans during the rains: at other times, the climate is extremely agreeable, and, in winter, more than agreeably cold. Mr. Chambers, one night, had a jug of water frozen over to a considerable thickness in his tent, and close to his bed. The Puharrees are a healthy race, but the small-pox used to make dreadful ravages among them. Vaccination has now been generally introduced: they were very thankful for it, bringing their children from thirty or fifty miles off to Boglipoor, to obtain it. Wild animals of all kinds are extremely abundant, from the jackal to the tiger, and from the deer to the elephant and rhinoceros. Their way of destroying the large animals is, generally, by poisoned arrows. The poison is a gum which they purchase from the Garrows who inhabit the mountains to the north of Silhet, at Peer Pointee fair."* This last circumstance is important, as tending to establish the fact of a connexion, and probably an affinity, between the Puharrees of Rajmahal and the mountaineers of the Garrows. Notwithstanding some shades of difference in their dialect, customs, and physiognomy, there appears little reason to doubt that they alike belong to the same aboriginal family as the Bheels of the Vindhyan range and Rajpootana, and the Goonds of Gondwana and Bhopaul. We now again set forth with the Bishop on his upward voyage. The first point of interest after leaving Bhaugulpoor, is the celebrated Fakeer's Rock at Janghera. It rises abruptly from the midst of * Heber, vol. i. pp. 281, 2. 1 Janghera is the name of a tower which rises from the river. The place is near the town of Sultangunge, (Bernoulli writes it Sultan-gans, ou le Grenier Royal,") which is eight miles below Monghyr, NDIAN INSTITU OXFORD deep water near to the right shore, and has a small temple of Mahadeva on the summit, tenanted by some dozen lazy and insolent fakeers. On a little promontory which runs out into the river, stands a mosque; and the Currukpoor hills in the distance complete the beauty of the view. The Ganges has here all the appearance of an arm of the sea. A little to the east of Monghyr, about half a mile from the shore, is the celebrated hot spring of Seeta-Koond (the well of Seeta), situated in a plain backed by the hills, with several rocks rising about it. "The spring," Lord Valentia says, "is considerable, and the air-bubbles rise in great quantities. I had no thermometer to ascertain the heat, but it was too hot to let the hand remain in it. It is built round, with steps to descend to it, so that I could not examine the substance of the natural sides. There are three cold springs on three sides of it, at the distance of about twenty paces." * Immediately after passing this * Valentia, vol. i. p. 177. Seeta is, in Hindoo mythology, the wife of Rama. Bishop Heber was unable to visit this spring. The following particulars are given by Bernoulli:-" It has no taste of sulphur or any other mineral: on the contrary, it is sweet and pleasant as spring water. The water preserves its high temperature (grande chaleur) during about eight months: from the vernal equinox to near the summer solstice, it is less burning, and becomes tepid." Whether it preserves the same temperature night and day, or, like the Fountain of the Sun at Siwah, or that at El Kassar, varies in the twenty-four hours, does not appear to have been ascertained. The following statement, however, seems to render it probable. "When visited by Dr. F. Buchanan in April 1810, the thermometer, in the open air being 68°, rose to 130° when immersed; on the 20th of that month, from 84° to 122°; yet, on the 28th, a little after sunset, the thermometer only rose from 90° to 920; at another period, on the 21st of July, from 90° to 132°; and, on the 21st of September, from 880 to 1320."-Hamilton's Hindostan, vol. i. p. 253. The bottom, Bernoulli says, is mud, which emits the bubbles of air. The same is observed of the Ammonian fount. See MOD. TRAV., Egypt, vol. ii. pp. 207, 218. Bernoulli, vol. i. p. 429, place, a low rocky hill comes close to the water's edge, strewed all over with large round masses of fluor and mica. Some other pretty hills succeed of rather "antic shapes;" all apparently of limestone in a state of considerable decomposition. The northeastern bank of the river continues perfectly flat, bare, and ugly. Monghyr is most beautifully situated on a bend of the Ganges, which, in the rainy season, forms a prodigious fresh-water sea, bounded by the Currukpoor hills. The protruding point of the rock, which braves the whole force of the river, is deemed by the Hindoos a sacred bathing-place. Directly above it is a tolerably handsome Hindoo temple, which had five arched entrances facing these, were as many richly carved niches, meant to contain idols. Sultan Sujah, who made this city his chief residence during his government of Bengal, removed the images, and converted the building into a mosque. It is now the residence of some invalid soldiers. The walls contain, besides lines for five companies of invalid sepoys, a house occupied by the commandant, and others belonging to the officers quartered here, a village, and the ruins of Sultan Sujah's palace. The remainder of the area is taken up with gardens, tanks, and plantations. One or two extremely good European houses are seen, "each perched upon its own little eminence;" and altogether, Monghyr has an imposing appearance. "The ghaut," says the Bishop, "offered a scene of bustle and vivacity which I by no means expected. There were so many budgerows and pulwars, that we had considerable difficulty to find a mooring-place for our boat; and as we approached the shore, we were beset by a crowd of beggars and artizans, who brought for sale, guns, knives, and other hardware, as also |