whose object is to promote female education among the natives of that Presidency. The young men of that city, who enjoy the advantages of intellectual training, and consequently know how to appreciate them, have organized schools which, when I passed through Bombay a few months ago, contained some hundreds of native females. There can be no reason to doubt that, as education and western civilization advance among the male portion of the wealthy and influential classes, the want of intellectual culture will proportionally be felt, in relation to the female portion of the population. It cannot be overlooked that she, who is the appointed friend and companion of man in the duties of life, ought to have that mental culture, which alone can qualify her for the important relations in which she stands to society and to posterity; the fact that at Bombay we have an example in this important and desirable object, may be regarded as a pledge of still greater movements in the same direction. When the native mind shall become emancipated from the fetters that have so long confined it, and emerge from the darkness in which it has groped for ages; and when it shall be freed from the ignorance and superstition that have so long chained it down, there can be no doubt that it will exert its powers to diffuse among the female population the ameliorating influences of useful knowledge. The general diffusion of intelligence will doubtless open the way for extensive efforts in the cause of female education. The thing is practicable; this is a joyous thought. We have pledges of eventual success. The Church may prosecute its laudable and beneficent efforts in the full assurance of hope. Happy day, when the seventy-five millions of Hindu females shall be enfranchised, and admitted to the privileges of intellectual, moral, and Christian freedom!

CHAPTER XIV.

ABORIGINES OF INDIA-THE SHÁNÁRS—THEIR DEMONISM, AND ITS RITES

-THE TUDAS OF THE NIELGHERRY HILLS-THEIR SINGULAR CHARACTER -THEIR MANNERS AND CUSTOMS BRIEFLY REFERRED TO-FUNERAL

RITES-POLYANDRY.

IN the chapter on the population of India, some account is given of the aborigines, and the characteristic differences existing between them and the supervening Brahmanical race are pointed out. As there proposed, it is here intended to furnish some information concerning the religious belief and practice which prevail among them. It may be observed that our acquaintance with the various aboriginal tribes is very limited, and consequently the account here to be presented must be very imperfect. The object in the brief sketch it is proposed to give will be to describe the most interesting religious peculiarities which have been ascertained to exist among the tribes best known.

The aborigines of India are now represented by the Shánárs of Tinnevelly, possibly also by certain wild tribes in Ceylon, called Veddahs, and especially by the numerous rude and barbarous tribes who occupy the inaccessible mountain ranges and impenetrable jungles of the country. They have no literature, sacred or profane, oral or written. Their religion is that of a simple system of superstition, resting as much on the natural and suggestive fears and desires of the human mind, as on traditions which are handed down from father to son, alike without the embellishment of song, or the precision of the established chronicle, or exciting romance. Their imagination fills their gloomy forests with malevolent spirits of every kind, and especially the ghosts of their own ancestors; and some see in the earth and in the heavens

powers capable of inflicting evil and of conferring good. Their worship, conformably with their notions, is principally a deprecation of evil conducted by bloody sacrifices, sometimes of human victims, and by peace offerings to the beings, seen and unseen, from whom they apprehend injury. When they rise above this devotion, it is principally to take cognizance of the multifarious powers which they suppose direct and control the various objects of nature, and occurrences of providence, and occupations of savage life, with which they are most familiar. They have not even, in general, a regular and established priesthood. Their principal religious ceremonies and services are conducted by the aged and honoured persons of their community, both male and female. In this condition, in India, there are, perhaps, eight or nine millions of our race, the descendants of the most ancient inhabitants of the country, who have never yet submitted their necks to the oppressive yoke of the Brahmans, and who, in their remote and frequently noxious retreats, defy the power of that dominant class of religious teachers.

THE SHÁNÁRS.

Of these aboriginal inhabitants the Shánárs are an interesting tribe; and, as they are more or less mingled with the Hindu population, their peculiarities are well known, and may be first noticed. Their geographical, political, and social position gives them a prior claim.

The Shánárs have of late been brought under the notice of the Christian public in England, as well as in India, by means of the missionary notices connected with Tinnevelly, where this people are more numerous than in any other part of the peninsula. The Tinnevelly Shánárs represent themselves as immigrants from North Ceylon, where the same class now exists; few, it is true, and generally respectable, and mingling more or less with the Hindus. They are cultivators and climbers of the Palmyra-palm, from which they extract the juice for the preparation of sugar. It is generally admitted,

that the Shánárs are intellectually of the lowest type of all the inhabitants of India. They are, however, an interesting example of a people resisting successfully the religious influence of a supervening and dominant class of teachers, whose dogmas they have not received. The authority of the Brahmans they have never acknowledged, and they are therefore regarded by them with supercilious disdain as a low and degraded race. The Shánárs cherish the superstitious opinions of their ancestors and follow their practices. Some account of these will prove acceptable.

Though the Shánárs speak of God as the Supreme Ruler and Arbiter of the events of life, acknowledging his mercies in the benefits enjoyed, and impugning him as merciless and blind when they do not get what they wish, yet it does not appear that they entertain any distinct or just notions of his existence, and none of his natural and moral attributes. They make frequent references to the various divinities of the Hindus, but do not venerate their shrines, nor seek their favour. The religious ceremonial of the Shánárs has exclusive reference to the influence which it is supposed disembodied spirits have over the condition of the living. They seem not to have any definite idea of a future state of happiness or misery. In the event of a person suffering a violent death, especially if distinguished for wickedness during life, they imagine that his spirit may haunt the abodes of the living, or it may be he has assumed a demon and malevolent form; and they believe that such possess superhuman power and malignity. Their demonolatry is based upon this vague notion. Demonism is the religion which exercises its power over the imagination of the Shánár, and gives sentiment to his religious worship. In some instances they erect temples to a goddess they call Amman, mother, especially in North Ceylon. It is, however, thought that this is done in imitation of the Hindus; and it is not improbable that the usage derives its origin from the worship of Kali, the cruel goddess, whose Bacchanalian orgies have been described in a former part

of this work. The following engraving represents an image in Tinnevelly of a female Pè, a demon called Nallamadathi. It is cut out of stone, about five and a-half feet high, and represents the demon in the act of destroying a child. When the drawing was taken, it had on its shoulder a wreath of red and white oleander flowers.

The demons whom they seek to appease, as occasion may

require, are supposed to have been human beings, and are therefore either male or female, indigenous or foreign. All are powerful and malicious; they are fond of bloody sacri