218 BRAHMINTCAL HUMANITY. 



and irritable in company of those which belong to their 

 neighbours. 



We have spoken at a former page of Hindoo infirmaries for 

 the lower animals, and may notice here that, singular as these 

 establishments may be in their design, they would seem ex- 

 ceedingly like in their abuses to other charitable institutions. 

 In what soil do not tares spring up among the wheat ? if even 

 the term " wheat '' can be applied with any fitness to the dis- 

 torted growths of Brahminical humanity. Of its chaffy quality 

 we may form a tolerable estimate from the following relation of 

 Bishop Heber : "At Broach* is a hospital for sick and 

 infirm beasts, birds, and insects. It is a dirty and neglected 

 place, which, though it has considerable endowments in land, 

 only serves to enrich the Brahmins who manage it. They have 

 not only those animals which the Hindoos account sacred, as 

 monkeys, peacocks, &c., but horses, dogs, and cats ; they have 

 also, in boxes, an assortment of lice and fleas. It is not 

 true, however, that they feed these on the flesh of beggars 

 hired for the purpose. The Brahmins say that insects as well 

 as the other inmates of their infirmary are fed with vegetables 

 only, such as rice, &c. How the insects thrive I did not hear ; 

 but the old horses and dogs, nay, the peacocks and apes, are 

 allowed to starve, and the only creatures said to be in any 

 tolerable plight are some milch-cows, which may be kept from 

 other motives than charity ."t 



* A town two or three days' journey from Surat. 



t Heber's ' Narrative of a Journey through the Upper Provinces of India.' 



