262 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



[2"^ S. N« 92., Oct. 3. '67. 



quiesced in the grossest falsehoods of belief; per- 

 mitted, and even sanctioned, the most diabolical 

 forms of worship ; winked at the foulest atrocities 

 of detestable abomination committed in widest 

 publicity; and been satisfied to let the frantic 

 celebrations of unnatural horrors and wanton and 

 elaborate murder pass in their stated seasons 

 before our eyes ; while, enshrined and sanctified 

 blasphemies of Deity, they imbue religion with the 

 blood and odium of every conceivable crime! 



But where lay the remedy ? Where you have 

 never looked for it : simply in nature and common 

 sense. Had you scrutinised the Bramin system 

 in imperative doubt, you must have percei^ved it 

 was false in all the points indicated; and first, and 

 most tangibly, in language, letters, and history. 



It is remarkable that the mere matter of tradi- 

 tional lore, the obvious question of historical ac- 

 curacy, a point solely of learning in fact, is the 

 basis of this political anomaly, the power, in- 

 fluence, and polity of the Bramins. Every 

 oriental reader must surely have felt the analogy 

 when he read the junction of Deevs and Warriors 

 in the conquering army of Tahmuraz the Persian, 

 or recalled the relations of priesthood and military 

 in the domination of Egypt ; and might have 

 acted on, or inquired into, the conclusion, that 

 the Bramin and Cshatrya of Hindostan, with their 

 mysterious nonentities of commencement and 

 history, owed their origin to similar or identical 

 sources, and had really, like the rest of mankind, 

 a tangible beginning. The hour of this egregious 

 discovery had given the death-blow to Braminism ; 

 for the Bramin is but an historical tradition. 



But where are the Cshatrya or soldier-race, — 

 in their murderous sacrifices the Carthaginians, 

 Azteks, or Saxons of the East ? Where are these 

 blood-dyed miscreants that hold in honour every 

 cry of cowardice and cruelty for relentless 

 outrage ? Slaves, base and ignorant slaves to the 

 Bramin, they belie their own objects and betray 

 their own origin in order to bow down to and 

 worship him. From the Scythian in Egypt to 

 the Heaou in China, they have grasped every 

 empire only to relinquish it : but fixed in India, 

 and in India alone, before the art and footstool of 

 priestcraft, they execrate their proper ancestry, 

 and shrink in horror from their own race. Be it 

 so : the Avenger of blood is behind, and to execute 

 an even direr sentence than that of blood on the 

 accursed crew. Where vengeance is justice, 

 mercy is a crime. 



It is not the mere savagery of revenge that is 

 sought, but that award of vengeance, the fearful 

 retribution of doom, when man assumes the most 

 awful attribute of his Maker. Yet in its sternest 

 decree and severest execution revenge itself may 

 be bitterest glutted, as to this world and the next, 

 without infringing on the claims of humanity or 

 civilisation. Let the swine, that is the source of 



the crime, be also the instrument of the punish- 

 ment, and scorn and slaughter shall alike exult in 

 the expiation, when superstition infuses its own 

 scorpion venom into the sting of suicidal doom. 

 Fortunately for human nature in every sense the 

 keenest agony can be inflicted without the physical 

 tortures from which eye and spirit shrink, and the 

 ludicrous may relieve the terrible in a just and 

 righteous retribution. Beleaguer their cities with 

 cordons of boars ; let them march from their sally- 

 ports over pigs-feet and cow-heels ; charge their 

 cavalry with herds of the wild-hog ; let gun and 

 howitzer throw comminuted pork to clear out 

 their batteries and paralyse their battalions : spare 

 woman, for her influence is universal, even on the 

 untaught gallantry of the conquering soldier ; but 

 let infants be carefully cradled in cow-hides and 

 tenderly nourished on the fattening pap of the 

 sow ; anoint the limbs of saintly fakir and yoguee 

 with the unctuous fat of swine ; scourge high-caste 

 Bramin and Cshatrya and ferociously aspiring 

 Mahommedan with thongs of brawn ; feed their 

 hunger with chines ; let the Mussulman observe 

 Christmas for once on devilled legs of his favourite 

 Turkey, — we cannot spare him the whole of the 

 hind quarter ; and should the resolute Hindoo 

 prefer starving to death in the unprofaned odour 

 of sanctity, combine this with the flavour of broil- 

 ing bacon. 



For Nena Sahib, proclaim that his ashes, if 

 burnt, shall be gathered into a stye ; that his 

 hardened carcase, found living or dead, shall be 

 carefully larded to soften it ; and that droves of 

 the famishing hog shall bear the consecrated relics 

 in their bosoms, as they rove, henceforth and for 

 ever, over the site of his levelled Bhitoor: you 

 will thus have the fiercest and most effective re- 

 venge. Heaven itself could brand him with no 

 direr punishment of earth or hell.* E,. G. Bote. 



SHAKSPEABIANA. 



The Folio Shahspeare Right. — I am now about 

 to do battle in favour of the folio Shakspeare 

 against the critics ; and as I include all, from, I 

 believe, Howe and Theobald, no one can justly 

 take off*ence at the charge, however sweeping. 



In Midsummer Night's Dream, Act 11. Sc. 1., 

 folio, Titania says : 



"But I know 

 When thou wast stolen away from fairy-land, 

 And in the shape of Corin sat all day, 

 Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love 

 To amorous Phillida." 



Here in every modern edition we have hast 

 stolen away ; the Boswell-Malone, and that of IMr. 



* Since the foregoing was in tj'pe, I have been favoured 

 by Col. Sykes' mention of the lirst emblem circulated, as 

 requested in my last letter and note. It entirely confirms 

 this my charge against the Bramins. 



