Heligious Ablutions. 437 



recite certain prayers. Por purposes of recognition, the two 

 chief castes wear special marks, the worshippers of Vishnu 

 having a trident painted on the forehead in either white or 

 yellow, while those of Siva, on the other hand, sport three 

 horizontal stripes, or one round spot marked with the ash of 

 burnt sandal-wood. Many Hindoos write on their foreheads 

 the distinguishing insignia of both Vishnii and Siva, and look 

 thus the more strange and peculiar. 



After every ablution these marks are painted afresh, and 

 with much care upon the forehead, so that paint and rouge- 

 boxes play an important part in a native household. No 

 Hindoo can partake of his exclusively vegetable nutriment, 

 if cooked in a European kitchen, such being entirely contrary 

 to the principles of his faith. Every servant, therefore, leaves 

 his master regularly at noon, in order to partake of his simple 

 meal of rice and vegetables, either with his family or in one of 

 the numerous Hindoo cook-shops. The frequent holidays of 

 the Hindoos, of which there are twenty-one within two months, 

 seriously interfere with trade among the natives, and still more 

 with the instruction of the young. 



Hindooism, however, appears to have lost much of its 

 originahty by constant contact with Europeans, and by the 

 various political revolutions, and although many of these 

 ceremonies are still kept up, and the bodies of their dead are 

 still burned on pyres, yet the modern Hindoo has so far relaxed 

 from his ascetic austerity, as to admit of his being employed in 

 the various pursuits of active life. And it is not a little sur- 



