10t> 



be touched by them. A Brainin will not condescend to eat 

 even with his sovereign. Women are not allowed to many 

 a man of an inferior class, nor men to marry women of a si^ 

 perior, under pain of death. Nay, if a man of an inferior 

 class has had any illicit conmierce W'ith a lady of a superior, 

 he not only is punished with death, but the nearest relations 

 of the lady are allowed for three days to kill all such rela- 

 tives of the criminal as they shall meet in the district where 

 the fact was committed.* 



Polygamy is practised, but one wife is acknowledged as 

 supreme ; if she be the wife of a Bramin she incurs disgrace 

 if she does not consent to be burned in case she survives 

 him. 



Their political institutions must, as Mr. Pinkerton re- 

 marks, be originally bad, as the great mass of the people 

 are oppressed by one or two privileged casts, whence, the dis- 

 piiited natives were conquered by every invaderj-f- and Dr. 

 Buchanan, who long resided in India, tells us :{: " that no 

 " useful science has been diffused by the Bramins among 

 " their followers ; history they have totally abolished, mora- 

 " lity they have depressed to the utmost ; even the laws at- 

 " tributed to Menu, under the hands of the Bramins have 



become 



* Dillon, 97. 6 Mod. Uiiiv. History, 63 8vo. 



t Pinkerton's Geography, Vol. 2, p. 213. J 6 Asiatic Researches, 105. 



