a 
‘hitherto inspired will soon be lost and anni- 
‘hilated.” 
We are then to disbelieve Sir William 
‘Jones, Mr. Halhed, and. Mr. Wilkins, 
upon the anthority of M. L. D, Grand- 
pré, an officer in the French army, 
swhose business in India was to sell a 
ship, which he knew to be-unfit for the 
navigation of the Indian seas; and who 
had no other opportunities of becotnin 
‘acquainted with India, than what he 
“found while upon this knavish errand. 
' M.. Grandpré, in deference to the 
Concordat, occasionally uses the lan- 
guage of catholicism, and gives us to 
“understand that he is within the pale of 
the Gallican church, but “he -has been 
studious to discover his own private 
‘opinions, and they are such as were to 
“be expected from a man so ignorant, 
‘and so satisfied with his own ignorance. 
The Jews, he tells us, were “ a petty 
nation, of so little consequence as to 
have no customs of their own.” So 
much for this gentleman’s knowledge of 
laws and customs! 
It has been well said, that there is no 
book, however bad, from which some- 
thing may not be learnt. Believing 
this: for what reviewer but must, for 
his consolation, wish to helieve it? we 
shall proceed, and rake for pearls. 
This description of the dancing girls 
‘may form a note for the story of Alt 
Baba, or the Forty Thieves. 
«« Sometimes, during the dance, they play 
with Moorish poniards ; an exercise at which 
‘they appeared to be expert. One of them, 
‘who was considered as eminently dextrous, 
was sent for one evening to the house of the 
Malabar chief, to dance in my presence. 
Seemingly 'some one had given her a hint ; 
for she took infinite pleasure in frightening 
me with her poniards, the points of which 
she presented to me suddenly, turning quickly 
round every time she passed near me, but 
stopping with great ‘precision within a 
finger’s breadth of my breast. This move- 
- ment was directed and timed by a stroke of 
the small cymbal which the dancing-mnaster 
struck unawares at my ear, aud which never 
failed to make ‘me start, to the great amuse- 
ment of the crowd, which this exhibition 
- generally draws together.” 
aS 
The ceremony of charming snakes is 
~ described, but the attempt at solution is 
very awkward. 
"When Tavernier was in Hindostan, 
a juggler who exhibited before him was 
. stopped in the midst of his performance 
by the English chaplain; for the good 
VOYAGES AND TRAVELS. 
‘ings, the Hindoos supply the want of 
mechanical knowledge by a singulz 
is raised, they throw up a slope of earth, 
.in the streets; and even the wretches} 
man declared he would not suffer a 
thing diabolical to go on in his preset 
M. Grandpré is even more ecredul 
than the old English chaplain. 
“In deceptive tricks, such as vomiiti 
fire, pieces of flaming hemp and flax, a 
siderable quantity of thorns, and appearit 
to draw away the whole of their intestings 
by the mouth, and swallow them again 
with other facetious performances of a simnie 
lar kind, they succeed by maim force, ai 
carry the art to astonishing perfection. 
these feats of strength, there is no delusie 
no slight-of-hand, no deception: what 
see is precisely what we thiak we see. One 
of these performances is of a nature to con: 
tradict all the laws of anatomy, and which 
no surgeon could believe «ill he had 
nessed it. I have known some who w 
even incredulous after they had seen 
and who refused to trust the evidence 
their eyes. o 
«© An Indian, naked like his fellows, with 
no muslin round him, nor any elothin 
whatever to serve a sa cloak and facilitate de~ 
ception, takes a sword, the edge and point 
of which are rounded off and blunted, and 
putting it into his «mouth, buries it coms 
pletely, all but the haft, in his throat and 
intestines. " 
«« J have observed some of these men fron 
whom the momentary irritation caused by 
the insertion of this strange body has forced) 
tears; others to whom it gave an inclination 
to cough, which, as they were not able 
satisfy it, obliged them to withdraw t 
blade instantly, to prevent suffocation. In 
fine, when the sword has entered as far ag 
it can, to the depth of more than two fee 
they fix a small petard to the hilt, set fire to 
it, and bear its explosion: they then dra 
ont the sword, which is covered with th 
humidity of the intestines. 
«<I know that a fact of such description 
will be regarded by readers in general as’ 
fable, to which they conceive they should: 
ive no credit. At this I shall not be sure 
srised: till I had seen it I refused myself to 
elieve it; but I was under the necessity at 
last of yielding to the force of evidence:” 
-_ 
In the construction of large build- 
substitute. When the first row of stones, 
up which the stones are rolled for the; 
second row; and thus they go on bury- 
ing the edifice as it rises. M.Grandpré! 
speaks of the French Jesuits in Hin« 
dostan. We did not know that the Je+ 
suits existed any where as a body. 
Calcutta is described as disgustingly; 
filthy : dead animals are left to putrefy 
who perish in the streets from want or 
