540 



ANNUAL REGISTER, 1813. 



poems, of Homer, and other an- 

 cient records. On a sultry day, near 

 a Zinore village, having rode faster 

 than my attendants, while waiting 

 their arrival under a tamarind tree, 

 a young woman came to the well ; 

 1 asked for a little water, but nei- 

 ther of us having a drinking vessel, 

 she hastily left me, as 1 imagined, 

 to bring an earthen cup for the 

 purpose, as I should have polluted 

 a vessel of metal ; but as Jael, 

 when Sisera asked for water, gave 

 him milk, and " brought forth 

 butter in a lordly dish," so did this 

 village damsel, with more sincerity 

 than Heber's wife, bring me 

 a pot of milk and a lump of 

 butter on the delicate leaf of the 

 banana, " the lordly dish" of the 

 Hindoos. The former I gladly 

 accepted ; on my declining the 

 latter, she immediately made it up 

 into two balls, and gave one to 

 each of the oxen that drew my 

 hackery. Butter is a luxury to 

 these animals, and enables them to 

 bear additional fatigue. 



The more I saw of the Hindoos 

 in those remote districts, the more 

 I perceived the truth of Orme's 

 remark, that Hindostan has been 

 inhabited from the earliest anti- 

 quity, by a people who have no 

 resemblance, either in their figure 

 or mannerSjWith any of the nations 

 contiguous to tliera ; and that al- 

 though conquerors have establish- 

 ed themselves at different times, in 

 various parts of India, yet the ori- 

 ginal inhabitants have lost very lit- 

 tle of their original character. 



Those towns on the banks of the 

 Nerbudda, so famous for brahmin 

 seminaries, contain numerous 

 schools for the education of other 

 boys ; these are generally in the 

 open air, on the shady side of the 



house. The scholars sit on mats, 

 or cow-dung floors, and are taught 

 as much of religion as their caste 

 admits of; also reading, writing, 

 and arithmetic ; the two latter by 

 making letters and figures in sand 

 upon the floor. Education, like 

 every thing else among the Hin- 

 doos, is extremely simple ; that of 

 the girls is generally confined to 

 domestic employments. 



Near Zinore were several monu- 

 ments in memory of those devo- 

 tees, so often mentioned, who bury 

 themselves alive, in hopes of ex- 

 piating their sins, or of pleasing 

 the destructive powers by such a 

 sacrifice; and under the lofty banks 

 of the Nerbudda, as on the shore 

 of the Ganges, I was told the 

 Hindoos sometimes drown their 

 sick and aged parents. In this re- 

 spect they certainly act directly 

 contrary to our ideas of filial affec- 

 tion, and common humanity ; but! 

 am willing to hope it proceeds from 

 a good motive. Similar customs 

 prevailed in many ancient nations. 



In the out-skirts of Zinore, se- 

 parated from all other inhabitants 

 of the town, were a number of 

 poor Chandalahs, the outcasts of 

 society ; objects of compassion to. 

 every thinking mind, from the de- 

 privations and degradations they 

 are compelled to submit to by im- 

 politic and inhuman laws. Their 

 condition appears the more humi-. 

 hating, when contrasted with the . 

 luxurious Brahmins, in their calm 

 recesses, surrounded by the rara- 

 jannces, and every kind of indul- 

 gence allowed to their privileged 

 caste : the one pampered by volup- 

 tuous indolence, the other degrad- 

 ed below the monkeys which sur- 

 round them, and deprived of reli- 

 gious ordinances. 



POETRY. 



