744 



HIMMEL HINDOOS. 



from Greenwich, at the sources of the Yamuna 

 and the Ganges, which is here called Bhugiratfti, 

 before it unites with the Yamuna, the Jahnavi 

 and the Alakanandra in the plain. In the sum- 

 mer of 1815, Eraser ascended higher than Webb 

 had done ; he was the first European who reached 

 Gnngavatari (Gangautri), a small temple, sacred to 

 Bhagirathi (10,300 feet above the level of the sea), 

 the point to which the Hindoo pilgrimages are direct- 

 ed. After him, captain Hodgson, in the summer of 

 1821, ascended to a height of 12,914 feet, to Vanara 

 Pugha, where the river Jumna, or Yamuna, bursts 

 out of a bed of ice and snow 300 feet in depth, in a 

 defile of the Jumnotri, which rises to the height of 

 21,155 feet. Between the highest peaks of this 

 mountain, the overflowing of the streams forms a 

 sacred lake, where the goddess Yamuna has her 

 secret residence, which no pilgrim dares to approach. 

 The Bhagirathi also rises here, among the glaciers. 

 The Jahnavi, the third principal branch of the 

 Ganges, has its source not far from hence, but at 

 the northern side of the snowy mountain in Thibet. 

 These streams rush along in narrow beds, worn deep 

 in the solid granite, through dreadful chasms and 

 precipices. Steep walls ascend perpendicularly 

 from a sandy plain to the height of 3000 feet. A 

 small ridge lies in front, of 600 700 feet in height, 

 formed of sandstone. Then comes a chain from 

 1500 to 5000 feet in height, consisting of quartz; 

 behind this is limestone, 7000 feet high. Next suc- 

 ceeds the central mountain, separated from the pre- 

 ceding by the valley of a river. The principal 

 masses are gneiss, mica, and clay-slate. The streams 

 carry down blocks of granite. There is no trace of 

 glaciers. In the wilderness of ragged rocks, hot 

 springs arise, overshadowed by cedars and firs. This 

 dreadful solitude is the home of the primitive In- 

 dian mythological world, but the land has been 

 made entirely desolate by the tyranny of the Ghorka 

 (who, not long ago, governed Nepaul); and the 

 misery of the inhabitants makes a striking contrast 

 with the happiness of the divine life which the In- 

 dian poets represented as existing in this place. 

 The principal difference between the European and 

 Asiatic Alpine world is in the richness and variety 

 of trees and plants which the latter displays, whose 

 splendour and beauty, even on the border of perpe- 

 tual snow, astonish the traveller. The barley, which 

 comes to perfection on the mountains, at the height 

 of 14,000 feet, is so extremely productive, that a per- 

 son at Vienna, 1822, raised from a single barley-corn 

 15 perfect ears, 334 corns. See Alex, von Hum- 

 boklt's Sur V Elevation des Montagnes deVInde, and 

 A. W. von Schlegel's Indian Library, i., 4. 



HIMMEL, FREDERIC HENRY, a popular German 

 composer in the lighter kind of music, and a cele- 

 brated pianist, born, 1765, in Brandenburg, studied 

 theology, and having played in the presence of the 

 king, while in Potsdam, for the purpose of obtaining 

 a clerical appointment, was made by him his chapel- 

 master, and sent to travel. Himmel died, 1814, in 

 Berlin. He thought too highly of his own powers, 

 and liked a gay life, so that he did not study enough, 

 as is perceptible in his greater compositions. His 

 Fanchon is his best opera. Many of his songs are 

 still sung in Germany. 



H1NCKELMANN, ABRAHAM, bom, 1652, in 

 Saxony, was, for a long time, a clergyman in Ham- 

 burg. He was a learned Orientalist, and his edition 

 of the Koran (Hamburg, 1694, 4to), is the first that 

 was printed in Arabic. He died in 1695. He was 

 an amiable man, of a sensitive spirit, and liis death is 

 supposed to have been hastened by a libellous pam- 

 phlet written against him. 



HINDENBTJRG, CHARLES FREDERIC ; one of the 



most learned men of his age, celebrated for his dis- 

 covery of the combinatory analysis. He was born 

 at Dresden, 1739, and studied medicine, together 

 with intellectual philosophy, natural philosophy, 

 mathematics, and belles-lettres. In 1781, he was 

 appointed extraordinary professor of philosophy at 

 Leipsic ; in 1786, he was made ordinary professor of 

 natural philosophy at the same university. Many 

 foreign academies and learned societies elected hii 

 a member. Died 1808. His works are enumerat 

 in Meusel's Gelehrtes Deutschland. 



HINDOOS, or GENTOOS; the primitive inhabi- 

 tants of the East Indies ; one of the most ancient 

 nations ; distinguished for their humanity, gentleness, 

 industry, and polished by letters and the arts, at a 

 time when most of their Asiatic neighbours were yet 

 only in the first stages of civilization, when the 

 Greeks lay in obscurity, and the people of Europe in 

 general were destitute both of the useful and the 

 fine arts. They form a numerous people, have pre- 

 served their national character for thousands of years, 

 even under the dominion of foreigners, and have re- 

 tained, to the present day, their language, their writ- 

 ten characters, their government, religion, manners, 

 customs, and habits of life. They are, in general, of 

 a brownish-yellow complexion, but the higher and 

 richer classes are almost as white as Europeans. 

 They are somewhat above the middle height, well 

 proportioned, and, in particular, very flexible and 

 dexterous. They are remarkable for their small 

 hands. Temperance, frugality, hospitality, and 

 obliging manners, are the favourable traits in their 

 character. They are reproached with indolence and 

 avarice. They possess great natural talents, but are, 

 at present, deprived of opportunities for their deve- 

 lopment. In earlier times, before they were oppress 

 ed by a foreign yoke, they had reached a higher de 

 gree of civilization, and their country has been con 

 sidered as the cradle of all the arts and sciences. 

 They practise agriculture, breeding of cattle, fishing, 

 hunting, and mining. They cultivate forests, and 

 are largely engaged in manufactures, commerce, and 

 navigation. They manufacture cloths of a great 

 variety and value, particularly of cotton and silk ; 

 among which are the finest muslins, fine shawls, mats, 

 cordovan leather, &c., and are inimitable in dyeing. 

 In the arts of music and painting, they are backward, 

 but in dancing, statuary, and architecture, they are 

 more advanced. They are acquainted with arithme- 

 tic, astronomy, and chronology, and are very fond of 

 poetry and singing. The most extraordinary custom 

 of the Hindoos is the burning of widows at the fune- 

 ral of their husbands a practice which has prevail- 

 ed from times immemorial. (See Suttees.) This 

 burning of the widows exists chiefly in the countries 

 governed by the native princes. 



The division of the people into several entirely 

 distinct orders, or classes, which has existed from the 

 remotest times, forms the castes. (See Castes.} 

 There are four castes, which, to the great disadvantage 

 of cultivation, are essentially and perpetually separate 

 from each other, so that no transition from one to 

 another is possible ; no connexion between them by 

 marriage, or otherwise, is permitted, and no indivi- 

 dual of one class can assume the habits or engage in 

 the occupations of another. The distinction is com- 

 plete, hi every sense, hereditary and personal ; all the 

 privileges or disabilities are inherited ; no one is per- 

 mitted to become what he is destined to be by nature, 

 but he is obliged to become what his birth permits, 

 or to remain what it condemns him to be. The 

 slightest transgression of these laws is punished with 

 loss of caste, and sometimes, in particular cases, with 

 death. Even the difference of food is precisely 

 marked out. The three higher castes are prohibited 



