Po 



INDIA BEYOND THE GANGES. 



Oath. 



MlSSIOKARIES. 



" all their fervants into the court where the ceremony is to be 

 " performed, they place the food on a table, where alfo two in- 

 " cenfe-pots are plated, and then the mandarine prefents a paper 

 " to the clerk, who reads it with an audible voice. In the firft 

 <« place, there is drawn up an ample account of all that GOD has 

 " blefl him withal, as health, riches, honor, favor of his prince, 

 *' Sic. and long life, if he be old ; and towards the conclufion, 

 " there is a petition to GOD for a continuance of all thefe blef- 

 " fmgs, and a further augmentation of them ; efpecially with 

 " long life, and favor of his prince, which laft they efleem as 

 " the greateil: of all bleffings. While this paper is reading, the 

 " mailer kneels down, and bows his face to the earth, and when 

 ** the clerk has done reading it, he puts it to the burning rufhes, 

 " that are in the incenfe-pot, where it is confumed ; then he 

 " flings in three or four little bundles of facred paper, which is 

 « very fine and gilded ; and when that alfo is burnt, he bids his 

 " fervants eat the meat." 



It is fingular that in matters relative to their oaths of allegi- 

 ance, a fpecies of facrament is annually performed, at the feafon 

 in which the Mandarines receive from the great officers under 

 them the oath of fidelity to the king; this is attended with the 

 following ceremony: they cut the throat of a hen, and let the 

 blood fall into a bafon of arrack ; of which every man has a fmall 

 portion given him to drink, after he has publicly declared his 

 loyalty and zeal to ferve his prince ; and this is efteemed the 

 moft folemn tie by which any perfon can engage himfelf. 



The Chrillian religion made confiderable progrefs in this 

 kingdom about the year 1680, and fome time after. Here were 



two 



