THE INDOSTANIC FAMILY. 35 



flight. This last race are all slaves, a condition not common in the rest of 

 Hindostan. But there is another class of sufferers whom a barbarous pride has 

 stripped beyond any other of the most common rights of humanity : the niadis are 

 excluded from all human intercourse, forced to wander in unfrequented places, 

 without any means of support except the alms of passengers. These they 

 endeavor to attract by standing at a little distance from the public road, and 

 howling like hungry dogs, till the charitable wayfarer lays on the ground some 

 donation, which, after his departure, they hastily carry off."* 



The inhabitants of Ceylon, who are called Singalese, are black like those of 

 Malabar, but are less oppressed and therefore less degraded. They are represented 

 as courteous in their manner, and despise both theft and falsehood. Their 

 disposition is mild; yet when their anger is once roused, they are singularly 

 violent and implacable. The dominant religion is that of Budha, the remaining 

 sectaries being chiefly of the Brahminical persuasion. The Singalese have a 

 tradition of their former affiliation with the people of Siam, and they certainly 

 possess, both in their religious rites and their physical conformation, some 

 resemblance to that people. Perhaps the latter circumstance may be accounted 

 for by the presence of the Malays, who have long colonised their coasts. 



The Hindoos are among the oldest nations of the earth. Their present 

 civilisation, with its institution of castes — their religion, which is Brahminical — 

 and their language, which is Sanscrit, may all be traced to an antiquity of nearly 

 three thousand years. 



The castes are four great divisions or classes, each designed to be isolated and 

 exclusive in all its relations. They are, 1st, the Brahmins^ or Priests; 2d, the 

 Rajahs^ (or Kishatrias,) or Soldiers ; 3d, the Vaisya^ or merchants and cultivators ; 

 and 4, the Sudras^ or subordinate cultivators, who are, in fact, the slave population 

 of Hindostan. Each of these tribes is subdivided into several more, of which 

 the number is uncertain.! This singular thraldom prohibits all intermixture or 

 association of castes : yet notwithstanding the severest social and bodily penalties, 

 the impure or mixed castes are very numerous ; for of these the Pariahs alone are 

 said to constitute one fifth of all the people of India. Inferior, if possible, to these 

 are the Pallis of Madura, and the Puliahs of Malabar, whose touch is defilement 

 even to a Sudra. 



The Brahminical religion of the Hindoos is essentially idolatrous. The 



* Murray, Eticyc. of Geog. p. 997. t Dubois, People of India, p. 54. 



