476 



we at least destroy a soul that has sense and perception. Jt is 

 no more than the obligation of our very birth lo practise equity to 

 our own kind; but humanity may be extended through the whole 

 order of creatures, even to the meanest. Such actions of charity 

 are the overflowing of a mild good-nature on all below us. 



Situated as I was for many years among the brahmins in Dhu- 

 boy, it was almost impossible not to adopt some of their tenets, 

 and imbibe their benevolent sentiments. There every bird that 

 flew over the city walls found an asylum, every house was crowded 

 with monkeys and squirrels; the trees were filled with peacocks, 

 doves, and parrots; the lake covered by aquatic fowl, and the sur- 

 rounding groves melodious by bulbuls and warblers of every 

 description. Not a gun molested them. I prevailed with the Eng- 

 lish officers and soldiers, whenever the garrison was relieved, not 

 lo fire a shot within the fortress. I found the edict which I issued 

 respecting the slaughter of oxen, and prohibiting their exposure 

 for sale, procured me a favourable reception among the Hindoos 

 in other places, and it was one cause of the brahmins presenting 

 me the images and sculptured ornaments from their dilapidated 

 temples mentioned in the sequel. 



It was not only from the different castes and narrations of re- 

 ligious pilgrims travelling through my districts, that I derived the 

 instruction and entertainment which gave rise to these philoso- 

 phical discussions ; I was as frequently amused at the public wells 

 and halting places by the vanjarrahs and their families already 

 described; and especially by the jugglers, who generally found 

 out the encampments of these travelling merchants. There they 

 spread their carpets, and performed feats of legerdemain superior to 



