520 



dates, are to him all intimately and equally connected with religion, 

 and the everlasting welfare of his soul. If there is any part of his 

 conduct with which his religious ideas have no concern, it is his 

 moral character. In doing justly, or loving mercy, he is apparently 

 left to act as he pleases: but, if in the most trivial action he vio- 

 late the rites of superstition, he is, in this life, deprived of all the 

 comforts of society, and in the next condemned to animate the 

 body of some noisome reptile, or contemptible animal." Dr. Tex- 



NANT. 



There were a few families of the Bhauts, or Churrans, in Zinore; 

 but Serulah, one of the largest and wealthiest villages in the pur- 

 gunna, belonged exclusively to that singular cast of people, parti- 

 cularly mentioned at Neriad ; and occasionally in other parts of 

 these memoirs. The Bhauts gave me no trouble in collecting the 

 Company's share of their revenue, and appeared in all respects a 

 worthy, honourable tribe, highly deserving of the confidence placed 

 in them by the princes of Guzerat, and the various inhabitants of 

 their dominions. This caste were more or less historians, heralds, 

 prophets, and soothsayers. In the two last characters they, per- 

 haps, a little interfere with the brahmins and Hindoo devotees, 

 abounding in Zinore and Chandode. I may have mentioned a 

 sheet of paper, now in my possession, seventy-two feet in length, 

 containing the calculations and predictions of the Dhuboy brah- 

 mins and astrologers, on my destiny. I preserve it as a curiosity; 

 but neither curiosity nor inclination have made me yet wish for 

 a translation. 



Among many things suppressed from my original manuscripts, 

 were several particulars respecting these Indian soothsayers, or 



