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employed in the year 1800 by the Marquis Wellesley, Governor- 

 general of India, to investigate the state of agriculture, arts, com- 

 merce, religion, &c. of several different kingdoms in Hindostan. 

 " The Tigulas, a caste in Mysore, have some faint notions of a 

 future state; but rather as a thing of which they have heard, than 

 as a thing of which they are firmly convinced, or in which they 

 are much interested. The Palliwanlu, like all the other inhabitants 

 of this country, are much addicted to the worship of the destructive 

 powers, and endeavour to avert their wrath by bloody sacrifices. In 

 the Smartal sect, among the crimes for which no pardon can be given 

 is that of eating in company with persons of another caste, or of 

 food dressed by their impure hands. And among their punishments 

 for smaller faults is that of giving large draughts of cow's urine, 

 which is supposed to have the power of washing away sin! The 

 only thing in which a Sudra ought to be instructed to believe is, 

 that the brahmins are greatly his superiors, and that the only means 

 of gaining the favour of the gods is by giving them charity. And 

 to those who refuse to acknowledge these doctrines, no men can be 

 more intolerant, nor violent." And to conclude such painful ex- 

 tracts, Dr. Buchanan says " that among the Morasu, a caste of Sudra 

 Hindus, where bloody sacrifices of sheep and goats are offered to 

 Kala, one of the destroying powers, is this singular custom : when 

 a woman is from fifteen to twenty years of age, and has borne 

 childen, terrified lest the angry deity should deprive her of her in- 

 fants, she goes to the temple, and as an offering to appease his 

 wrath, she cuts off one or two of her fingers from the right hand/' 

 Such are the remarks of this intelligent writer; and I can but too 



