256 



These in a humble degree resemble the professed slory-tellcrs 

 who form part of the establishment in an oriental court. 



Between Ranghur and Zinore, I stopped with one of our party 

 under a friendly banian-tree, near a tank, to refresh the bearers: 

 a young and graceful Hindoo woman passed us in her way to a 

 temple on the opposite side of the lake. Concluding she had gone 

 thither on some religious visit, we took no further notice; but in 

 less than half an hour she returned, carrying a bundle on her arm 

 with such anxious care as arrested our attention. Having nothing 

 of the kind when she first passed us, we inquired after the contents : 

 smiling at the question, and removing the drapery, she shewed us 

 a fine infant, of which she had just delivered herself at the water- 

 side, its birth having unexpectedly happened while walking to her 

 own village at no great distance, whither she. then proceeded. 

 The whole transaction was begun and finished within the space of 

 half an hour. 



The book of Exodus implies something of this kind in a com- 

 parison between the Hebrew and the Egyptian women. Lady 

 Wortley Montague makes similar observations on the Turkish, and 

 Brydone on the Sicilian females. But I should not have ventured 

 to relate the Guzerat anecdote, had not Dr. Fryer, a professional 

 man, made a similar remark. " The Gentoo women, at their 

 " labours, seldom call midwives : it is a profession only in esteem 

 " among the rich and lazy ; the poorer, while they are labouring or 

 " planting, go aside, deliver themselves, wash the child, lay it in 

 " a clout, and return to work again/' 



Had this woman belonged to any of the unnatural tribes of 

 Guzerat, who practise female infanticide; or had she been a 



