IN THE ilSLANI) OF BALI; I33 



The JSra^m^wj indeed .abiai|i,.frpn^ eating beef and every fpecies of 

 animal food whatever. Their diet is .purely vegetable: they even 

 fometimes go fo far as to refrain froi»^?ating rice or o^her farinaceous 

 grain, confining their diet torpots and fruits. Neither milk nor any 

 preparation from it, is ufed as food. This is however eafily explained. 

 The cattle of the oriental iflands yield too fcanty and precarious a fup- 

 ply to conltitute an article of food. The Brahni(^ns of Bali dwelt upon 

 this circumftance, and faid that their books recommended to them the 

 milk of the cow, and a certain oily preparation from it as the moft ex- 

 cellent of all diet : but that it was their misfortune that the cattle of their 

 siland did not afford them the food fo peculiarly , prefcribed to them 

 by their religion. 



In ^fl// there are no Fi^/^/rj ; no mendicant devotees fuch as overa. 

 run weftern India. Neither as far as T could difcern is there any thing 

 known of thofe abfurd penances, and thofe whimfical and painful pjac« 

 tices by which the JJcetics oi wtiie-xh Iridia recommend themfelves 

 todiflindlion. The aullerities o^ & Bmhmana or Pandita on Bali conftft 

 of exercifes of felf-dsnial ; fuch as abllinence from certain defcriptiona 

 of food; exclufion from the fociety of mankind, and retirement ta ■ 

 caves and forefts. Celibacy is oecafionally but rarely in the lift of merito- 

 lious aufterities. - The three inferior clafles among the Balwefe feemed 

 to me to eat indifcriminately of every fpecies of animal food, commonly 

 deemed edible; among thole, .pork is evidently the favorite food. 

 We faw great numbers of hogs of an excellent kind which feemed to 

 be taken great care or* They conftitute indeed the principal animal 

 'food of the people. At an entertainment given to the officers of the 

 expedition by the, aja, Rand at which he himfclf prefided, pork dreded 

 m a great variety of forms, made up the largeft portion of the feaft*- 

 The Brahmans alone refufe to cat with the inferior claiTes, At this feaft 



M m 



