210 HISTORY AND ETHNOLOGY. 



sometimes been sacrificed. Even at the present time, something similar 

 to this is shown at the offering tukam, when not only a number of cocks 

 are sacrificed to Parvati (Bahvani), but a penitent has the skin of his back 

 perforated with one or two iron hooks attached to a kind of balance 

 gallows, on which he is elevated in the air in this inconvenient and 

 painful situation, and then turned about amidst exultations to pray to 

 the goddess (pL 21, fig. 1). According to the information given by Son- 

 nerat, this offering appertains to Mariatale, the goddess of the small-pox. 

 It is done at the celebration of the festival Quedil (in the month Chittere, 

 i. e. April), when persons who believe themselves pre-eminently beholden 

 to the goddess, or wish to obtain peculiar benefits from her, cause them- 

 selves to be suspended on a long lever, by a double hook which goes 

 through the fleshy part of the back. With a lemon in one hand, and 

 a sword or shield in the other, a fanatic of this sort is obliged with a cheer- 

 ful countenance to play the part of a combatant. In this situation, he is 

 turned by another several times up, down, and around the pole. The 

 sufferer, however, not only loses the entire advantage of this cruel juggling, 

 but even forfeits the honor of his caste, if by complaints and groans he 

 shows any dissatisfaction. As the goddess Mariatale belongs to an inferior 

 order, this festival is celebrated only by the lowest ranks of people, chiefly 

 by the Pariahs. 



PL 18, fig. 1, gives us a representation of an East India expedition of 

 soldiers, presenting the march of the Rajah of Cutch (English East Indian 

 possessions) at the head of his vassals ; and fig. 2 displays a national spec- 

 tacle in the English East Indian possession Cattiawar, viz. a caravan with 

 its escort making a pilgrimage to a temple. 



The Further Indians. 



The population of Further India consists, in the south, of Malays ; in the 

 north-west of Caucasians ; the remaining and largest portion being Mongols. 

 The greater part of these Mongols are Buddhists, and except the mono- 

 syllabic language, have nothing in common with the Chinese. The Malays 

 are followers of Islam. Gold and silversmiths' work and ship-building 

 are the principal industrial arts of the inhabitants ; but the Cochin-Chinese, 

 the neighbors of China, have, by the assistance of Europeans, made progress 

 in ship-building and the art of war ; hence they pay the greatest attention 

 to commerce, being second only to the Birmans, Europeans, and Chinese, 

 who carry it on with greater energy. The government is despotic. 



The Usbeks. 



The Usbeks (pi. 15, fig. 11) are a nomadic nation of horsemen inhabiting 

 Bucharia (Bokhara), or Usbekistan, in the south of Bucharia, but who have 

 also spread over other parts of the country. They formerly resided in the 

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