188 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
After this barbarous ceremony had continued for 
about twenty minutes, the man was let down, the hooks 
extracted from his back, and he really seemed little 
or nothing the worse for the torture he must have un- 
dergone. He walked steadily forward amid the accla- 
mations of the surrounding multitude, and followed 
by his friends, who earnestly offered him their congra- 
tulations on the recovery of his caste. 
Accidents of a very serious nature have been occa- 
sionally known to happen during the infliction of these 
fearful penances, though such occurrences are, I be- 
lieve, rare. Should the cord chance to break, the sus- 
pended person is propelled forward under the influence 
of such a powerful impulse, that he is invariably killed 
on the spot. When this occurs, it is imputed to the 
magnitude of his sins, and he is immediately cast 
upon the funeral-pile, neither pitied nor lamented. I 
have heard a circumstance related by a person once 
present at the ceremony of the Churrack Pooja when 
the muscles of the back gave way, the penitent being 
of considerable bulk, and on his being immediately 
lowered, the mischief was so extensive, that the 
wretched man died soon after he was released from 
the hooks. These things are really too dreadful to be 
permitted in a civilised country ; but in India custom 
is a positive and indeed a paramount law, and is 
therefore implicitly followed. “ Immemorial custom,” 
says their imaginary lawgiver, " is transcendant 
law, approved in the sacred scripture and in the 
codes of divine legislators ; let every man, there- 
fore, of the three principal classes who has a due 
reverence for the supreme Spirit which dwells in 
