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most conspicuous. In front of these temples a spacious area 
contained a tank lined with hewn stone for the ablutions of the 
worshippers, with a handsome obelisk at each corner, illuminated 
on the great festivals: for such illuminations are as common 
amongst the Hindoos, as with the ancient Egyptians, or modern 
Chinese: the surrounding groves were enlivened by dancing-girls 
and musicians; and, far from any appearance of austerity or morti- 
fication, the brahmins at Govindsett’s temple seemed to partake of 
every terrestrial enjoyment: the dancing-girls and Hindoo women 
at the tank and fountains were of the most delicate order, and their 
own personal appearance indicated no self-denial in the article of 
food: on the contrary, they were all as fat and sleek as rice and 
ghee could make them; and reminded me of a curious remark in 
Orme's Oriental Fragments, that “ the brahmins have made their 
gods require, besides the necessity of endowing their temples, the 
practice of all other kinds of charities, by which the necessities of 
human nature may be relieved. A third part of the wealth of 
every Hindoo is expended on such occasions. The brahmins 
themselves profess great hospitality, and by this address preserve 
that extreme veneration, which otherwise would be lost through 
the effects of envy, in a detestation of their impositions. A very 
strange custom prevails in some parts of India: a brahmin devotes 
himself to death, by eating until he expires with the surfeit: it is 
no wonder that superstition is convinced of the necessity of cram- 
ming the priest, when he professes to eat like a cormorant through 
a principle of religion . 55 
“ Far be from me the malignity of attributing to the weakness 
of human nature, the effects which might justly be given to its 
