HINDO 
Charidica! eat, devour, fuch a one, my enemy. O con- 
fort of fire! Salutation to fire! This is the enemy who 
has done me mifchief, now perfonated by an animal: de- 
ftroy him, O Mahamari! Spheng! Spheng! eat, devour.” 
Let him then place flowers upon the victim’s head. The 
viftim’s blood mult be prefented with the Mantra of two 
lyllables. 
“ Let not any one prefent blood drawn from any part 
of the body below the navel, or from the back. Let not 
blood drawn froth the lips, or chin, or from any limb, be 
prefented. Blood drawn from any part of the body, be¬ 
tween the neck and navel, may be prefented ; but violent 
incifions for the purpofe of obtaining it mult not be made. 
Blood drawn from the cheeks, forehead, between the eye¬ 
brows, from the tips of the ears, the arms, the breafts, 
and all parts between the neck and navel, as alfo from the 
fides, may be prefented. 
“ Let not blood drawn from the ankles., or knees, or 
from parts of the body which branch out, be prefented ; 
nor blood which has not been drawn from the body for 
the exprefs pqrpofe of being offered. The blood muft be 
drawn for the exprefs purpofe of an oblation, and from a' 
man pure in body and mind, and free from fear; it muft 
be caught in the petal of a lotos, and prefented. It may 
be prefented in a gold, filver, brafs, or iron, veffel, with 
the due form, and texts recited. The blood, if drawn by 
an incifion made with a knife, axe, or fangcul, gives plea- 
fure in proportion to the fixe of the weapon. 
“ The facrincer may prefent one-fourth of the quantity... 
which a lotos petal will contain; but he muft not giv'e 
more on any account, nor cut his own body more than is 
neceffary. He who willingly offers the blood of his body, 
and his own flefh, the fize of" a grain of linfeed, malha, 
tila, or mudya, with zeal and fervency, obtains what lie 
defires in the courfe of fix months. 
“ Now attend to the fruits obtained by offering the 
burning wick of a lamp, placed upon the arms, ears, or 
brealt, even for a fingle moment. He who applies the 
fame, obtains happinefs and great pofieffions; and for 
three calpas is even as the body of Devi herfelf; after 
which he becomes a ruler of the univerfe. When the 
wick of a lamp is applied burning to the body, the fol¬ 
lowing text is to be ufed •. “ Hail! Goddels ! falutation 
to thee, under the fyllables hong hong. To thee I prefent 
this aufpicious luminary, fed with the flefh of my body, 
enlightening all around, and expofing to light alfo the 
inward recelfes of my foul.” 
Incantation. —On the autumnal Meha Navami, or 
when the moon is in the lunar manfion Scanda, or Bifliaca, 
let a figure be made, either of barley-meal or earth, repre- 
fenting the perfou with whom the facrificer is at variance, 
and the head of the figure be ftruck off"; after the ufual 
texts have been tiled, the following text is to be ufed in 
invoking an axe on the occafion : “ Effufe, effufe blood ; 
be terrific, be terrific ; feize, deftroy, for the love of Am- 
bica, the head of this enemy.” 
“ Having ftruck off the head, let him prefent it. Water 
muft be fprinkled upon the meal or earthen vidlim, which 
reprefents the facrjficer’s enemy, ufing the text commenc¬ 
ing with Reifia draihaik, (i. e- by ftreams of blood,) and 
' marks muft be made on the forehead with red landers 5 
garlands of red flowers muft be put round the neck of the 
image, and it muft be dreffed in red garments, and tied 
with red cords, and girt with a red girdle. Then, placing 
the head towards the north, let it be ftruck off with an 
axe, and prefented, ufing the Scanda text. This is to be 
•ufed at preferring the head, if the facrifice is performed 
on the night of the Scanda Nacfhatra, or lunar manfion 
Scanda. The Vifacha Mantra is to be ufed on the night 
of the Vifacha manfion. Let the f'acrificer contemplate 
two attendants on the goddels, as having fiery eyes, with 
yellow bodies, red faces, long ears, armed with tridents 
and axes in their two right hands, and holding human 
tkulls and vafes in their two left. Let them be confidered 
as having three eyes, and firings of human lkulls fuf- 
Vol. X. No, 648. 
O STAN. Hi 
pended round their necks, with long, ftraggling, fright¬ 
ful, teeth.” 
Against Foes. —“ Foes, enemies, and rivals, perifh 
around him who is conversant with thefe rites. That, 
which [moves] in the atmofphere, is air (Brahme), around 
which perifh five deities, lightning, rain, the moon, the 
fun, and fire. 
“ Lightning, having flatbed, difappears behind rain ; it 
vaniflies, and none knows [whither it is gone]. When a 
man dies, he vaniflies ; and none knows [whither his foul 
is gone]. Therefore, whenever lightning perifhes, pro¬ 
nounce this [prayer] : ‘ May my enemy perifh ; may he 
difappear, and none know [where lie is].’ Soon, indeed, 
none will know [whither he is gone]. 
“ Rain, having fallen, [evaporates and] difappears with¬ 
in the moon. The moon, at the conjunction, difappears 
within the fun. The fun, when letting, difappears in fire. 
Fire, afcending, difappears in air. Thefe fame deities are 
again produced from this very origin. Fire is born of air; 
for, urged with force by the breath, it increafes. Viewing 
it, pronounce [this prayer] : ‘ May fire be revived; but not 
my foe be reproduced : may lie depart averted.’ There¬ 
fore, does the enemy go far away. 
“ The obfervance [enjoined] to him [who undertakes 
thefe rites, is as follows] : Let him not fit down earlier 
than the foe ; but Hand while he thinks him Handing. 
Let him not lie down earlier than the foe; but fit while 
he thinks him fitting. Let him not lleep earlier than the 
foe; but wake while he thinks him waking. Though his- 
enemy had a head of Hone, loon does he Hay him: he docs. 
Jlay him." 
LAWS, and CIVIL POLITY, of the HINDOOS. 
Like all the other inftitutions appertaining to the people 
of Hindooltan, the laws, civil and religious, have their 
peculiarities, which are no where elle to be found. To 
the late indefatigable fir William Jones, the public are 
indebted for a tranflation, from the Santkrit, of Injlitutes 
of the Hindoo Law ; from whence the following particulars 
are feledted; but fince our plan is neceflarily limited, and 
we can only give a mere outline, we beg to refer the in- 
quifitive reader to that curious work. 
“ The fyltem of -civil and religious duties, (fays fir 
William Jones,) and of law in all its branches, which are 
fet forth in this enquiry, the Hindoos firmly believe to 
have been promulgated' by Menu, fon or grandfon of 
Brahma; or, in other words, the firft of created beings ; 
and not the oidcjl only, but the holiejl of legiflators. We 
are loft in an inextricable labyrinth of aftronomicai cycles, 
Yugas, Mahayugas, Calpas, and Menwantanas, in attempting 
to calculate the time, when the firft Menu, according to 
the Brahmins, governed this world, and became the pro¬ 
genitor of mankind, who from him are called manarak ; 
nor can we, fo clouded are the old hiftory and chronology 
of India with fables and allegories, ascertain the precile 
age when the Hindoo code was actually compofed; but, 
from fuch evidence as hath been procured, partly extrinfic 
and partly internal, it is really one of the oideft compoli- 
tions exilting. The dialed! of Menu is obferved in many 
paffages to referable that of the Veda; whence it muft at 
firft view feem very probable, that the Hindoo laws were 
confiderably older than thole of Solon or even of Lvcurgus, - 
althougli the- promulgation of them, before they were re¬ 
duced to writing, might have been coeval with the firft 
monarchies eltablifhed in Egypt or Alia. Sir William Jones 
makes the higheft age of the Yajur Veda to be 1580 years 
before the birth of our Saviour, (which would make it 
older than the five books of Mofes,) and that of the In¬ 
dian law about 1280 years before the lame epoch. Whe-, 
ther Menu, or Menus in the nominative, and Me nos in an 
oblique cafe, was the fame perfonage with Minos, let others 
determine; but he muft indubitably have been far older 
than the work which contains his laws ; and, though per¬ 
haps he was never in Crete, yet feme of his inftitates may 
well have been adopted in that ifland, whence Lycurgus, 
Q o a.century 
