BO OT AN. 
163 
imagine: elephants, horses, apes, and a most frightful figure environed 
with snakes, were among the representations intended to personate 
racusses, or evil genii. Virtue appeared in the shape of Durga, with 
a view to exterminate Vice; and some of the group received pretty 
hard blows before they would quit the stage; but the force of Durga, 
as it was intended, never failed to maintain its ground in all the 
triumph of victory. 
The object of this festival was, as I conceived, to celebrate the arri¬ 
val of the autumnal, as that of the Hooli does the vernal equinox. 
• Durga poojah is distinguished also as being the well known period, 
when the armies of the native powers in India, have always been ac¬ 
customed to take the field; and, till their acquaintance with Europeans 
taught them the necessity of relinquishing some of their most inve¬ 
terate prejudices, it was very seldom that any of their troops assembled 
in the field, till after the celebration of the Dussera, which happens on 
the first full moon after the equinox. As that has been ever considered 
as the signal for hostile preparation, so has the Dewali, the following 
new moon, a festival kept in honour of the dead, when it is usual to 
make large feasts, to distribute food to the poor, and to make grand 
illuminations during the night, been commonly the time to .set their 
troops in motion. 
Y 
