Hindoo atonements for sin.-Penances-sacrifices-mortifications -bodily inflictions.-Transmigrations and punishment for sin.. 173 Religious orders-ascetics.-Mendicants.-Beggars their charac- ter and mode of life.-Their influence over the people.......... 190 Miscellaneous explanations of various practices, customs, and vices existing among the Hindoos, as referred to by Babajee, in the articles prepared by him for the Moral Society, as mentioned THE CHRISTIAN BRAHMUN. CHAPTER I. The state of widowhood. Prohibition of second marriage.-Death of a Husband.-Wailings.-The marriage state. THE chapters which follow, were originally intended as Notes to be appended to the Memoir. Each of these notes has since, under my fostering care, and during the long days and nights of a sea voyage from India, grown to the full stature of a chapter. The arrangement is neither good nor logical; but the references from the memoir, which ought not to be excluded, do not allow of an alteration. It will be recollected that Audee, the wife of Babajee, was a widow; and, as such, Babajee could not marry her while he remained in caste with the Brahmuns. Her case suggested the remarks of the present chapter respecting marriage, and the state of widowhood. The reader will here see a reason why Hindoo wives so readily submit to the Suttee, He will cease to wonder, if ever he wondered, why so many Hindoo women make a voluntary sacrifice of themselves at the funeral pile of their husbands, Besides the merit and the future rewards which VOL. II. 1 are held out to them, as motives derived from their religion, there are inducements of another kind, which probably act on their minds still more powerfully. Religion and custom have rendered widowhood so wretched and disgraceful, that the Hindoo wife, on the demise of her husband, chooses death, rather than so miserable a life. Widowhood is regarded as the greatest calamity that can possibly befall a woman. The widow is stripped of her ornaments, compelled to wear white clothing, has her head shaven, may not stain her face with saffron water, nor imprint on her forehead any of the symbols of their caste, or worship. She is excluded from all ceremonies of joy; especially that of marriage, where her appearance would be considered an evil omen. The prohibition of a second marriage, together with the wretched state of a widow after the death of her protector, and the detestation in which she is held by the people, is, no doubt, the true cause why widowhood is regarded as worse than death. Hence the burning of widows, and the burying them alive with the deceased husband. The following remarks from the Abbe Dubois, than whom no one has ever enjoyed better opportunities of becoming acquainted with the domestic habits of the Hindoo, exhibit this subject in its true light. Never do we feel more forcibly than when contemplating such exhibitions of idolatry as the following, that nothing DEATH OF THE HUSBAND. 7 but the gospel can raise the degraded females of India, and assign to woman her appropriate place among intelligent and happy beings. Let the reader listen to the wild and savage lamentations of a Hindoo woman at the death of her husband, and then tell me if there be no need of a remedy: "When the husband dies first, just before his parting breath, the wife flies to her toilet; and for the last time in her life, adorns herself with all her jewels, and her finest attire. She is no sooner dressed, than she returns with marks of the profoundest grief on her countenance, and throws herself on the body of her dead husband, which she embraces with loud shrieks. She continues to clasp him fast in her arms, until the relations, who are generally quiet spectators of what is going on, thinking she has acquitted herself sufficiently of this first demonstration of grief, attempt to take her away from the body. She will not yield, however, to any thing but force, and appears to make violent efforts to disengage herself from their restraint, so as to precipitate herself again upon the corpse. But, finding herself overpowered, she must be contented with rolling upon the ground, as if she were bereft of reason, striking her bosom violently, tearing off her hair in handfuls, and giving several other proofs of the sincerity of her sorrow. She is compelled to act in this manner, were it only in dissimulation, and to save ap LAMENTATIONS.. pearances; as it is all in conformity with custom, and appertains to the ceremony of mourning. "After exhibiting these first evidences of despair, she gets up; and, assuming a more composed appearance, approaches the body of her husband. Addressing it, in a style rather beyond the limits of real affection, she demands, "Why hast thou forsaken me? What evil have I done that thou hast left me at this untimely age? Had I not always for thee the fondness of a faithful wife? Was I not attentive to household affairs? My pretty children, whom I have brought thee! what will become of them, and who will protect them, now thou art dead? Did I not neatly serve up thy rice? Did not I devote myself to provide thee good eating? What did I leave undone ? and who henceforward will take care of me?" Such pathetic appeals as these she utters in a sad and lamentable tone; and, at each demand she pauses, to allow scope to her grief, which then breaks forth in violent screams, and with torrents of blasphemies against the gods, who have deprived her of her protector. The women, who are attending, wait till she has finished her lamentations, which they re-echo nearly in the same dismal tone. "She continues to apostrophise her husband in this manner, till her wearied lungs can no longer afford her the means of making her afflictions audible, or till her exhausted eloquence has spent all its stores. It is then time for her to withdraw, that |