and face were matted and smeared with mud, and his body and limbs covered with dust. He appeared to be sixty years of age, and looked more the demon than the saint. His left arm was

shrivelled and bent at the elbow, and on the outspread palm, which was turned upwards, rested an earthen pot, in which was growing a small plant. Around it were placed sticks; a wooden spoon to receive alms was secured across it, and a string of brass bells ornamented the bottom. The whole was attached to the hand by a cotton bandage. The devotee was sprightly. He has a pair of cunning dark eyes, and his face is free from that sullenness of expression, which, in general, distinguishes religious enthusiasts. He reports that he has held the flower-pot, in the position above described, for twenty-five years; nor has he in that time, cut either his hair, his beard, or his nails. By the practice of such austerities he hopes to attain absorption into nature, the perfection of Hindoo beatitude, while he secures in this world the respect and homage of all who approach his temple. The finger-nails were very long and twisted like rams' horns. I attempted to measure that of the thumb; he would not allow me to touch it, but permitted a Brahmůn to do so for me. It was ten inches and three-quarters in length. I bestowed a piece of silver in the alms' spoon, for

which he returned thanks, or perhaps invoked Shivu's blessing.

To attain a state of perfect apathy of the feelings and of the passions is the great aim of the Hindoo devotee. A gentleman told me, that one of these wretches, who was entirely naked in the street, was pointed out to him by a native triumphantly, as the most pious man in India; because, forsooth, he was so destitute of shame, that covering for his body was rejected; the earth was his bed, the sky his canopy, and the food he consumed was bestowed in charity—" But," inquired my informer, suppose the charitable were to refuse to feed him, what would he then do?"

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"That is supposing an impossibility, for no man would so far risk offending the gods as to refuse his mite to a Brahmůn so truly pious."

A few yards farther on, was another devotee, smeared with mud, but of not more than thirty years of age. He was standing near a fire, resting one foot on a stone, and blowing a great conchshell trumpet. His swelled cheeks, and red, starting eyes; his posture, the fire and the crowd standing near, dappled with the light of the flame, for it was now past sunset, and they were lighting up the temples; the almost deafening roar around us, added to a horrible stench, rendered the whole scene more like what one would imagine pande

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monium to be, than a temple of worship. Every moment seemed to increase the crowd and the noise, and we quitted the orgies with feelings of deep disgust.

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LEVEE-MISSIONARIES.

CHAPTER XIII.

SKETCHES IN HINDOOSTAN.

November, 1835.

ON the 17th of November, we attended the levee of the Governor, Sir Robert Grant, held at the town hall, where we saw a number of the officers of the army and navy. At two P.M. the native officers were received separately, this part of the presentation being what is termed a "durbar." The ceremony was an agreeable sight, from the variety of handsome uniforms present on the occasion.

On the 20th we attended, by invitation, an examination of the native female schools, under the superintendence of the American mission, and under the immediate care of Miss Farrar. We arrived about ten o'clock A. M. Many English ladies, and several officers of the civil service had already assembled. Notwithstanding an eclipse of

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the sun, which, it was feared, might cause parents to retain their children at home, not less than a hundred and fifty little girls of from six to twelve years of age, and of different castes, were present. The native teachers, who are of all castes, were in their best attire. One of them, a Banyan, wore a red turban composed of a bandage or fillet two inches wide; the turns of which, after covering the top of the head, were laid one over the other sixty times, like a riband, so as to form a rim three inches wide, which sat diagonally on the head. A yellow silk robe, hung full from the hips, like a petticoat about the legs, and a red Cashmere shawl, worth perhaps one hundred dollars, was folded square over the shoulders. A pair of very broad-toed red slippers completed this truly picturesque costume of the pedagogue, who bore no resemblance to the severe, black-coated gentry of the tribe who were wont, in old times, to infuse at once, terror and learning by the use of the birch.

Besides Europeans, several Hindoos, and one old Mohammedan, but none of the parents of the children, were present. The Asiatics manifested very little interest in the examination; what their opinions were on the subject, I did not ascertain.

The children were strikingly different, in appearance, from any I have before seen collected on