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even quite ignorant of the most noted names that compose the Hindu pantheon, such as Jagannáth, Mahádev, &c. Neither have the various Hindu ceremonies, such as bathing, marking the forehead and nose, and visiting holy shrines, ever been admitted into their theology. Their principal object of worship is the sun, which they believe to be either God, or his brightest image. I was not able to learn that their language contained any other name to express the Supreme Being except that which they apply to the sun. In the vicinity of each village is seen a kind of frame, consisting of four stakes about five feet long placed in the ground, upon the top of which lie three poles, thus leaving one end open. centre of this enclosure, which is about eight feet square, stands a pole, at the top of which is attached a piece of wood movable at the centre upon a pivot. Upon this piece of wood I was informed they pour the blood of their sacrifices, which are performed in the following manner. A man from their number is chosen as Joihera, or priest, who cuts off the head of either a fowl, goat or sheep, and then pours the blood upon the piece of wood mentioned above, at the same time invoking the sun on behalf of all the people, that they may be preserved from wild beasts of prey, that they may be delivered from all enemies, have good crops, and find salvation after death.

This religious service is performed about once a month.. Such is the paucity of their ceremonies, that one would almost think their religion the first species of idolatry. Indeed this kind of worship can boast of great antiquity. Some eminent divines are of opinion that the sun was that which was worshipped by the Phoenicians under the name of Baal; by the Moabites under the name of Chemosh; by the Amorites under that of Moloch; and by the Israelites under that of Baal and the host of heaven. It was for this kind of worship that Moses rebuked the people in Deut. iv. 19. "And lest thou lift up thine eyes unto heaven, and when thou seest the sun, and the moon, and the stars, even all the host of heaven, shouldest be driven to worship them, and serve them, which the Lord thy God hath divided unto all nations under the whole heaven." Sacrifices also appear to have been regarded by almost all nations from the most ancient times, as the best means of appeasing an offended Deity; and although the learned differ in opinion in regard to their origin, some supposing they were merely idolatrous inventions, others that they were first instituted by God himself, and some that they originated in the natural sentiments of the human heart, it is certain they are noticed at a very early date in the sacred writings, and that such expiations appear more like the religion of nature

than any other. In all probability there is scarcely a tribe to be found in the world, who are not in the habit of shedding blood for the remission of sins.

Before I close this account of these interesting, though oppressed and ignorant people, I must advert to some of the feelings with which I have been deeply impressed ever since I accidentally fell in with them, which has been about one year. Often has the inquiry suggested itself to my mind, how are they to be brought under the benign influence of the Gospel of Jesus Christ? To spend time in searching into the characters and condition of a strange people, with no farther view than to gratify curiosity, would be only vain amusement, and unworthy the character of a minister of Christ. But whenever we think of their conversion to our holy religion innumerable obstacles present themselves. It would be folly to suppose that any heathen people like the Santals would be without their prejudices against a holy religion. Their almost entire unacquaintance with Europeans, and the unfavourable descriptions that they hear of us from the Oriyas, must naturally have the tendency to excite their suspicions, and cause them to avoid the Missionary as much as possible.

In travelling in this country a Missionary must take Oriya servants, of whom every man is a robber. I recollect, at the first village where I pitched my tent, overhearing one of my own servants use my name in order to get something for his own use, from the first man who became bold enough to come near us. This one circumstance of being obliged to be followed by such men threatens in no trifling manner to keep the Santals ignorant of our real characters. Though destitute of the bands of caste, yet like all other people, they have its essence, and probably he who should profess Christianity would be excluded from their society, as much as among Oriyas.

This destitution of the shackles of Hinduism indeed promises great advantages, and who can say that they may not prove as teachable as the Karens of Burmah, or the inhabitants of the Sandwich Islands?

The principal vice to which they are addicted is drunkenness. They distil a kind of spirit themselves from rice, which they are said to drink in great quantities. Another obstacle in the way of bringing them under the influence of the Gospel, is their scattered population, throughout more than one half of Orissa. Their villages are also remote, in the dense jungle, where at some seasons of the year the Missionary could not live. He might however find a village of 200 or 300 houses, surrounded by smaller ones, where he would have a delightfully pleasant and healthy country during the

cold and hot seasons, though in the rains, he would be obliged to come in to Balasore, only one day's ride on horseback.

But one of the greatest obstacles is that their language is not written, though this perhaps might be found an advantage, as it prevents an acquaintance with the falsehoods and impurities of Hindu mythology. Their religious terms must of course be few in number; and as their connexion with Oriyas is all in a worldly capacity, they are so entirely ignorant of those terms we usually employ in religious conversation, that it was almost impossible to make them understand when I departed from the common bazar chat to communicate the truths of the Gospel.

It appears very evident to me that one who would be useful to the Santals should, like our blessed Saviour, live amongst them, and be able to speak their language. A plan like that mentioned above, of residing near one of their largest village six or eight months during the year, appears to be the only plan that will bear investigation.

I have already trespassed too long upon the patience of your readers, and must close by requesting that earnest prayer may be made by all in behalf of these benighted, neglected and yet promising sons of India.

Balasore, Dec. 12th, 1839.

Yours truly,

ELI NOYES.

[Our attention had been previously directed to the Santals by the following notices of this interesting tribe, which we lately met with in the sixth volume of the Transactions of that useful Institution, the Agricultural and Horticultural Society of India.

It appears that some time ago Mr. Laidlay had sent to Dr. Anderson some specimens of cotton grown by the Santals, whom he describes as inhabiting the hills to the N. W. of the Birbhum district; and in acknowledging the receipt Dr. Anderson writes:

"I shall do my utmost to direct the attention of the Society to the improvement of the agriculture of the Santals, and shall in my next letter to the Secretary to the Agricultural Society of Calcutta, apply for seeds of the two varieties of Indian corn mentioned by you. The very original nature of their religion, manners and customs; their truth, simplicity and partiality for Englishmen; induce me to believe that the seeds not only of social but of mental improvement would be eagerly received by them, and would meet with but few weeds to obstruct their luxuriant growth. I am surprised that no Missionary has ever taken the trouble to learn their language, and devote himself to their spiritual improvement. He would find them much less bigotted than the Bengális, and I am certain would soon produce the fruits of righteousness." In reply Mr. Laidlay writes:

"These people [the Santals] are very simple, it would appear, in their habits; and I have heard the Bengális frequently speak of their veracity with applause. Their language is of course very circumscribed, which I should imagine to be a considerable impediment to their instruction. The Editor of the Reformer newspaper, who was some time Dewan of this Filature, and amused himself by making a vocabulary of their language, told me that it consisted of only a few hundred words."

We feel happy in placing these gratifying notices regarding the Santals in juxtaposition with those of our correspondent, as so far confirmatory of his statements, and as likely to promote his benevolent objecttheir speedy evangelization, both by directing to them the attention of other Missionaries, and by indicating where important facilities in the prosecution of their views may be found.-ED.]

III.-Notice of New Works in Sanskrit Verse.

1. agafa maifa, &c. or the Psalms of David, faithfully rendered from the original Hebrew into Sanskrit Verse. By the Calcutta Baptist Missionaries with Native assistants. Calcutta Baptist Mission Press, 1839, pp. 294, 12mo. 2. A Sketch of the Argument for Christianity, and against Hinduism, in Sanskrit Verse. By J. Muir, Esq. B. C. S. Calcutta: Bishop's College Press, 1839, pp. 54. 3. पापमोचनीययथार्थ पायप्रदर्शनं । i. e. A Discovery of the True Way of obtaining pardon for sin. No author's or printer's name, date, &c.

These three works have been for some time on our table, and it is with regret we have hitherto been compelled by the pressure of various occupations to defer a notice of them. Even now we must confine our remarks upon them within much narrower limits than it was as well our desire as our intention they should extend to. We have always been of opinion, that the learned language of Hindustan has been too much neglected by the conductors of Missionary operations in this country. Its great antiquity-its high degree of refinement and very philosophical structure-the reverence in which it is held by the natives of the country as the very language of the gods-its actual importance as containing the poetry, science, philosophy, in short, the entire literature of a very large proportion of the population of the East, of one of the most ancient sections of mankind-the fact that it forms the only universally known medium of communication with the learned among the Hindus of the present day, throughout the vast extent of Hindustan-all mark it out as deserving of, and demanding, at once respect and cultivation. But besides that it is the treasury from which all our real and accurate acquaintance with the united cosmogony, philosophy and theology of Hinduism is and must be drawn, we, from large observation and long experience hold it as an axiom, that the provincial vernaculars cannot be fully acquired and accurately understood without some tolerable knowledge of Sanskrit. On this however we cannot now enter, though we venture fearlessly to assert our unwavering conviction upon this point. Yet are we by no means prepared to go the whole length, with Mr. Muir, of asserting that the adoption of Sanskrit as a vehicle for the communication, throughout India, of Christian truth, "must be a scheme above all others effective."

We are not prepared to say what may be the disposition among the learned natives of the Upper Provinces, to receive

with candour and peruse with attention, Christian works, composed in their own revered Sanskrit. We deeply bewail as an indisputable fact, however, that in the Lower Provinces the apathy of almost the whole class of pandits, is extreme; whilst their contempt of all foreign instruction is great in inverse proportion to the very small amount of real proficiency, even in their own vaunted literature, usually attained. Scarcely one in a thousand would care to give even a slight perusal, we fear, to such works as Mr. Muir advocates. Nor, we think, will this isolated class of the Hindu population be emancipated from the darkness of moral error, or the dominion of spiritual pride and literary arrogance, until the vernaculars shall have been extensively cultivated, and they in self-defence driven to their adoption.

Mr. Muir is and has long been a very zealous advocate for the cultivation and employment of the sacred language of India, by Christian Missionaries and others anxious for the propagation of our divine faith. He looks of course to the learned. Now, while we are by no means disposed to echo the absurd shibboleth of the decriers of human learning, who too often, injuriously as ignorantly, quote St. Paul's "not many wise, not many learned," in justification of a procedure which his own conduct proves it never was his principle to adopt ;still we think that to direct towards the literate portion of any population in any country of the world, the chief bent of christian effort, is a course that cannot be justified by an appeal either to à priori reasoning in this matter, to the voice of Scripture, or to the testimony of historical experience. On the other hand we do think, that the learned (or, if you please, at least the quasi learned, as many deem the mass of the pandits of India) have been too much overlooked. "I," said the great apostle before named, "am made all things to all men." To accommodate himself to the predilections, the tastes, nay even to the prejudices of those he would benefit, is a dictate of ordinary prudential wisdom, which no philanthropist, no christian philanthropist especially, can properly or safely disregard. Mr. Muir has therefore done good service in the common cause, by his frequent appeals to our Missionaries and their friends on this matter. And happily he has followed up his principles in his own example. In the second and third of the works whose titles form the heading to these remarks, he has favoured the public with no insignificant attestation both to his zeal and ability in this line of Christian literary effort. In a short preface, he modestly professes to have endeavoured merely "to follow (haud passibus æquis) the example which has been set by the Rev. Dr. Mill in his Chrishta Sangítá,'