of annually sacrificing to their deities (sactis) a young Brahman. The sacti is supposed to delight in human blood, and is represented with three fiery eyes, and covered with red flowers. This goddess holds in one hand a sword, and in the other a battle-axe. The prayers of her votaries are directed to her during the first nine days of the Dusrah feast; and on the evening of the tenth day a grand repast is prepared, to which the whole family is invited. An intoxicating drug is contrived to be mixed with the food of the intended victim, who is often a stranger whom the master of the house has for several months, perhaps years, treated with the greatest kindness and attention; and sometimes, to lull suspicion, gives him his daughter in marriage. As soon as the poisonous and intoxicating drug operates, the master of the house, unattended, takes the devoted person into the temple, leads him three times round the altar, and on his prostrating himself before it takes this opportunity of cutting his throat. He collects with the greatest care the blood in a small bowl, which he first applies to the lips of this ferocious goddess, and then sprinkles it over her body; and a hole having been dug at the feet of the idol for the corpse, he deposits it with great care to prevent discovery. After the perpetration of this horrid act, the Kurradee Brahman returns to his family, and spends the night in mirth and revelry, convinced that by this praiseworthy act he has propitiated the favour of his bloodthirsty deity for twelve years. On the morning of the following day the corpse is taken from the hole in which it had been thrown, and the idol is deposited till the next Dusrah, when a similar sacrifice is made.'

"The discontinuance of this horrid custom, however, of late years, is said principally to have arisen from the following circumstance. At Poonah a young and handsome Carnatic Brahman, fatigued with travel, and oppressed by the scorching heat of the sun, sat himself down in the verandah of a rich Brahman, who chanced to be of the Kurradee sect. The Brahman shortly after passing by, and perceiving that the youth was a stranger, kindly invited him to his house, and requested him to remain till perfectly recovered from the fatigues of his journey. The unsuspecting Brahman youth readily accepted this apparently kind invitation, and was

for several days treated with so much attention and kindness that he shewed no inclination to depart. He had seen also the Kurradee Brahman's beautiful daughter, and conceived for her a violent attachment. Before a month had elapsed he asked and obtained her in marriage. They lived happily together till the time of the Dussarah's arrival, when the deceitful old Brahman, according to his original intention, determined to sacrifice his son-in-law to the goddess of his sect. Accordingly, on the tenth day of the feast he mixed an intoxicating poisonous drug in his victuals, not, however, unperceived by his daughter. She being passionately fond of her husband, contrived, unobserved, to exchange the dish with that of her brother, who in a short time became senseless. The unlucky father seeing the hapless state of his son, and despairing of his recovery, carried him to the temple, and with his own hands put him to death. This being perceived by the young Brahman, he asked his wife the meaning of so shocking and unnatural an action. She replied by informing him of his recent danger, and the particulars of the whole affair. Alarmed for his own safety, and desirous that justice should be inflicted on the cruel Brahman, he effected his escape, and repairing to the Peishwa, fell at his feet and related the whole affair. Orders were instantly given to seize every Kurradee Brahman in the city of Poonah, and particularly the infamous perpetrator of the horrible deed. He was, with a number of others similarly convicted, put to death; and all the sect were expelled the city, and strict injunctions laid on the inhabitants, to have, in future, as little connection with them as possible. By this well-timed severity (says my authority) Balajee Badjerow effectually prevented the recurrence of similar crimes, and the Kurradee Brahmans now content themselves with sacrificing a sheep or buffalo."

To the inviolability of a Brahman, and to the sin which is attached to causing the death of one, in any way, may, according to Sir William Jones, be traced "the practice called dherna, which was formerly familiar at Benares, and may be translated caption or arrest. It is used by the Brahmans to gain a point which cannot be accomplished by any other means; and the process is as follows:-The Brahman who adopts this expedient

U

for the purpose mentioned, proceeds to the door or house of the person against whom it is directed, or wherever he may most conveniently intercept him. He there sits down in dherna, with poison or a poignard, or some other instrument of suicide in his hand, and threatening to use it if his adversary should attempt to molest or pass him, he thus completely arrests him. In this situation the Brahman fasts; and by the rigor of the etiquette, which is rarely infringed, the unfortunate object of his arrest ought also to fast; and thus they both remain until the institutor of the dherna obtains satisfaction. In this, as he seldom makes the attempt without resolution to persevere, he rarely fails; for if the party thus arrested were to suffer the Brahman sitting in dherna to perish by hunger, the sin would for ever be upon his head. This practice has been less frequent of late years, but the interference of our courts have often proved insufficient to check it; as it has been deemed in general most prudent to avoid for this purpose the use of coercion, from an apprehension that the first appearance of it might drive the sitter in dherna to suicide. The discredit of the act would not only fall upon the officers of justice, but upon the government itself.

"The practice of sitting in dherna is not confined to male Brahmans only, which the following instance will at once prove and exemplify: Beenoo Bhai, the widow of a man of the Brahminical tribe, had a litigation with her brother-in-law, Balkishen, which was tried by arbitration; and the trial and sentence were revised by the court of justice at Benares, and again in appeal. The suit of Beenoo involved a claim of property and a consideration of caste, which her antagonist declared she had forfeited. The decision was favourable to her, but not to the extent of her wishes, and she resolved therefore to procure by the expedient of the dherna, as above explained, what neither the award of arbitration nor the judicial decision had granted. In conformity to this resolution, Beenoo sat down in dherna on Balkishen; and he, after a perseverance of several days, apprehensive of her death, repaired with her to a Hindu temple in Benares, where they both continued to fast some time longer. Thirteen days had elapsed from the commencement of Balkishen's arrest, when he yielded

the contest, by entering into a conditional agreement with Beenoo, that if she would establish the validity of her caste, and in proof thereof prevail on some creditable members of her own tribe to partake with her of an entertainment of her providing, he would not only defray the expense of it, but would also discharge her debts. The conditions were accepted by Beenoo, who fulfilled her part of the obligation; and her antagonist, without hesitation, defrayed the charges of the entertainment. But the non-performance of his engagement to discharge her debts induced Beenoo Bhai to institute a suit against him; and the practice of the dherna, with the proofs of it, were thus brought forward to official notice. It is not unworthy of remark, that some of the pandits, on being consulted, admitted the validity of an obligation extorted by dherna, provided the obligation were to obtain a just cause or right, wickedly withheld by the other party, but not otherwise. Others again rejected the validity of an engagement so extorted, unless it should be subsequently confirmed by the writer, either in whole or in part, after the removal of the coercion upon him."

Sir William Jones, on farther information, added: "Any one who sits in dherna on another's door or in his house, for the realization of a debt, or for other purpose, takes with him some weapon or poison and sits down; he does not eat himself, nor allow the party against whom he is sitting, or his family to eat; nor does he allow any person ingress into that person's house, nor egress from it; and addressing himself in terms of the strongest oaths to the people of the house, he says, 'If any of those of your house shall eat victuals, or go into your house, or go out of it, I shall either wound myself with this weapon or swallow this poison;' and it does sometimes happen that both these events take place, and that he who sits in dherna does not remove from it without the entreaty of those on whom he is sitting, or the order of the hakim."

The following instance is of late occurrence. "Mohun Panreh, an inhabitant of a district in the province of Benares, sat down in dherna before the house of some Rajpoots, for the purpose of obtaining the payment of birt, or a charitable subsistence, to which he had a claim, and in that situation poisoned himself. Some of the relations of the deceased retained

his corpse for two days before the house of the Rajpoots; who thus were compelled to forego taking sustenance, in order to induce them to settle the birt on the heir of the deceased Brahman."

The celebrated Scindiah was not exempt from this mortifying ceremony. Two of his chiefs once sat down in dherna with drawn swords, &c. to obtain from him arrears of pay due to their troops, who were reduced to the utmost distress. He contrived, however, to remove them by promises from the entrance of his tent, and then surrounded them with two batallions of his troops and artillery, and compelled them to quit the camp.

Another practice, of a very singular and cruel nature, is called erecting a koor. This term is explained to mean a circular pile of wood which is prepared ready for conflagration. Upon this, sometimes a cow, and sometimes an old woman, is placed by the constructors of the pile, and the whole is consumed together. The object of this practice is to intimidate the officers of government, or others, from importunate demands, as the effect of the sacrifice is supposed to involve in great sin the person whose conduct forces the constructor of the koor to this expedient. An instance of this practice is thus described. "Three Brahmans had erected a koor, upon which an old woman had suffered herself to be placed. The object of temporary intimidation was fully attained by it, and the timely interposition of authority prevented the completion of the sacrifice. It cannot

be uninteresting to know the cause which urged the three Brahmans to this desperate and cruel resource. Their own explanation is summarily this: That they held lands in partnership with others, but that the public assessment was unequally imposed upon them, as their partners paid less, whilst they were charged with more than their due proportion; they therefore refused to discharge any part of the revenues whatever, and erected a koor, to intimidate the government's officers from making any demands upon them. Their sole object, as they explicitly declared, was to obtain an equal distribution of the public assessment between themselves and their partners. A woman, nearly blind from age, had in this instance been placed upon the koor: she was summoned to appear before the English superintendant of the province, but absolutely refused to attend him, de