alarmed at an object indistinctly seen in the obscurity, which proved to be an ass, and, indeed, every bush and bramble was magnified into a tiger.

After passing Ouspetta, and reaching Chinnapatam, where we slept two or three hours in the middle of the night, we arrived at Madoor about seven o'clock in the morning. Ouspetta, which is eight miles from Biddidy, is a long unfortified village, consisting, like most of those in Mysoor, of one street, filled with shops; at the farther end of it there is a neat brick bridge, coated with chunam, which is about 100 yards long, and leads across a small river. A guard-house is built on the opposite side of this bridge, belonging to the Rajah of Mysoor, who makes this place the headquarters for his cavalry regiments. The highway, after passing this bridge, turns to the left, and a little farther on there is a commodious house, with a flat roof, built by Colonel Close for the accommodation of travellers. From Ouspetta to Chinnapatam the road is very beautiful, frequently winding and passing up and down slight eminences. The country on each side is in many places cultivated with sugar-cane, and different dry grains, and here and there groves or topes of betel-nut trees, one of the most slender and elegant species of palm, vary the scene.

This artificial cultivation is every where bounded by natural jungle, and forests of large trees, which clothe all the surrounding hills. The soil, for several miles before arrival at Chinnapatam, changes to a reddish colour, and the vegetation springing from this is remarkably luxuriant. Chinnapatam itself is a long village like Ouspetta, and the inhabitants are traders and cultivators. There is a bungaloe on the west side of the place, and about half a mile farther, on the Seringapatam road, a very considerable stone fort, of an oblong square form, with a fossé braie outside of the walls. These are surrounded by a deep ditch, and have two gates, one at the corner of the north side, and the other to the eastward. At each corner of the fort, besides the bastions, which are round, there are square platforms, with stones in the centre for imbedding mortars. There are altogether a hundred and twenty-three embrasures in the walls, which contain a decayed mud village, and a small pagoda. The land in the vicinity of the road between Chinnapatam and Madoor, is cultivated; near the former place, with sugar-cane, betel-nut trees, and various grains, but on advancing, the view is bounded by wild hills covered with jungle and forest trees. About four miles from Chinnapatam, there is an agraharam, or Brahmin's village, with one or two pagodas.

Madoor is a village not so large as Chinnapatam, but of the same description; and it has a bungaloe at the western extremity, of which I took possession. In the course of the morning (March 4,) a procession passed the windows, consisting of two musicians with small drums, not unlike hour-glasses, two players on nagasara or

Indian hautboys; a fifth playing an instrument with a monotonous sound, which served as a drone to these; a sixth blowing two horns; a seventh with a shell in one hand, and a round sonorous platter of brass in the other; and lastly, three Brahmins, each holding a basket of split bamboos under the left arm, a cloth in the left hand, and a large brazen vessel, crowned with flowers, on the head.

*

The music produced by this band of strange instruments was of the most harsh and dissonant kind; not, however, what could be properly called barbarous, being clearly deduced from fixed principles, and having a measured air. The shell was a religious symbol of Vishnoo, as was also the brazen platter, which is a representation of his weapon, the chakkra or discus. This was the diurnal pro cession of Pooja, or the anointment of the god.. It was proceeding to the pagoda, where dancing girls were in attendance to worship the idol, with strange gestures and attitudes, to the sound of still stranger music, while flowers, with oil and other ingredients, were to be showered on his head, and the rice and fruits contained in the brazen vessels were to be offered him for food; and it is needless to add, to be again withdrawn for the support of his holy votaries. ~ The cloths carried by the Brahmins were clean garments, which, according to Hindoo law, they must, if not prevented by sickness, wash with their own hands, and change every day. Whilst I was observing these ceremonies, there came up a female beggar, who was the most horrid victim of disease I had ever seen, being afflicted with that species of leprosy under which the extremities drop off joint by joint. Miserable mendicants of this description are not uncommon in India, where the knowledge of medicine is imperfect · among the Natives, and where charity is too much confined to those who least need it. There are thousands of Brahmins fed by the hands of individuals, and numerous pagodas and tanks are built for their use. As they were the writers, and are the expounders of their laws, they take every opportunity of setting forth the religious importance of charitable attention to themselves, which will sufficiently appear from the following passages from the Institutes of Menu:

'To Brahmins, the beings supremely glorious, are assigned the duties of reading the veda, (holy scriptures), of teaching it, of sacri ficing, of assisting others to sacrifice, of giving alms if they be rich, and if indigent, of receiving gifts.-C. i, v. 88, saos pits,bem

This is an instrument of war, which I believe is peculiar to India,!a and is used with much effect against cavalry. It is a disk of steel perforated in the centre, and having its circumference ground to a fine edge. Being as thin as a fine circular saw, about 21-inches in diameter, this instrument is whirled off the forefinger, skimming horizontally through the air, and is often directed with so sure an aim, as to cut in twain a young tree, or the leg of a horse, at the distance of 60 yards.

Since the Brahmins sprang from the most excellent part of Brahma, since he was first born, and since he possesses the veda, he is by right the chief of this whole creation.-C. i. v. 93..

⚫ of created things, the most excellent are those which are animated, of the animated, those who subsist by intelligence; of the intelligent, mankind; and of mankind, Brahmins.'—C. i. v. 96.-~-~

'Of Brahmins, those eminent in learning; of the learned, those who know their duty; of those who know it, such as perform it virtuously; and of the virtuous, those who seek beatitude from a perfect acquaintance with scriptural doctrine.-C. i. v. 97.

Whatever exists in the universe is, in effect, though not in form, the wealth of a Brahman; since the Brahmin is entitled to it by his primogeniture and eminence of birth.-C. i. v. 100.

"The Brahmin eats but his own food, wears but his own apparel, and bestows but his own in alms; through the benevolence of the Brahmins, indeed, other mortals enjoy life.-C. i, v. 101.

Though Brahmins employ themselves in all sorts of mean occupations, they must invariably be honoured, for they are something transcendently divine.-C. i. v. 319.

These and other passages, with which the religious works of the Hindoos are interspersed throughout, have led them to consider the relief of a Brahmin as giving a claim to future happiness, and have, therefore, directed their charity to this one class of people, to the exclusion of the rest, so that mendicants of other castes are permitted to die with want, without exciting the least commiseration. So true, alas! it is, that our best actions are often but the offspring of a selfish view to our own interests.

I learned at Madoor, that about three nights before a man had been destroyed by a tiger, within a few miles of a place on the road which we were about to pass. His body was found very much mangled, and deprived of the head and one of the arms. The alarm which my bearers felt on travelling at night, and without a light, in so dangerous a part of the country, was not, therefore, without. foundation.

I took the opportunity, in the cool of the evening, previously to setting out, to examine the fort, which is at some little distance from the town." It is about half a mile in circumference, built of mud, and gone much to decay. The walls are very low, the ditch has fallen in, and, in its present state, it is useless as a place of defence. There is a small village within, and this seems nearly deserted, though there are two large and new pagodas, which,

• The Brahmin from the mouth of Brahma; the Kshatrya, or royal sect, from his arm; the Vaysya, or merchant, from his thigh; and the Soodra, or cultivator, from his foot.

emblems of the religion to which they belong, seem to flourish in proportion to the misery which surrounds them.

Forts of mud are perhaps nearly as good for sustaining an attack as those of brick or of stone, for they receive the ball without being shattered, and do not easily give way, but they require to be kept in constant repair, and every fall of rain does them considerable damage. They are admirably adapted to a dry climate, like that of Arabia or Egypt, but are ill suited to India, a circumstance which appears strikingly illustrated by the fact, that whilst the fort which I have been describing was in perfect repair twenty years ago, and is now nearly demolished, some of the walls of Babylon, made of sun-burnt bricks, are in existence at the present day, and one of the oldest pyramids of Egypt of the same material is still standing.

From the walls of this fort, I saw a number of people in the fields below, pressing sugar-canes, and in order to show its simplicity, I shall describe the machine they employed. A tree had been cut down a foot and a half from the ground, and a hole was hollowed out in the stump, about eighteen inches in diameter, and of the same depth; in this an upright beam was inserted not nearly so large as the cavity, and which, consequently, leant against its side; from the top of the upright beam, another descended at an angle of 45 degrees, and from this again a third beam, or rather platform, passed inwards horizontally to the first, and enclosing it, terminated at about three feet on the other side. This last horizontal beam being loaded at the further end, which was about eight feet from the upright beam, acted as a powerful lever, in pressing it against the sides of the hole. Two bullocks were yoked to the horizontal beam, and on moving in a circle, caused the vertical beam to revolve, which ground the canes by crushing them against the sides of the hole. At the shorter projecting side of the platform sat a man with a basket, containing the sugar-cane, cut into convenient lengths, and his business was to feed the grinder. The cavity first mentioned had a hole at the bottom to drain off the expressed juice, and this was caught in a vessel below. A simpler press cannot well be conceived. It is a mere lever, which in fact seems the power of which the natives of India best know the value, for though they use screws in fastening ornaments, they never do so, I think, to gain a mechanical advantage. I have observed, however, that in building a pagoda, in which there are always very large stones, these are raised to the requisite height by heaping up a mound, and thus forming an inclined plane, up which the materials are rolled.

From Madoor I walked on until dark, and as I had by this time come up to the spot where the poor man had been seized by the tiger, I thought it as well to avoid all chance of meeting with the same fate, by entering my palanquin. I was here passed by a native of Mysore, who was travelling in a very finely painted pa lanquin, and of a much shorter form than those in use among Eu

ropeans, as Natives always sit in this conveyance cross-legged. Before him, at the distance of a hundred yards, went an out-runner, with a curved horn, whose business it was, on coming near a village, to warn the people of his master's approach by sounding the horn and proclaiming his titles. He was accompanied also by two attendants, armed with large knives, which I shall have occasion to notice more particularly in speaking of Courg. The personage who was thus travelling with so much pomp, was a gooroo, or religious instructor, a personage who is much venerated by the Hindoos, and employed by every family of respectability. His character corresponds in some measure with that of the ancient philosophers, and his employment is much of the same nature. One learned man is perhaps gooroo to a hundred families, and these too in different parts of the country. He receives very large presents for his visitations, which are usually made in great state, and he is attended by a number of disciples, who minister to all his wants, and treat him with the greatest respect on all occasions. There are many of these gooroos so rich, from the presents which they receive, that they can afford to move about on elephants, and I have heard of one who keeps more than twenty of these animals, which alone involves an expense of above 1,000l. a year of our money. The reverence the Hindoos pay to these preceptors is equal, if not surpasssing, that which they have for their own father and mother, and this feeling is strongly inculcated by the Hindoo law.

Due reverence to those three, (parents and preceptor,) is considered as the highest devotion, and without their approbation no man must perform any duty.'-Menu Inst. chap. ii., v. 229.

'Since they alone are held equal to the three worlds, they alone to the three principal orders, (brahmins, kings, merchants,) they alone to the three fires, (the nuptial, the funeral, and the sacrificial).-Chap. ii., v. 230.

By honouring his mother he gains this terrestrial world; by honouring his father, the intermediate or ethereal; and by assiduous attention to his preceptor, even the celestial world of Brahma.' -Chap. ii., v. 232.

We did not make much progress during the night, and in the morning (March 5th) about 7 o'clock, I found, that instead of being in Seringapatam, as I expected, I was yet full ten miles off. We had passed Mundium on the road, which is an inconsiderable village, with a bungaloe, and the country through which we had travelled had been somewhat more open than through the former stages. As my bearers were fatigued, we stopped under a small tree, near a choultry, which was occupied, and I made my breakfast of some cold provisions with which I was provided.

We did not start again until 11 o'clock, and the day proving very hot, my bearers were so much exhausted that they were obliged to