bathing.

This kind of worship was esta

blished, in honour of the great Creator of all things, by the first race of mortals, and the Indians have always inviolably adhered to it.*

OF DARPENON.

The Darpenon is instituted in honour of the dead. The Indians, after having purified themselves by bathing, sit down before a Brahmin, who recites prayers: when the Brahmin has finished praying, he pours water, with a small copper vase called chimbou, into one of their hands, which they present to him open and leaning towards him; he then throws, on the same hand, leaves of the plant herbé and grains of gengely, naming the persons for whom he prays. These prayers are made to Dewtahs, who are protectors of the dead.

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*The antient priests of Egypt in like manner purified themselves by bathing in the morning and plunging into the sacred waters of the Nile. A worship they might have received from the Indians.

OF NAGAPOOJA.

The term Nagapooja signifies worship of the snake: women are commonly charged with this ceremony. On certain days of the year, when they choose to perform it, they go to the banks of those tanks where the Arichi and Margosier grow: they place under these trees a stone figure, representing a Lingam between two snakes: they bathe themselves, and, after ablution, they wash the Lingain and burn before it some pieces of wood particularly assigned for this sacrifice, throw flowers upon it, and ask of it riches, a numerous posterity, and a long life to,their husbands. It is said in the Sastras, that, when the ceremony of Nagapooja is made according to the form prescribed, what is asked is always obtained.* When they have finished their prayers, they leave the stone on the place, never carrying it back to the house: it serves for the same use to all women who find it. If there is neither Arichi or Margosier on the bank of the tank, they carry a branch of each

of

* However whimsical this worship may appear, we see it established among all the antients; and the moderns have enlarged upon them.

of these trees, which they plant for the cere mony on each side of the Lingam, and make a canopy over it. The Indians look upon the Arichi as the male and the Margosier as the female, though these trees are of a very dif ferent species from each other."*

This account of M. Sonnerat, however accurate, is by no means sufficiently comprehensive. The general Pooja is still more minutely described, with all the accompanying circumstances, in the Ayeen Akbery, and in the following terms, which too forcibly demonstrate how abject a slave to superstition is the Brahmin devotee.

Since the Hindoos admit, observes the minister of Akber, that the Almighty occasionally assumes an elementary form, without defiling his holiness, they make various idols, in gold and other metals, which serve to assist their imaginations while they offer up their prayers to the invisible Deity: this they call Pooja, and divide it into sixteen ceremonies. After the devotee has performed his usual and indispensable ablutions with the Sindehya and Howm, he sits down, looking towards the east or the north, with his legs drawn up in front. Then, taking in his hand a little water and

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* Sonnerat's Voyages, vol. i. p. 163. Calcutta edit,

rice,

rice, he sprinkles the idol, and conceives this act to be a proper preface to the commencement of his adoration. Next follows the Kulsh Pooja, in which he worships the idol's flaggon. Then succeeds the Chankh Pooja, or the worship of the conch-shell. Last in order is performed the Ghunta Pooja, which consists in plastering the bell with ashes of sandal-wood. When he has finished these Poojas, he throws down a little rice and wishes that his God may be manifested. These various duties are all comprised in the first of the sixteen ceremonics. In the second, he prepares and places a table of metal, either gold, silver, or copper, as a seat or throne for the Deity. In the third, he throws water into a vessel to wash his footsteps; for, in Hindostan, it is the custom, that, when a superior enters the house of an inferior, he washes his feet. In the fourth, he sprinkles water thrice, to represent the idol rincing his mouth, since it is also the custom for an inferior to bring to a superior water to rince his mouth with before meals. In the fifth, sandal, flowers, beetel, and rice, are offered to the idol. In the sixth, the idol and his throne are carried to another spot: then, the worshipper takes in his right liand a white conch-shell full of water, which

he

he throws over the idol, and with his left hand rings the bell. In the seventh, he wipes. the idol dry with a cloth, replaces it upon its throne, and adorns it with vestments of silk or gold stuff. In the eighth, he puts the zennar upon the idol. In the ninth, he makes the tiluk upon the idol in twelve places. In the tenth, he throws over the idol flowers or green leaves. In the eleventh, he fumigates it with perfumes. In the twelfth, he lights a lamp with ghee. In the thirteenth, he places before the idol trays of food, according to his ability, which are distributed amongst the by-standers as the holy relics of the idol's banquet. In the fourteenth, he stretches himself at full length with his face towards the ground, and disposes his body in such a manner as that his eight members touch the ground; namely, the two knees, two hands, forehead, nose, and cheeks, and this they call shashtang. These kind of prostration are also performed to great men in Hindostan. In the fifteenth, he makes a circuit around the idol several times. In the sixteenth, he stands in the posture of a slave, with his hands uplifted, and asks permission to depart. There are particular prayers and many different ways used in performing these sixteen ceremonies, Oo 3

Some