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and amply recompenced their diligence. When they returned from their labour, the cheerful appearance of the well-ordered family at home, the fmiling welcome of the little innocents, and the affectionate tendernefs of the worthy matron, prefented to them a reward which went farther than the gifts of fortune have power to penetrate-it reached the heart.

The recital of thefe circumftances was made to me during the most cheerful repast that I ever faw Chriftians partake of. When it was ended, a ceremony enfued, which having never feen practifed at any other period, I have reafon to think peculiar to themfelves. Upon a hint from the old foldier, his eldest daughter prefented him with a very large book, from which, with a clear and folemn voice, he read fome admirable inftructions and exhortations. The fublime and commanding energy with which these precepts were expreffed, might lead to a conclufion, that this was a copy of the fame Shafter with which the departed Saib Percy presented the learned Rajah: but many obstacles oppose themselves to this fuppofition. Could we believe that a book of fuch diftinguished authority, unheard of among the learned, and totally unknown among the fuperior Cafts, fhould yet be found familiar in the cottage of a peafant? It is too VOL. I.

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abfurd for the fhadow of probability to reft upon.

But to return to the religious rites of thefe fimple people; which, as I have obferved, differ effentially from all that had hitherto come within my obfervation: for inftead of the Poojah of cards, which at that hour would have been performed in the families of the higher Cafts, when the old man had fhut the book, he knelt down, his wife and blooming infants following his example. The latter clafped their little hands, and held them up to heaven, while he lifted up his voice, calling upon the unfeen, omniscient, and immortal Preferver, to blefs them, and to accept from hearts of gratitude the offering of praise and thankfuluefs. I cannot account for it, but there was fomething in this whole ceremony which greatly affected my mind; and I could not help, while I liftened to the fimple, but fervent devotion of this virtuous labourer, feeling for him a degree of veneration, even fuperior to what I had experienced for the Prieft, whofe zeal had been fo confpicuous at the Poojah of cards.

In the morning, the fame rites were again repeated; after which, I took leave of this innocent and happy family : the old man infifting that, as I had come fome miles out of my way, his fon fhould ac

company me to the village where I had directed my fervant and horfe to meet me. The lad willingly obeyed the commands of his father, and we fet out together. He was a handsome youth, of about twenty years of age, and of a fenfible and intelligent countenance. Taking a path through a corn field, it being now the latter end of harveft, we met a young peafant, who carried a gun, which he fre quently fired, to frighten the crows and other birds from the grain. My companion took the weapon of deftruction into his hand to examine it: and in that unhappy moment, in which the Goddess of Mifchance prefided, a group of partridges appeared before him: he involuntarily ftruck the flint; the report refounded through the air, and oh! unfortunate deftiny, feven of thefe facred birds were laid rolling in the duft. He had no time to confider of the fatal deed; for, in a moment, two men, whom the bushes had concealed from our view, darted on the guilty youth, wrefted the weapon of deftruction from his trembling hand, and, with many imprecations of vengeance, infifted upon his immediately attending them before the awful tribunal of affembled Magiftrates, who were now exercifing the facred functions of their office in the neighbouring village. It was then I learned the

real magnitude of my friend's offence. For I was then informed, that to preserve thefe facred birds from being injured by the unhallowed hands of any of the lower Caft, the fevereft laws were promulgated: and as the Zimeendars in the office of the magiftracy, before whom these offences were tried, were all of them worshippers of the Rural Dewtah, they never fuffered the ftern fentence of justice to be softened at the fuggeftion of mercy.

As it is not good to forfake a friend in his adverfity, we entered the temple of juftice together. In this awful tribunal, feated in two large chairs, we found the offended magiftrates. The first of thefe judges feemed fully confcious of his dignity; which was indeed very great; uniting in himself the triple offices of Prieft, Zimeendar, and Magiftrate of the place. The other was a Pundit, learned in the law; called, in the language of these people, an attorney. No fooner did the witneffes of my friend's guilty deed, prefent the unhappy culprit before them, producing at the fame time the murdered birds, and the deftructive engine of their diffolution, than the murmur of indignation arofe; the caufe in which they were then hearing evidence was inftantly dif miffed: it was, indeed, only concerning a man who was faid to have beaten his

wife almost to death: a trifling crime, in the eyes of thefe Magiftrates, when compared to the murder of feven partridges !

The fon of the foldier attempted to fpeak in his own defence, but was prevented by the firft judge, who declared that the proof was fufficient for his condemnation, and that he never would hear any thing in favour of A POACHER: (a name given by this fect to the enemies of their idolatry.) From the tone of wrath with which he pronounced these words, I faw that the young man's fate was determined! and when, after fome confultation between themselves, the younger judge arofe to pronounce his fentence, I expected, with forrow, to have heard the irreyocable mandate of immediate death; and knowing how vindictive the priests of all religions ufually are toward thofe who have treated with contempt the objects of their fuperftitious veneration, I should have been well pleased to have compounded for his fimple death, unattended by the tortures which I feared might be inflicted on him; for a crime which, I plainly faw, was thought of by his judges with horror. Judge then with what a mixture of aftonishment and delight, I heard the mild and merciful fentence uttered by the Pundit, which pronounced no other fentence of punilhment, but that of paying a fum of money!

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