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near the sanitarium; now lighting up the cups of fresh-blown flowers, now ranging over the still tanks where the spotted frog croaks undisturbed upon the buoyant leaves. Crickets weary the ear with their eternal chirping; and the timid musk-weasel utters its piercing cry, as we stumble over it in our path. Every thing around us teems with life; and ere daylight has bid farewell to earth, night sends forth her mighty hosts to re-people the world. Vain would be the attempt of man to try even to enumerate, much more to classify, the infinity of creatures, great and small, that between sunset and sunrise, move abroad on the earth, or fan the light air with their wings. The mind becomes confused by the mere idea of such an undertaking.

There is one spectacle which particularly attracts our attention, and which is perhaps more worthy of our notice than the objects upon which I have so hurriedly touched. It is the blazing upon the shores of Back Bay, of the funeral pyres, which, in the still hours of evening, often illuminate the heavens, and scare the wild sea-birds as they return to their place of roosting among the high cliffs on Malabar point.

My first visit to this Hindoo Golgotha is still fresh upon my memory; for it left a strong impression not easily to be effaced. Five or six of these pyres had been erected at the head of the bay; a district that has, I believe, for ages been set apart for the purpose of burning the bodies of the dead. One evening,

soon after my arrival in the island, curiosity tempted me to ride out in that direction, in order to see these supposed beacons, which I had fancied were lit to guide the fishing-boats home at night. My surprise was great upon going up to one of them, to see the legs of a dead Hindoo protruding from between the logs of timber that were, ere long, to consume the body. The pyre was about five feet high, and having been clumsily built, it had, in consequence, given way at one end; a circumstance which had not escaped the prying eyes of some huge fulvous vultures, which were screaming overhead, and making sundry dives downwards, towards this attractive spot, and which did not appear in the least to thank me for disturbing them. About fifty yards from this pyre was another, on which was stretched the body of either a young man or a female, which some attendants, with a carelessness of manner which showed little regard for the deceased, were busily covering with small fagots about a foot in length, which they pitched on to the pile from a bullock-cart near at hand. After a sufficient quantity of wood had been piled up, a torch was applied to some inflammable material at the base, and within an hour afterwards the whole was one mass of fierce fire. There did not appear to be any form or religious ceremony whatever; nor was there any weeping or lamentation, or other outward sign of grief, from those who stood around, three or four of whom I fancied were relatives; but "the heart may break

without a tear," and the sorrows of some of these by-standers might be deep and lasting, though I could not detect them. There they stood silent; and apparently unmoved, watching the angry flames as they devoured the mortal body of one who had now put on immortality! As soon as they were satisfied that the wood was well ignited, they all walked away together, towards a plantation, where stands a ruined temple, under cover of which the whole party was lost to my view, with the exception of one woman, who again paused for a moment as if to take a last farewell. I would have given much could I have known her real feelings, and what was passing in her mind. Lower down upon the shore were a company of children playing round the dying embers of a funeral pyre, just as if it had been a fifth of November bonfire; but they from their infancy, had been familiar with these scenes of death; and they had, for them, no terror. The neighbourhood of this place of burning was strewed with human bones, some, partly calcined, others, quite perfect, and white as the driven snow, from having been tossed about by the waves at high water, and left to bleach in the sun. The perfect bones were those of children, who are buried here in the sands; and whose bones are generally disinterred by the first springs that flow up to them; the natives seldom take the trouble to bury them deep enough to secure them against such casualties.

The Hindoo custom of burning their adult dead

is a very ancient one; and it is thought to have had its origin in the popular superstition current among them, that, after the body has been destroyed by fire, no evil being can have any further power over the emancipated spirit. The Hindoos believe, that should this religious duty be omitted through neglect, the surviving friends of the departed, will, in all probability, have their happiness disturbed by frequent visits from some unclean migratory soul, which in that case is supposed to make a point of taking immediate possession of the unburned and vacant tenement. It has been stated, that during the late wars in India the anxiety of the native soldiers to burn their slain brethren-in-arms, was so great, that they would often run the utmost risk of being taken prisoners, in their endeavours to procure wood for the purpose. This feeling is happily all that is now left to preserve the memory of the dreadful Suttee, which, by the persevering efforts and determined conduct of its Anglo-Indian rulers, is now all but absolutely abolished throughout our Indian empire. From the time of Warren Hastings down to the governorship of Lord Hardinge, each successive governor-general of our Indian possessions has done something towards this good work; and though it has been one of time and caution, acts of prohibition have been yearly made more stringent, as previous laws proved insufficient to meet the evil; and many native princes have now voluntarily come forward to aid our present government in carrying out its good intentions.

Proclamations have recently been issued by the Bengal government, stating, that no fewer than twenty-three princes and chiefs have been induced to abolish the horrible custom, and with it, female infanticide, throughout their dominions. The Sikh ruler of Jamoo has, unsolicited, followed their noble example; and the Nizam of Hyderabad has issued a mandate to the same effect. Truly in all this there is matter of rejoicing. If England had done nothing more than this for the good of her Indian possessions, she would have accomplished a great work; seeing that it was computed, that, at one time, from forty to fifty thousand females annually sacrificed themselves to the flames, under the foolish and vain idea that by so doing, they would be permitted to enjoy Paradise with their husbands for threescore and fifty lacks of years, or about thirty million and fifty thousand years. Such, I believe, were the promises held out to them by their priests; though it has been denied, that the Brahmins encouraged them in their self-immolation.

Back Bay, to all appearance a beautiful and wellsheltered roadstead, is unfit, as a place of anchorage, for shipping of any burthen; the bottom of it being covered with very dangerous rocks, which run out in a sort of reef into the open sea. Occasionally this bay has been the scene of some awful wrecks, in consequence of having been mistaken in the night for Bombay harbour; the two bays being separated only by a narrow strip of land, known to mariners as "Old

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