Chapter XXIV: The Amreeta (1)

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1. So spake the King of Padalon, when, lo! The voice of lamentation ceas'd in Hell, And sudden silence all around them fell, Silence more wild and terrible Than all the infernal dissonance before. Through that portentous stillness, far away, Unwonted sounds were heard, advancing on, And deepening on their way; For now the inexorable hour Was come, and in the fullness of his power, {124} Now that the dreadful rites had all been done, Kehama from the Swerga hastened down, To seize upon the throne of Padalon.

2. He came in all his might and majesty, With all his terrors clad, and all his pride; And, by the attribute of Deity, Which he had won from Heaven, self-multiplied, The dreadful One appear'd on every side. In the same indivisible point of time, At the eight Gates he stood at once, and beat The Warden-Gods of Hell beneath his feet; Then, in his brazen Cars of triumph, straight, At the same moment, drove through every gate. By Aullays, hugest of created kind, Fiercest, and fleeter than the viewless wind, His Cars were drawn, ten yokes of ten abreast, . . What less sufficed for such almighty weight? Eight bridges from the fiery flood arose Growing before his way; and on he goes, And drives the thundering Chariot-wheels along, At once o'er all the roads of Padalon.

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3. Silent and motionless remain The Asuras on their bed of pain, Waiting, with breathless hope, the great event. All Hell was hush'd in dread, Such awe that omnipresent coming spread; Nor had its voice been heard, though all its rout Innumerable had lifted up one shout; Nor if the infernal firmament Had, in one unimaginable burst, Spent its collected thunders, had the sound Been audible, such louder terrors went Before his forms substantial. Round about The presence scattered lightnings far and wide, That quench'd on every side, With their intensest blaze, the feebler fire Of Padalon, even as the stars go out, When, with prodigious light, Some blazing meteor fills the astonish'd night.

4. The Diamond City shakes; The adamantine Rock Is loosen'd with the shock; {126} From its foundation mov'd, it heaves and quakes; The brazen portals crumbling fall to dust; Prone fall the Giant Guards Beneath the Aullays crush'd. On, on, through Yamenpur, their thundering feet Speed from all points to Yamen's judgement-seat. And lo! where multiplied, Behind, before him, and on every side, Wielding all weapons in his countless hands, Around the Lord of Hell Kehama stands! Then, too, the Lord of Hell put forth his might: Thick darkness, blacker than the blackest night, Rose from their wrath, and veil'd The unutterable fight. The power of Fate and Sacrifice prevail'd, And soon the strife was done. Then did the Man-God re-assume His unity, absorbing into one The consubstantiate shapes; and as the gloom Opened, fallen Yamen on the ground was seen, His neck beneath the conquering Rajah's feet, Who on the marble tomb Had his triumphal seat.

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5. Silent the Man-Almighty sate; a smile Gleam'd on his dreadful lips, the while Dallying with power, he paus'd from following up His conquest, as a man in social hour Sips of the grateful cup, Again and yet again, with curious taste, Searching its subtle flavour ere he drink. Even so Kehama now forbore his haste; Having within his reach whate'er he sought, On his own haughty power he seem'd to muse, Pampering his arrogant heart with silent thought. Before him stood the Golden Throne in sight, Right opposite; he could not chuse but see, Nor seeing chuse but wonder. Who are ye Who bear the Golden Throne, tormented there? He cried; for whom doth Destiny prepare The imperial seat? and why are ye but Three?

FIRST STATUE. I of the Children of Mankind was first, Me miserable! who, adding store to store, Heapt up superfluous wealth; and now accurst, For ever I the frantic crime deplore.

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SECOND STATUE. I o'er my Brethren of Mankind the first Usurping power, set up a throne sublime, A King and Conqueror: therefore thus accurst, For ever I in vain repent the crime.

THIRD STATUE. I on the Children of Mankind the first, In God's most holy name, impos'd a tale Of impious falsehood; therefore thus accurst, For ever I in vain the crime bewail.

6. Even as thou here beholdest us, Here we have stood, tormented thus, Such countless ages, that they seem to be Long as eternity, And still we are but Three. A Fourth will come to share Our pain, at yonder vacant corner bear His portion of the burthen, and compleat The golden Throne for Yamen's judgement-seat. Thus hath it been appointed: he must be {129} Equal in guilt to us, the guilty Three. Kehama, come! too long we wait for thee!

7. Thereat, with one accord, The Three took up the word, like choral song, Come, Rajah! Man-God! Earth's Almighty Lord! Kehama, come! we wait for thee too long.

8. A short and sudden laugh of wondering pride Burst from him in his triumph: to reply Scornful he deign'd not; but with alter'd eye, Wherein some doubtful meaning seem'd to lie, He turn'd to Kailyal. Maiden, thus he cried, I need not bid thee see How vain it is to strive with Fate's decree, When hither thou hast fled to fly from me, And lo! even here thou find'st me at thy side. Mine thou must be, being doom'd with me to share The Amreeta-cup of immortality; Yea, by Myself I swear It hath been thus appointed. Joyfully Join then thy hand and heart and will with mine, {130} Nor at such glorious destiny repine, Nor in thy folly more provoke my wrath divine.

9. She answer'd; I have said. It must not be! Almighty as thou art, Thou hast put all things underneath thy feet, But still the resolute heart And virtuous will are free. Never, oh! never, . . never . . can there be Communion, Rajah, between thee and me.

10. Once more, quoth he, I urge, and once alone. Thou seest yon Golden Throne, Where I anon shall set thee by my side; Take thou thy seat thereon, Kehama's willing bride, And I will place the Kingdoms of the World Beneath thy Father's feet, Appointing him the King of mortal men: Else underneath that Throne, The Fourth supporter, he shall stand and groan; Prayers will be vain to move my mercy then.

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11. Again the Virgin answer'd, I have said! Ladurlad caught her in his proud embrace, While on his neck she hid In agony her face.

12. Bring forth the Amreeta-cup! Kehama cried To Yamen, rising sternly in his pride. It is within the Marble Sepulchre, The vanquish'd Lord of Padalon replied, Bid it be opened. . . . Give thy treasure up! Exclaim'd the Man-Almighty to the Tomb. And at his voice and look The massy fabric shook, and opened wide. A huge Anatomy was seen reclin'd Within its marble womb. Give me the Cup! Again Kehama cried; no other charm Was needed than that voice of stern command. From his repose the ghastly form arose, Put forth his bony and gigantic arm, And gave the Amreeta to the Rajah's hand. Take! drink! with accents dread the Spectre said, For thee and Kailyal hath it been assign'd, {132} Ye only of the Children of Mankind.

13. Then was the Man-Almighty's heart elate; This is the consummation! he exclaim'd, Thus have I triumphed over Death and Fate. Now, Seeva! look to thine abode! Henceforth, on equal footing we engage, Alike immortal now, and we will wage Our warfare, God to God! Joy fill'd his impious soul, And to his lips he rais'd the fatal bowl.

14. Thus long the Glendoveer had stood, Watching the wonders of the eventful hour, Amaz'd but undismay'd; for in his heart Faith, overcoming fear, maintain'd its power. Nor had that faith abated, when the God Of Padalon was beaten down in fight; For then he look'd to see the heavenly might Of Seeva break upon them. But when now He saw the Amreeta in Kehama's hand, An impulse which denied all self-command {133} In that extremity Stung him, and he resolved to seize the cup, And dare the Rajah's force in Seeva's sight. Forward he sprung to tempt the unequal fray, When lo! the Anatomy, With warning arm, withstood his desperate way, And from the Golden Throne the fiery Three Again, in one accord, renew'd their song, Kehama, come! we wait for thee too long.

15. O fool of drunken hope and frantic vice! Madman! to seek for power beyond thy scope Of knowledge, and to deem Less than omniscience could suffice To wield omnipotence! O fool, to dream That immortality could be The meed of evil! . . yea thou hast it now, Victim of thine own wicked heart's device, Thou hast thine object now, and now must pay the price.

16. He did not know the awful mystery Of that divinest cup, that as the lips {134} Which touch it, even such its quality, Good or malignant: Madman! and he thinks The blessed prize is won, and joyfully he drinks.

17. Then Seeva opened on the Accursed One His Eye of Anger: upon him alone The wrath-beam fell. He shudders . . . but too late; The deed is done, The dreadful liquor works the will of Fate. Immortal he would be, Immortal he remains; but through his veins Torture at once and immortality, A stream of poison doth the Amreeta run, Infinite everlasting agony. And while within the burning anguish flows, His outward body glows Like molten ore beneath the avenging eye, Doom'd thus to live and burn eternally. The fiery Three, Beholding him, set up a fiendish cry, A song of jubilee: Come, Brother, come! they sung; too long We in our torments have expected thee; {135} Come, Brother, come! henceforth we bear no more The unequal weight; Come, Brother, we are Four!

18. Vain his almightiness, for mightier pain Subdued all power; pain ruled supreme alone. And yielding to the bony hand The unemptied cup, he mov'd toward the throne, And at the vacant corner took his stand. Behold the Golden Throne at length compleat, And Yamen silently ascends the Judgement-Seat.

19. For two alone, of all mankind, to me The Amreeta-Cup was given, Then said the Anatomy; The Man hath drank, the Woman's turn is next. Come, Kailyal, come, receive thy doom, And do the Will of Heaven! . . Wonder, and Fear, and Awe at once perplext The mortal Maiden's heart, but over all Hope rose triumphant. With a trembling hand, Obedient to his call, She took the fated Cup; and, lifting up {136} Her eyes, where holy tears began to swell, Is it not your command, Ye heavenly Powers? as on her knees she fell, The pious Virgin cried; Ye know my innocent will, my heart sincere, Ye govern all things still, And wherefore should I fear!

20. She said, and drank. The Eye of Mercy beam'd Upon the Maid: a cloud of fragrance steam'd Like incense-smoke, as all her mortal frame Dissolved beneath the potent agency Of that mysterious draught; such quality, From her pure touch, the fated Cup partook. Like one entranced she knelt, Feeling her body melt Till all but what was heavenly past away: Yet still she felt Her spirit strong within her, the same heart, With the same loves, and all her heavenly part, Unchanged, and ripen'd to such perfect state, In this miraculous birth, as here on Earth, Dimly our holiest hopes anticipate.

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21. Mine! mine! with rapturous joy Ereenia cried, Immortal now, and yet not more divine; Mine, mine. . . for ever mine! The immortal Maid replied, For ever, ever, thine!

22. Then Yamen said, O thou to whom, by Fate, Alone of all mankind, this lot is given, Daughter of Earth, but now the Child of Heaven Go with thy heavenly Mate, Partaker now of his immortal bliss; Go to the Swerga Bowers, And there recall the hours Of endless happiness.

23. But that sweet Angel, for she still retain'd Her human loves and human piety, As if reluctant at the God's commands, Linger'd, with anxious eye Upon her father fix'd, and spread her hands Toward him wistfully. {138} Go! Yamen cried, nor cast that look behind Upon Ladurlad at this parting hour, For thou shalt find him in thy Mother's Bower.

24. The Car, as Carmala his word obey'd, Mov'd on, and bore away the Maid, While from the Golden Throne the Lord of Death With love benignant, on Ladurlad smil'd, And gently on his head his blessing laid. As sweetly as a child, Whom neither thought disturbs nor care encumbers, Tir'd with long play, at close of summer day, Lies down and slumbers, Even thus as sweet a boon of sleep partaking, By Yamen blest, Ladurlad sunk to rest. Blessed that sleep! more blessed was the waking! For on that night a heavenly morning broke, The light of heaven was round him when he woke, And in the Swerga, in Yedillian's Bower, All whom he lov'd he met, to part no more.

THE END.

NOTES.

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_The Banian Tree._--XIII. p. 4.

The _Burghut_, or Banian, often measures from twenty-four to thirty feet in girth. It is distinguished from every other tree hitherto known, by the very peculiar circumstance of throwing out roots from all its branches. These, being pendant, and perfectly lax, in time reach the ground, which they penetrate, and ultimately become substantial props to the very massy horizontal boughs, which, but for such a support, must either be stopt in their growth, or give way, from their own weight. Many of these _quondam_ roots, changing their outward appearance from a brown rough rind to a regular bark, not unlike that of the beech, increase to a great diameter. They may be often seen from four to five feet in circumference, and {142} in a true perpendicular line. An observer, ignorant of their nature, might think them artificial, and that they had been placed for the purpose of sustaining the boughs from which they originated. They proceed from all the branches indiscriminately, whether near or far removed from the ground. They appear like new swabs, such as are in use on board ships: however, few reach sufficiently low to take a hold of the soil, except those of the lower branches. I have seen some do so from a great height, but they were thin, and did not promise well. Many of the ramifications pendant from the higher boughs are seen to turn round the lower branches, but without any obvious effect on either; possibly, however, they may derive sustenance, even from that partial mode of communication. The height of a full-grown Banian may be from sixty to eighty feet; and many of them, I am fully confident, cover at least two acres. Their leaves are similar to, but rather larger than those of the laurel. The wood of the trunk is used only for fuel; it is light and brittle; but the pillars formed by the roots are valuable, being extremely elastic and light, working with ease, and possessing great toughness: it resembles a good kind of ash.--_Oriental Field Sports_, vol. ii. p. 113.

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----_The Well_
_Which they, with sacrifice of rural pride,_
_Have wedded to the Cocoa-Grove beside._--XIII. p. 5.

It is a general practice, that, when a plantation is made, a well should be dug at one of its sides. The well and the tope are married; a ceremony at which all the village attends, and in which often much money is expended. The well is considered as the husband, as its waters, which are copiously furnished to the young trees during the first hot season, are supposed to cherish and impregnate them. Though vanity and superstition are evidently the basis of these institutions, yet we cannot help admiring their effects, so beautifully ornamenting a torrid country, and affording such general convenience.--_Oriental Sports_, p. 10.

_Tanks._--XIII. p. 5.

Some of these tanks are of very great extent, often covering eight or ten acres; and, besides having steps of masonry, perhaps fifty or sixty feet in breadth, are faced with brick-work, plastered in the most substantial manner. The corners are generally ornamented with round or polygon pavilions of a neat appearance.--_Oriental Sports_, vol. ii. p. 116.

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There are two kinds of tanks, which we confound under one common name, though nothing can be more different. The first is the _Eray_, which is formed by throwing a mound or bank across a valley or hollow ground, so that the rain water collects in the upper part of the valley, and is let out on the lower part by sluices, for the purposes of cultivation. The other kind is the _Culam_, which is formed by digging out the earth, and is destined for supplying the inhabitants with water for domestic purposes. The _Culams_ are very frequently lined on all the four sides with cut stone, and are the most elegant works of the natives.--BUCHANAN.

Where there are no springs or rivers to furnish them with water, as it is in the northern parts, where there are but two or three springs, they supply this defect by saving of rain water; which they do by casting up great banks in convenient places, to stop and contain the rains that fall, and so save it till they have occasion to let it out into the fields: They are made rounding, like a C, or half-moon. Every town has one of these ponds, which, if they can get but filled with water, they count their corn is as good as in the barn. It was no small work to the ancient inhabitants to make all these banks, of which there is a great number, being some two, some three fathoms in height, and in length some above a mile, some {145} less, not all of a size. They are now grown over with great trees, and so seem natural hills. When they would use the water, they cut a gap in one end of the bank, and so draw the water by little and little, as they have occasion, for the watering their corn.

These ponds, in dry weather, dry up quite. If they should dig these ponds deep, it would not be so convenient for them. It would indeed contain the water well, but would not so well, nor in such plenty, empty out itself into their grounds. In these ponds are alligators, which, when the water is dried up, depart into the woods, and down to the rivers, and, in the time of rains, come up again into the ponds. They are but small, nor do use to catch people, nevertheless they stand in some fear of them.

The corn they sow in these parts is of that sort that is soonest ripe, fearing lest their waters should fail. As the water dries out of these ponds, they make use of them for fields, treading the mud with buffaloes, and then sowing rice thereon, and frequently casting up water with scoops on it.--KNOX, p. 9.

_The Lotus._--XIII. p. 5.

The lotus abounds in the numerous lakes and ponds of the province of Garah; and we had the pleasure of comparing {146} several varieties; single and full, white, and tinged with deep or with faint tints of red. To a near view, the simple elegance of the white lotus gains no accession of beauty from the multiplication of its petals, nor from the tinge of gaudy hue; but the richest tint is most pleasing, when a lake, covered with full-blown lotas, is contemplated.--_Journey from Mirzapur to Nagpur_.--Asiatic Annual Register, 1806.

_They built them up a Bower, &c._--XIII. p. 5.

The materials of which these houses are made are always easy to be procured, and the structure is so simple, that a spacious, and by no means uncomfortable dwelling, suited to the climate, may be erected in one day. Our habitation, consisting of three small rooms, and a hall open to the north, in little more than four hours was in readiness for our reception; fifty or sixty labourers completed it in that time, and on emergency could perform the work in much less. Bamboos, grass for thatching, and the ground rattan, are all the materials requisite: not a nail is used in the whole edifice: A row of strong bamboos, from eight to ten feet high, are fixed firm in the ground, which describe the outline, and are the supporters of the building: smaller bamboos are then tied horizontally, by strips of the ground rattan, to these upright posts: {147} The walls, composed of bamboo mats, are fastened to the sides with similar ligatures: bamboo rafters are quickly raised, and a roof formed, over which thatch is spread in regular layers, and bound to the roof by filaments of rattan. A floor of bamboo grating is next laid in the inside, elevated two or three feet above the ground: this grating is supported on bamboos, and covered with mats and carpets. Thus ends the process, which is not more simple than effectual. When the workmen take pains, a house of this sort is proof against very inclement weather. We experienced, during our stay at Meeday, a severe storm of wind and rain, but no water penetrated, nor thatch escaped: and if the tempest should blow down the house, the inhabitants would run no risk of having, their brains knocked out, or their bones broken; the fall of the whole fabric would not crush a lady's lap-dog.--SYMES's _Embassy to Ava_.

_Jungle-grass._--XIII. p. 6.

In this district the long grass called jungle is more prevalent than I ever yet noticed. It rises to the height of seven or eight feet, and is topped with a beautiful white down, resembling a swan's feather. It is the mantle with which nature here covers all the uncultivated ground, and at once veils the indolence of the people and the nakedness {148} of their land. It has a fine shewy appearance, as it undulates in the wind, like the waves of the sea. Nothing but the want of greater variety to its colour prevents it from being one of the finest and most beautiful objects in that rich store of productions with which nature spontaneously supplies the improvident natives.--TENNANT.

_In such libations, pour'd in open glades,_
_Beside clear streams and solitary shades,_
_The Spirits of the virtuous dead delight._--XIII. p. 6.

The Hindoos are enjoined by the _Veds_ to offer a cake, which is called _Peenda_, to the ghosts of their ancestors, as far back as the third generation. This ceremony is performed on the day of the new moon in every month. The offering of water is in like manner commanded to be performed daily; and this ceremony is called _Tarpan_, to satisfy, to appease. The souls of such men as have left children to continue their generation, are supposed to be transported, immediately upon quitting their bodies, into a certain region called the _Peetree Log_, where they may continue in proportion to their former virtues, provided these ceremonies be not neglected; otherwise they are precipitated into _Nark_, and doomed to be born again in the bodies of unclean beasts; and until, by repeated {149} regenerations, all their sins are done away, and they attain such a degree of perfection as will entitle them to what is called _Mooktee_, eternal salvation, by which is understood a release from future transmigration, and an absorption in the nature of the godhead, who is called Brahm.--WILKINS. _Note to the Bhagvat Geeta_.

The divine names are always pleased with an oblation in empty glades, naturally clean, on the banks of rivers, and in solitary spots.--_Inst. of Menu_.

_Voomdavee._--XIII. p. 7.

This wife of Veeshnoo is the Goddess of the Earth and of Patience. No direct adoration is paid her; but she is held to be a silent and attentive spectator of all that passes in the world.--KINDERSLEY.

_Tassel Grass._--XIII. p. 8.

The _Surput_, or tassel-grass, which is much the same as the guinea-grass, grows to the height of twelve or fourteen feet. Its stem becomes so thick as to resemble in some measure a reed. It is very strong, and grows very luxuriantly: it is even used as a fence against cattle; for which purpose it is often planted on banks, excavated from ditches, to enclose fields of corn, &c. It grows wild in all the uncultivated parts of India, but especially in the {150} lower provinces, in which it occupies immense tracts; sometimes mixing with, and rising above coppices; affording an asylum for elephants, rhinoceroses, tygers, &c. It frequently is laid by high winds, of which breeding sows fail not to take advantage, by forming their nests, and concealing their young under the prostrate grass.--_Oriental Sports_, vol. i. p. 32.

_Lo, from his trunk, upturn'd, aloft he flings_
_The grateful shower, and now,_
_Plucking the broad-leav'd bough_
_Of yonder plane,--he moves it to and fro._--XIII. p. 9.

Nature has provided the elephant with means to cool its heated surface, by enabling it to draw from its throat, by the aid of its trunk, a copious supply of saliva, which the animal spurts with force very frequently all over its skin. It also sucks up dust, and blows it over its back and sides, to keep off the flies, and may often be seen fanning itself with a large bough, which it uses with great ease and dexterity.--_Oriental Sports_, vol. i. p. 100.

_Till his strong temples, bathed with sudden dews,_
_Their fragrance of delight and love diffuse._--XIII p. 9.

The Hindoo poets frequently allude to the fragrant juice which oozes, at certain seasons, from small ducts {151} in the temples of the male elephant, and is useful in relieving him from the redundant moisture, with which he is then oppressed; and they even describe the bees as allured by the scent, and mistaking it for that of the sweetest flowers. When Crishna visited Sanc'ha-dwip, and had destroyed the demon who infested that delightful country, he passed along the bank of a river, and was charmed with a delicious odour, which its waters diffused in their course: He was eager to view the source of so fragrant a stream, but was informed by the natives that it flowed from the temples of an elephant, immensely large, milk-white, and beautifully formed; that he governed a numerous race of elephants; and that the odoriferous fluid which exuded from his temples in the season of love had formed the river; that the Devas, or inferior gods, and the Apsarases, or nymphs, bathed and sported in its waters, impassioned and intoxicated with the liquid perfume.--WILFORD. _Asiatic Researches_.

_The antic monkeys, whose wild gambols late_
_Shook the whole wood._--XIII. p. 10.

They are so numerous on the island of Bulama, says Captain Beaver in his excellent book, that I have seen, on a calm evening, when there was not an air sufficiently strong to agitate a leaf, the whole surrounding wood {152} in as much motion, from their playful gambols among its branches, as if it had blown a strong wind.

_Not that in emulous skill that sweetest bird_
_Her rival strain would try._--XIII. p. 10.

I have been assured, by a credible eye-witness, that two wild antelopes used often to come from their woods to the place where a more savage beast, Sirajuddaulah, entertained himself with concerts, and that they listened to the strains with an appearance of pleasure, till the monster, in whose soul there was no music, shot one of them, to display his archery. A learned native of this country told me that he had frequently seen the most venomous and malignant snakes leave their holes, upon hearing tunes on a flute, which, as he supposed, gave them peculiar delight. An intelligent Persian, who repeated his story again and again, and permitted me to write it down from his lips, declared, he had more than once been present when a celebrated lutanist, _Mirza Mohammed_, surnamed _Bulbul_, was playing to a large company, in a grove near _Shiraz_, where he distinctly saw the nightingales trying to vie with the musician; sometimes warbling on the trees, sometimes fluttering from branch to branch, as if they wished to approach the instrument whence the melody proceeded, and at length dropping on {153} the ground, in a kind of ecstacy, from which they were soon raised, he assured me, by a change of the mode. I hardly know, says Sir William Jones, how to disbelieve the testimony of men who had no system of their own to support, and could have no interest in deceiving me.--_Asiatic Researches_.

_No idle ornaments deface_
_Her natural grace._--XIII. p. 10.

The Hindoo Wife, in Sir William Jones's poem, describes her own toilet-tasks:--

Nor were my night thoughts, I confess,
Free from solicitude for dress;
How best to bind my flowing hair
With art, yet with an artless air,--
My hair, like musk in scent and hue,
Oh! blacker far, and sweeter too!
In what nice braid, or glossy curl,
To fix a diamond or a pearl,
And where to smooth the love-spread toils
With nard or jasmin's fragrant oils;
How to adjust the golden _Teic_,[30]
And most adorn my forehead sleek;
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What _Condals_[31] should emblaze my ears,
Like _Seita's_[32] waves, or _Seita's_[33] tears;
How elegantly to dispose
Bright circlets for my well-form'd nose;
With strings of rubies how to deck,
Or emerald rows, my stately neck;
While some that ebon tower embraced,
Some pendent sought my slender waist;
How next my purfled veil to chuse
From silken stores of varied hues,
Which would attract the roving view,
Pink, violet, purple, orange, blue;
The loveliest mantle to select,
Or unembellished or bedeck'd;
And how my twisted scarf to place
With most inimitable grace,
(Too thin its warp, too fine its woof,
For eyes of males not beauty-proof;)
What skirts the mantle best would suit,
Ornate, with stars, or tissued fruit,
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The flower-embroidered or the plain,
With silver or with golden vein;
The _Chury_[34] bright, which gayly shows
Fair objects aptly to compose;
How each smooth arm, and each soft wrist,
By richest _Cosees_[35] might be kiss'd,
While some my taper ankles round,
With sunny radiance tinged the ground.

See how he kisses the lip of my rival, and imprints on her forehead an ornament of pure musk, black as the young antelope on the lunar orb! Now, like the husband of _Reti_, he fixes white blossoms on her dark locks, where they gleam like flashes of lightning among the curled clouds. On her breasts, like two firmaments, he places a string of gems like a radiant constellation; he binds on her arms, graceful as the stalks of the water-lily, and adorned with hands glowing like the petals of its flower, a bracelet of sapphires, which resemble a cluster of bees. Ah! see how he ties round her waist a rich girdle illumined with golden bells, which seem to laugh as they tinkle, at the inferior brightness of the leafy garlands which lovers hang on their bowers, to propitiate the god of {156} desire. He places her soft foot, as he reclines by her side, on his ardent bosom, and stains it with the ruddy hue of Yavaca.--_Songs of Jayadeva_.

_Sandal-streak._--XIII. p. 10.

The Hindoos, especially after bathing, paint their faces with ochres and sandal-wood ground very fine into a pulp.

The custom is principally confined to the male sex, though the women occasionally wear a round spot, either of sandal, which is of a light dun colour, or of _singuiff_, that is, a preparation of vermilion, between the eye-brows, and a stripe of the same running up the front of the head, in the furrow made according to the general practice of dividing all the frontal hair equally to the right and left, where it is rendered smooth, and glazed by a thick mucilage, made by steeping lintseed for a while in water. When dry, the hair is all firmly matted together, and will retain its form for many days together.--_Oriental Sports_, vol. i. p. 271.

_Nor arm, nor ankle-ring._--XIII. p. 10.

Glass rings are universally worn by the women of the Decan, as an ornament on the wrists; and their applying closely to the arm is considered as a mark of delicacy {157} and beauty, for they must of course be past over the hand. In doing this a girl seldom escapes without drawing blood, and rubbing part of the skin from her hand; and as every well-dressed girl has a number of rings on each arm, and as these are frequently breaking, the poor creatures suffer much from their love of admiration.--BUCHANAN.

_The dear retreat._--XIII. p. 11.

There is a beautiful passage in Statius, which may be quoted here: It is in that poet's best manner:

Qualis vicino volucris jam sedula partu,
Jamque timens quâ fronde domum suspendat inanem,
Providet hinc ventos, hinc anxia cogitat angues,
Hinc homines; tandem dubiæ placet umbra, novisque
Vix stetit in ramis, et protinus arbor amatur.
_Achil_. ii. 212.

_Jaga-Naut._--XIV. p. 14.

This temple is to the Hindoos what Mecca is to the Mahommedans. It is resorted to by pilgrims from every quarter of India. It is the chief seat of Brahminical power, and a strong-hold of their superstition. At the {158} annual festival of the Butt Jattra, seven hundred thousand persons (as has been computed by the Pundits in College) assemble at this place. The number of deaths in a single year, caused by voluntary devotement, by imprisonment for non-payment of the demands of the Brahmins, or by the scarcity of provisions for such a multitude, is incredible. The precincts of the place are covered with bones.--CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN.

Many thousands of people are employed in carrying water from Hurdwar to Juggernat, for the uses of that temple. It is there supposed to be peculiarly holy, as it issues from what is called the Cow's Mouth. This superstitious notion is the cause of as much lost labour as would long since have converted the largest province of Asia into a garden. The numbers thus employed are immense; they travel with two flasks of the water slung over the shoulder by means of an elastic piece of bamboo. The same quantity which employs, perhaps, fifteen thousand persons, might easily be carried down the Ganges in a few boats annually. Princes and families of distinction have this water carried to them in all parts of Hindostan; it is drank at feasts, as well as upon religious occasions.--TENNANT.

A small river near Kinouge is held by some as even more efficacious in washing away moral defilement than {159} the Ganges itself. Dr Tennant says, that a person in Ceylon drinks daily of this water, though at the distance of, perhaps, three thousand miles, and at the expense of five thousand rupees per month!

No distinction of casts is made at this temple, but all, like a nation descended from one common stock, eat, drink, and make merry together.--STAVORINUS.

_The seven-headed Idol._--XIV. p. 15.

The idol of _Jaggenat_ is in shape like a serpent, with seven heads; and on the cheeks of each head it hath the form of a wing upon each cheek, which wings open and shut and flap as it is carried in a stately chariot, and the idol in the midst of it; and one of the _moguls_ sitting behind it in the chariot, upon a convenient place, with a canopy, to keep the sun from injuring of it.

When I, with horror, beheld these strange things, I called to mind the eighteenth chapter of the _Revelations_, and the first verse, and likewise the sixteenth and seventeenth verses of the said chapter, in which places there is a beast, and such idolatrous worship, mentioned; and those sayings in that text are herein truly accomplished in the sixteenth verse; for the _Bramins_ are all marked in the forehead, and likewise all that come to worship the {160} idol are marked also in their foreheads.--BRUTON. _Churchill's Collection_,

_The Chariot of the God._--XIV. p. 15.

The size of the chariot is not exaggerated. Speaking of other such, Niecamp says, _Currus tam horrendæ magnitudinis sunt, ut vel mille homines uni trahendo vix sufficiant._--i. 10. § 18.

They have built a great chariot, that goeth on sixteen wheels of a side, and every wheel is five feet in height, and the chariot itself is about thirty feet high. In this chariot, on their great festival days, at night, they place their wicked god _Jaggarnat_; and all the _Bramins_, being in number nine thousand, then attend this great idol, besides of _ashmen_ and _fackeires_ some thousands, or more than a good many.

The chariot is most richly adorned with most rich and costly ornaments; and the aforesaid wheels are placed very complete in a round circle, so artificially, that every wheel doth its proper office without any impediment; for the chariot is aloft, and in the centre betwixt the wheels: they have also more than two thousand lights with them: And this chariot, with the idol, is also drawn with the greatest and best men of the town; and they are so eager and greedy to draw it, that whosoever, {161} by shouldering, crowding, shoving, heaving, thrusting, or any violent way, can but come to lay a hand upon the ropes, they think themselves blessed and happy: and, when it is going along the city, there are many that will offer themselves as a sacrifice to this idol, and desperately lie down on the ground, that the chariot-wheels may run over them, whereby they are killed outright; some get broken arms, some broken legs; so that many of them are so destroyed, and by this means they think to merit heaven.--BRUTON. _Churchill's Collection_.

They sometimes lie down in the track of this machine a few hours before its arrival, and, taking a soporiferous draught, hope to meet death asleep.--CLAUDIUS BUCHANAN.

_A harlot-band._--XIV. p. 19.

There are in India common women, called Wives of the Idol. When a woman has made a vow to obtain children, if she brings into the world a beautiful daughter, she carries her to _Bod_, so their idol is called, with whom she leaves her. This girl, when she is arrived at a proper age, takes an apartment in the public place, hangs a curtain before the door, and waits for those who are passing, as well Indians as those of other sects among whom this debauchery is permitted. She prostitutes {162} herself for a certain price, and all that she can thus acquire she carries to the priest of the idol, that he may apply it to the service of the temple. Let us, says the Mohammedan relater, bless the almighty and glorious God, that he has chosen us, to exempt us from all the crimes into which men are led by their unbelief.--_Anciennes Relations_.

Incited, unquestionably, says Mr. Maurice, by the hieroglyphic emblem of vice so conspicuously elevated, and so strikingly painted in the temples of Mahadeo, the priests of that deity industriously selected the most beautiful females that could be found, and, in their tenderest years, with great pomp and solemnity, consecrated them (as it is impiously called) to the service of the presiding divinity of the pagoda. They were trained up in every art to delude and to delight; and, to the fascination of external beauty, their artful betrayers added the attractions arising from mental accomplishments. Thus was an invariable rule of the Hindoos, _that women have no concern with literature_, dispensed with upon this infamous occasion. The moment these hapless victims reached maturity, they fell victims to the lust of the Brahmins. They were early taught to practise the most alluring blandishments, to roll the expressive eye of wanton pleasure, and to invite to criminal indulgence, by {163} stealing upon the beholder the tender look of voluptuous languishing. They were instructed to mould their elegant and airy forms into the most enticing attitudes and the most lascivious gestures, while the rapid and graceful motion of their feet, adorned with golden bells, and glittering with jewels, kept unison with the exquisite melody of their voices. Every pagoda has a band of these young syrens, whose business, on great festivals, is to dance in public before the idol, to sing hymns in his honour, and in private to enrich the treasury of that pagoda with the wages of prostitution. These women are not, however, regarded in a dishonourable light; they are considered as _wedded to the idol_, and they partake of the veneration paid to him. They are forbidden even to desert the pagoda where they are educated, and are never permitted to marry; but the offspring, if any, of their criminal embraces are considered as sacred to the idol: the boys are taught to play on the sacred instruments used at the festivals, and the daughters are devoted to the abandoned occupations of their mothers.--_Indian Antiquities_.

These impostors take a young maid, of the fairest they can meet with, to be the bride, (as they speak and bear the besotted people in hand) of _Jagannat_, and they leave her all night in the temple (whither they {164} have carried her) with the idol, making her believe that _Jagannat_ himself will come and embrace her, and appointing her to ask him, whether it will be a fruitful year, what kind of processions, feasts, prayers, and alms he demands to be made for it. In the mean time one of these lustful priests enters at night by a little back-door into the temple, deflowereth this young maid, and maketh her believe any thing he pleaseth; and the next day, being transported from this temple into another with the same magnificence, she was carried before upon the chariot of triumph, on the side of _Jagannat_ her bridegroom: these _Brahmans_ make her say aloud, before all the people, whatsoever she had been taught of these cheats, as if she had learnt it from the very mouth of _Jagannat._--BERNIER.

_Baly._--XV. p. 26.

The fifth incarnation was in a Bramin dwarf, under the name of Vamen; it was wrought to restrain the pride of the giant Baly. The latter, after having conquered the gods, expelled them from Sorgon; he was generous, true to his word, compassionate, and charitable. Vichenou, under the form of a very little Bramin, presented himself before him while he was sacrificing, and asked him for three paces of land to build a hut. Baly ridiculed the {165} apparent imbecility of the dwarf, in telling him, that he ought not to limit his demand to a bequest so trifling; that his generosity could bestow a much larger donation of land. Vamen answered, That, being of so small a stature, what he asked was more than sufficient. The prince immediately granted his request, and, to ratify his donation, poured water into his right hand; which was no sooner done than the dwarf grew so prodigiously, that his body filled the universe! He measured the earth with one pace, and the heavens with another, and then summoned Baly to give him his word for the third. The prince then recognised Vichenou, adored him, and presented his head to him; but the god, satisfied with his submission, sent him to govern the Padalon, and permitted him to return every year to the earth, the day of the full moon, in the month of November.--SONNERAT's _Voyages_, vol. i. p. 24.

_The sacred cord._--XV. p. 30.

The Brahmans who officiate at the temples generally go with their heads uncovered, and the upper part of the body naked. The _Zennar_, or sacred string, is hung round the body from the left shoulder; a piece of white cotton cloth is wrapped round the loins, which descends under the knee, but lower on the left side than on the {166} other; and in cold weather they sometimes cover their bodies with a shawl, and their heads with a red cap.--The _Zennar_ is made of a particular kind of perennial cotton, called _Verma_: it is composed of a certain number of threads of a fixed length: the _Zennar_ worn by the Khatries has fewer threads than that worn by the Brahmans, and that worn by the Bhyse fewer than that worn by the Khatries; but those of the Sodra cast are excluded from this distinction, none of them being permitted to wear it.--CRAUFURD.

_The City of Baly._--XV. p. 31.

Ruins of Malâbalipûr, the City of the great Baly.

A rock, or rather hill of stone, is that which first engrosses the attention on approaching the place; for as it rises abruptly out of a level plain of great extent, consists chiefly of one single stone, and is situated very near to the sea-beach, it is such a kind of object as an inquisitive traveller would naturally turn aside to examine. Its shape is also singular and romantic, and, from a distant view, has an appearance like some antique and lofty edifice. On coming near to the foot of the rock from the north, works of imagery and sculpture crowd so thick upon the eye, as might seem to favour the idea of {167} a petrified town, like those that have been fabled in different parts of the world, by too credulous travellers. Proceeding on by the foot of the hill, on the side facing the sea, there is a pagoda rising out of the ground, of one solid stone, about sixteen or eighteen feet high, which seems to have been cut upon the spot, out of a detached rock, that has been found of a proper size for that purpose. The top is arched, and the style of architecture according to which it is formed different from any now used in those parts. A little further on, there appears, upon a huge surface of stone, that juts out a little from the side of the hill, a numerous group of human figures, in bass-relief, considerably larger than life, representing the most remarkable persons whose actions are celebrated in the Nahâbharit, each of them in an attitude, or with weapons, or other insignia, expressive of his character, or of some one of his most famous exploits. All these figures are doubtless much less distinct than they were at first; for upon comparing these and the rest of the sculptures that are exposed to the sea-air, with others at the same place, whose situation has afforded them protection from that element, the difference is striking; the former being every where much defaced, while the others are fresh as recently finished. An excavation in another part of the east side of the great rock appears {168} to have been made on the same plan, and for the same purpose, that Chowltries are usually built in that country, that is to say, for the accommodation of travellers. The rock is hollowed out to the size of a spacious room, and two or three rows of pillars are left, as a seeming support to the mountainous mass of stone which forms the roof.

The ascent of the hill on the north is, from its natural shape, gradual and easy at first, and is in other parts rendered more so, by very excellent steps, cut out in several places where the communication would be difficult or impracticable without them. A winding stair of this sort leads to a kind of temple cut out of the solid rock, with some figures of idols in high relief upon the walls, very well finished. From this temple there are flights of steps, that seem to have led to some edifice formerly standing upon the hill; nor does it seem absurd to suppose that this may have been a palace, to which this temple may have appertained; for, besides the small detached range of stairs that are here and there cut in the rock, and seem as if they had once led to different parts of one great building, there appear in many places small water channels cut also in the rock, as if for drains to an house; and the whole top of the hill is strewed with small round pieces of brick, which may be supposed, {169} from their appearance, to have been worn down to their present form during the lapse of many ages. On a plain surface of the rock, which may once have served as the floor of some apartment, there is a platform of stone, about 8 or 9 feet long, by 3 or 4 wide, in a situation rather elevated, with two or three steps leading up to it, perfectly resembling a couch or bed, and a lion very well executed at the upper end of it, by way of pillow; the whole of one piece, being part of the hill itself. This the Bramins, inhabitants of the place, call the bed of Dhermarâjah, or Judishter, the eldest of the five brothers, whose exploits are the leading subject in the Mahabhârit. And at a considerable distance from this, at such a distance, indeed, as the apartments of the women might be supposed to be from that of the men, is a bath, excavated also from the rock, with steps in the inside, which the Bramins call the Bath of Dropedy, the wife of Judishter and his brothers. How much credit is due to this tradition, and whether this stone couch may not have been anciently used as a kind of throne, rather than a bed, is matter for future enquiry. A circumstance, however, which may seem to favour this idea is, that a throne, in the Shanscrit and other Hindoo languages, is called _Singhâsen_, which is compounded of _Sing_, a lion, and _ásen_, a seat.

{170}

But though these works may be deemed stupendous, they are surpassed by others that are to be seen at the distance of about a mile, or mile and half, to the south of the hill. They consist of two pagodas, of about 30 feet long, by 20 feet wide, and about as many in height, cut out of the solid rock, and each consisting originally of one single stone. Their form is different from the style of architecture according to which idol temples are now built in that country. These sculptures approach nearer to the Gothic taste, being surmounted by arched roofs, or domes, not semicircular, but composed of two segments of circles meeting in a point at top. Near these also stand an elephant full as big as life, and a lion much larger than the natural size, both hewn also out of one stone.

The great rock is about 50 or 100 yards from the sea; but close to the sea are the remains of a pagoda built of brick, and dedicated to Sîb, the greatest part of which has evidently been swallowed up by that element; for the door of the innermost apartment, in which the idol is placed, and before which there are always two or three spacious courts surrounded with walls, is now washed by the waves, and the pillar used to discover the meridian at the time of founding the pagoda is seen standing at some distance in the sea. In the neighbourhood of {171} this building there are some detached rocks, washed also by the waves, on which there appear sculptures, though now much worn and defaced: And the natives of the place declared to the writer of this account, that the more aged people among them remembered to have seen the tops of several pagodas far out in the sea, which, being covered with copper, (probably gilt,) were particularly visible at sun-rise, as their shining surface used then to reflect the sun's rays, but that now that effect was no longer produced, as the copper had since become incrusted with mould and verdigrease.--CHAMBERS. _Asiatic Researches_.

_Thou hast been called, O Sleep! the friend of Woe,_
_But 'tis the happy who have call'd thee so._--XV. p. 36.

Daniel has a beautiful passage concerning Richard II.--sufficiently resembling this part of the poem to be inserted here:

To _Flint_, from thence, unto a restless bed,
That miserable night he comes convey'd;
Poorly provided, poorly followed,
Uncourted, unrespected, unobey'd;
Where, if uncertain Sleep but hovered
Over the drooping cares that heavy weigh'd,
{172}
Millions of figures Fantasy presents
Unto that sorrow wakened grief augments.

His new misfortune makes deluded Sleep
Say 'twas not so:--false dreams the truth deny:
Wherewith he starts; feels waking cares do creep
Upon his soul, and gives his dream the lie,
Then sleeps again:--and then again as deep
Deceits of darkness mock his misery.
_Civil War_, Book II. st. 52, 53.

_The Aullay._--XVI. p. 40.

This monster of Hindoo imagination is a horse with the trunk of an elephant, but bearing about the same proportion to the elephant in size, that the elephant itself does to a common sheep. In one of the prints to Mr. Kindersley's "Specimens of Hindoo Literature," an aullay is represented taking up an elephant with his trunk.

_----Did then the Ocean wage_
_His war for love and envy, not in rage,_
_O thou fair City, that he spares thee thus?_--XVI. p. 40.