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either by the fire consuming its substance, or changing its colour. Travellers mention, that if a hollow tube is put a few inches into the ground, for some hundred yards around this rocky opening, a similar flame issues through the orifice: the poorer people, who live in the neighbourhood, frequently cook their victuals over the flame. What the cause may be I know not, but the effects of subterraneous fire, which I observed at Solfaterra, near Naples, greatly resemble those on the border of the Caspian.

I am almost led to suppose that the worship of fire originated at the mountain of Baku. An ancient historian* mentions that the Persians relate a story concerning Zoroaster, whose love of wisdom and virtue, leading him to a solitary life upon a mountain, he found it one day all in a flame, shining with celestial fire; from the midst of which he came without any harm, and instituted certain sacrifices to God, who, he declared, had appeared to him. In their nuptial ceremonies, and many other particulars, the modern Parsees have adopted the customs of the Hindoos ; but their mode of treating the dead, seems to be pe culiar to themselves. At Bombay, soon after the decease, the body is conveyed to Malabar Hill, an eminence about three miles from the town; where are two large cemeteries, fifty or sixty feet in diameter, surrounded by circular walls, twenty feet high. Within this enclosure is a smooth pavement, sloping gradually from the side of the wall to the centre, where it terminates in a deep pit; the bodies are laid on this pavement, which is divided into three distinct parts, for men, women, and children; they are exposed naked,

* Dion Chrysostom.

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to be devoured by vultures and birds of prey, which generally hover over them: a person is appointed to watch which of the eyes they first pluck out; as they annex some superstitious idea, respecting the happiness or misery of the departed spirit from this circumstance and the bones are afterwards deposited in a pit, to make room for others in this extraordinary mausoleum. When they are carrying the corpse to the tomb, which is a duty belonging to a particular set of people, they must neither speak, nor touch wood; for which reason the body is laid upon an iron bier, and the drawbridges at the town-gates, when they pass over them, are covered, either with sheets of copper or with fresh earth. It is well authenticated that for a long time the ancient magi retained the exclusive privilege of having their bodies left as a prey to carnivorous animals, and that afterwards the Persians exposed all the dead bodies of their friends indiscriminately, to be devoured by birds and beasts of prey; a custom which is still in some measure adhered to by their descendants in India, and by the Guebres in Persia, although so very repugnant to the feelings of almost every other civilized nation.

The Parsees are generally a tall comely race, athletic and well formed, and much fairer than the natives of Hindostan; the women are celebrated more for chastity than cleanliness; the girls are delicate and pleasing, but the bloom of youth soon decays; before twenty they grow coarse and masculine, in a far greater degree than either the Hindoos or Mahomedans. The Parsees are certainly an industrious and increasing people, and a valuable class of subjects. in the Company's settlements.

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PORTUGUEZE IN INDIA,

CHAPTER VII.

Portugueze, and their Descendants in India-Romish Missionaries -Indian Converts-General Remarks on the Moral and Religious System of the Hindoos-The Deluge confirmed by the Hindoo Scriptures-Comparison between the Egyptians and Hindoos-Further Illustration of the Hindoo Religion; compared with the Mosaical Dispensation-Irán in its ancient stateQuotation from Bishop Watson.

SUCH as I have endeavoured to describe it in the preceding chapters, was the state of Hindostan, and such the character of its inhabitants, at the close of the fifteenth century, when the passage to India, round the Cape of Good Hope, was discovered by Vasco de Gama. That nation soon extended her commerce to its remotest shores, and established settlements in different regions, especially on the Malabar coast, and island of Ceylon: the excellent harbour at Bombay caused it to become one of the principal ports: it continued under their government until it was ceded to the English, on the marriage of the Infanta Catherine to Charles the Second. The Portugueze have left numerous descendants there, who live under the protection of the English laws, and enjoy the free exercise of their religion: they are generally styled Portugueze, retain their European names and dress, and speak their original language, although greatly corrupted; but from their intermar

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riages with the natives of inferior tribes, their complexion is darker than the high castes of Hindoos, and their education is very contracted.

The proselytes made by the Romish missionaries in the East, are generally among the lowest tribes of the Hindoos or such whose misconduct having caused them to lose their caste, are glad to embrace Christianity as a religion which is open to all. But whenever the Hindoos or Mahomedans are baptized into the Christian faith, the women lay aside their becoming eastern drapery, and put on a jacket and petticoat; and the men wear as much of the European apparel as their circumstances will admit of: a coat and stockings seldom form part of their dress, except on a religious festival, or some particular occasion.

Many respectable Armenian merchants, with their families, as well as a few Persians, Turks, Arabians, and Jews, occasionally reside at Bombay; but the Hindoos, Mahomedans, and Parsees, form the great mass of the inhabitants. Fearful of prolixity, I have, in the foregoing pages, omitted many things inserted in my original letters; but I have endeavoured to give a faithful portrait of these interesting people; every thing I have asserted was dictated by as impartial a judgment as I was enabled to form, during a long residence among them. I viewed them with an unprejudiced mind, and wherever I went, I sought for knowledge at the best sources of imformation among the natives themselves: but in that respect I find my own opinion confirmed by an intelligent observer, that "to whatever country of Europe the traveller directs his steps, he meets with people ready to give him informnation, and proud to display their knowledge; in

Asia the reverse occurs; the natives are difficult of access, averse to strangers, and reserved in their manners slaves to their own customs, they hold those of other nations in contempt. Ever desirous to preserve their own dignity, they are too apt to consider the unstudied manners and familiarity of the English, as marks of disrespect; and will never conceive we dare to conduct ourselves in like manner to our own superiors."

Since my return to Europe, the researches into Asiatic history, the investigation of oriental manners and customs, aud especially an inquiry into the moral and religious system of the Hindoos, have engaged general attention: much valuable information has been given to the public within these few years, by those who made their observations in Hindostan, or by literati who derived their knowledge from philosophical studies at home; who have compared the transactions of remote ages with the occurrences of the present day; and from the stores of sacred and profane history, have produced such documents and proofs in favour of the former, as must satisfy every candid and unprejudiced mind.

Among the most interesting of the recent publications on this important subject, are the Bamptonian lectures at Oxford, by Mr. Carwithen, on a view of the Brahminical religion, its confirmation of the truth of the Sacred History, and its influence on the moral character. I trust a few extracts from so valuable a source of information, will not be deemed irrelevant to the general tendency of these volumes.

The facts stated in the second lecture tend to establish the following important conclusions: that the