renowned for justice, and established in Italy the golden age. All we hear of him are about his vices and his tyranny.

Classed with the lowest tribe, he is constituted the Raja of the Soodrs, Chandals, and Mleeches; while they, considering him an adept at all kinds of wickedness, pay him homage also as their guru; and to ensure the accomplishment of any nefarious transaction, offerings would this day be made at his shrine. Lame bramins, too, are sought for on this day, and fed in honour of their limping deity. Oil is rubbed over their bodies. Bathe them in warm water, present them rice, peas, &c. and you will dispel the evil influence of Sance.

His day boasts the exclusive privilege of being devoted to the acquirement of magic, exciting quarrels, killing brutes, and all sorts of enormities. This is the day to celebrate Bishen,* under the form of Marsingh, destroying the monster Hirnakasap: if figures described with huldee, and offerings of oil and grain, are presented to them, Lakshmi will be gracious to such votaries. The night of Sance, as of every day of the week, is sacred to the worship of Hanumán, as Muhabar. He is the god of attack and enterprize, and they, who have in view such objects, will offer at his shrine by night. They are required to anoint the image with oil and sendúr (red lead), to place on its neck a wreath of jasoon and ag (red flowers); the benefits will be success, and exemption from sickness. This is done particularly in Srawan.

Having closed the description of these ephemeral deities and the observances requisite on the days over which they respectively preside, I will notice a few points as they regard the general form of worship. The chief of these are, the achamon, or sipping water from the hand for purification, preparatory to worship; the namaskor, or obeissance; the dhúp, required at the commencement and termination of worship, and consisting in burning twelve ingredients, viz, chandan (sandal), gugul (a gum), &c. before the image; dup, the more simple ceremony generally practised, of burning a ghee-chiragh, or lamp; the návéd, or offering in kind, consisting of various sorts of food, as vegetables, huldee, rice, grain mixed up with ghee in various ways, sugar, honey, curds, &c., marking the image and themselves with the coloured chandan; the presentation of flowers, which is universal and essential. The general term for oblations is charhána.

Burning camphor, and putting the hand over the flame, which, when warm, is placed on the head and breast, called artí; the presentation of coloured cloths; the offering of money called dachina, which is of two kinds, one to the god and one to the bramins. The hóm is a separate worship, usually performed by the officiating bramin burning, over a lamp of cotton and ghee, a bit of mango-wood. When the flame is increased by more ghee poured by the bramin thereon, he continues to repeat mantras, or incantations, while the devotee casts into the flame betel-nut, pawn, til (oil-seed), rice, barley, sugar, &c.; dachena to the hóm, and dachena to the bramin, who is fed also afterwards, according to the means of the donor. This ceremony is performed at the desire of any individual who has a point to gain with the gods. Such are the usual modes of offering; but a small portion of these, even, suffices for the nemnit, or customary daily devotions, as the expense would become too great; and the material point in these simple offerings is to present to the deity chandan and flowers appropriate to him. This, with the gods above described is never neglected; and all greater presentations, as cloth, &c., are guided b

this rule: but I no not learn, whatever may be the prevailing hué of the deity, that the unchanging colour of a rupee has ever been stated by the god, or the bramin, as an insuperable objection.

It is usual, however, for the offerer to compromise the matter if possible, and an equal value is given in any other metal that may suit the occasion; he would prefer giving one-fourth of a gold mohur to Brihuspat, for instance, than four rupees: but when a person has more devotion than money (as is frequently the case) it is usual for him to make namaskar,* and say, “accept, O deity, these four annas" (or whatever trifle he may be able to give), “which imagine to be as many mohurs, or rupees, or pieces of cloth." Thus any trifle may represent a blue cow or a red horse, according to the day, should the bramin who officiates declare such animal at that particular time acceptable to the god, The muntras of the bramins, which form a prominent feature in all regular worship, are recited by them on such occasions, varying the form as circum stance may require. These they may repeat, but are forbidden ever to put them to paper. The presentations generally fall short of the god's necessities, as delivered through their oracles; but proofs of good intention are always regarded with respect, though the gosseins, &c., indeed, sometimes reject with contempt an offering that does not meet their wishes, and have even the baseness to pronounce a curse over the home or head of the indigent offerer.

Of the deities described, some are more some less in vogue. One might, at first sight, conjecture that the multitude would pour their oblations at the shrines of those whose beneficence dispensed happiness, and whose mildness claimed their love; and that those, on the contrary, stern, tyrannical, and malignant, would only find adoration from their puny imitators; but this is not the case. The bow of Budh is almost forgotten; while that same instrument at the dassára, though there the emblemn of rapine and death, is hailed by universal acclamations. Sanee, Budh, Brihuspat, and Sookr, find no delight in the distress of mortals; mankind do not, therefore, take the trouble to wor ship them; and whatever they might be induced to hope from the intervention of good, they are much more apprehensive of the wrath of the bad. It is evident that the source of their devotion is fear, not love. Hence the crowded shrines of the proud Surya, of the warlike Mangal, of the tyrannical Sanee, and of the diabolical Rahoo. However we may be induced to smile at such a system of worship, the advocates of a far better may not feel flattered by too minute a scrutiny into the motives of their own-the most fervent prayer, after all, to God, is to preserve us from the devil.

When a Hindoo is informed by the bramin of the village, that the influence of such a god clashes with his ras, or sign of nativity, the more terrible that god is, the quicker he hastes to the temple, and the greater are his offerings to avert the impending evil.

OF RAHOO AND KETOO.

As the comets, monsters, tempests, and prodigies that infest the heavens and darken the faces of the sun and moon, under the appellations of Rahoo and Ketoo, have insinuated themselves into the celestial circle, and their places are regularly established there as represented in the temple at Kargon, this sketch would be incomplete were they to be left unnoticed. The Bhagwat gives the following account of them.

When the Deo Dhunwuntré brought up his lotus, full of amrit, from the * नमस्का

churned ocean, the Dyts, who were the most powerful, resolved to appro priate it to themselves. Upon this the Deos, with Indra at their head, complained to Bhagwan that their labour was vain, since the Dyts alone reaped the benefit. Bishen (Vishnu) consoled them, and pledged his word that they should not be deprived of the amrit. Upon this they departed, and in a conference proposed to the Dyts, that, as the labour was mutual, they ought to divide the produce. During this discussion, Bishen, under the female guise of Mohání, "the charmer," joined the assemblage. The Dyts were enraptured with her beauty, and instantly proposed that she should be their arbitrator.

Mokání urged that, being a female, they were not likely to attend to her suggestions; but they persisted in their choice. He, therefore, ranged the parties on different sides, and began to portion out the amrit to the Deos; during which a Dyt, named Rahoo, slipt between Surya and Chandra (the sun and moon, allegorical of an eclipse), and obtaining a share, drank it off. Surya immediately informed Mohání of the trick that had been practised on her; whereon, with a blow of her chukr, she severed his head from his body. The parts, however, already become immortal, retained their post among the gods, and were classed as Gráhas; and as the word gráha has only a bad import, I believe, it is perhaps not strictly correct to include the nine under that appellation. When all the remaining amrit had been distributed among the Deos, Bishen resumed his form, and the Dyts, finding they had been deceived by the illusion of Mohání, became indignant; they struggled hard (with the Deos, but they (the Deos) had already consumed the beverage that gave them immortality.

Rahoo, then, is the son of Viprichiti, son of Kasiap; and Sinhvika is his mother. He is described under various forms; sometimes as a dark cloud, at others with the tail and body of a large fish. But in the temple he is placed upon the sunvsardul, or flying dragon, where he has four arms, one bearing a sword, another a mace, and a third sometimes grasping a trident. He is drawn in a car by a species of lion or sphinx.

His complexion is of a sable hue, which is recognized in the luhsunéa, or goméd, his distinguishing jewel. His abode is Barbar (Barbary). The name of Rahoo implies "the tormentor." He is stated to be the king of the Nisha'ds; and as this graha partakes more of the character of a demon than of a god, ever at variance with, and endeavouring to thwart his neighbours, he is worshipped in misfortune, and to avert the attacks of evil spirits. Being considered in all respects of a temper congenial with that of Sanee, his day has been deemed the most suitable for the worship of Rahoo and Kétoo: and hence, probably they occupy the same place in the temple. But on the occasion of eclipses, comets, earthquakes, &c., they become almost the sole object of regard, or, I should say, of terror. Oblations are numerous on such an event; and wild and clamorous music is played during an eclipse, to induce the monster to release the oppressed planets, which continues till the eclipse is over. In the same manner did the multitude sound their trumpets and cymbals to deliver Luna from the thraldom of the Thessalian enchanters.

The head of Rahoo, under the appellation of Ketoo, is an allusion to the long lock of hair on his head; and hence a comet is placed upon another strange animal called the holga. But he has various forms-sometimes pourtrayed as a beam of the sun mounted on a dragon, called kupúuth, with two arms, and bearing a club decorated with party-coloured dress and jewels (perhaps allusive to his multiform nature), of which the bydur is the emblem ; indeed the learned do not seem agreed which is the head or which the tail of

this double monster; they are represented either way in books and images ; and when Rahoo is the head, Kétoo becomes the type or shadow of his former shape. We may conclude that they are interchangeable.

Kétoo is the name used for a comet; and under the form of meteors of that description, and all the dreadful consequences which are usually attributed to them, doth he contrive to assail the universe. His attributes and worship may be included in those of Rahoo. His abode is Madh, sometimes Malióchal. Kétoo bears a marked resemblance, in character and even in name, to the Proteus of the Greeks; who, under the name of Cetes, is supposed to have been a king of Egypt, and there he had the power of eluding his pursuers by disappearing as a whirlwind, a stream of water, or a flame of fire. From such peculiar power of transformation has Kétoo, moreover, obtained the surname of Kamrup. It is not improbable, therefore, that the Proteus of the Greeks, called Cetes, in Egypt, is the Grăha Ketoo, who occasionally tarried on the African shore. And may not his adopted name Pythenas be even the very Proteus?

In an account of China, by the Portuguese Jesuit, Alvarez Semedo, who resided in the empire for twenty years, in the early part of the seventeenth century, we find the following account of a miracle, which occurred during the persecution of the Chinese Christians :

"The Christians, who remained in prison, after much suffering and illusage, were, in the end, by the power and intrigues of their adversary, Chin, condemned to suffer seventy bastinadoes a-piece. The two lay-brothers, being Chinese, after repeated outrages and bastinadoing, were condemned, one to serve at the Tartar wall, the other to tow the king's barges, like oxen in Europe. Nevertheless, all the Christians evinced a wonderful constancy and joy to suffer for the cause of Christ, so that the Gentiles wondered at their outward constancy. There was a woman who, having heard that our brother, Sebastian Fernandez, had been tortured at an examination by the squeezing and pinching of his hands and fingers, desired that favour of the Lord that she might likewise undergo this torture. Her prayer was thus, in part, granted; for, being one day in prayer, she saw in a vision Chin sitting on his tribunal, who commanded her to renounce the faith of Christ, and upon her refusal, he directed the same torture to be applied to her. When the vision was over, the marks were to be seen for some time on her hands, and the black and blue stripes on her body; which was a very great comfort and contentment to her."

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COMBAT BETWEEN ROSTUM AND SOHRAB.

In a clever paper on Persian poetry, by Mr. N. Howard, of Eton, published in the Transactions of the Plymouth Institution, that gentleman has inserted some spirited and tolerably close versions into English rhyme from the episode of Rostum and Sohrab, in the celebrated epic of Firdausi. We select as a specimen the following passage, describing the combat between the heroes, in which Sohrab fell by the hand of his unknown and unknowing father.

We cannot suffer this occasion to pass without expressing our satisfaction at finding that oriental literature is not altogether discarded from our seats of learning; and our hope that the Society (the Oriental Translation Fund), which has been formed with the noble design of patronizing translations from eastern authors, will not be compelled, by the apathy and neglect of English scholars, to continue their practice of publishing versions into English by German and French translators, whose successful application to the oriental tongues, ought to shame us into emulation: pudet hæc opprobria nobis.

Exhausted, baffled, each unclasps

His frustrate hold, o'erspent and slow;
SOHRAB his mace that instant grasps,
And, quickly levelling, stuns the foe.
Not long he lay;-for, when he felt
Returning sense, and sight, and breath,
Panting he rose, and loosed his belt,

Brushed from his brow a damp like death;
Then raised his troubled eye and prayed
For power and supernat❜ral aid.

Again they wrestle, limb to limb;

They writhe, they deal the stunning blow;

Their eyes with gore and dust half-dim,

While down the blood and toil-drops flow.
Their heads and throats are backward cast;
The bloody struggle cannot last

The youth grows faint in heart and power,
And Fortune, in that dark'ning hour,
Abandons him to worse than woe.

Look, look!-to horrid frenzy wrung
His nerves with force unnatʼral strung,
The ROSTUM lifts, he sways him round,—
By heaven! he brings him to the ground,
But hopes not to secure him there-
Alas! the lifted blade is bare:-
A moment more, and all is done;
The FATHER, with a madman's air,
Plunges the poniard in his Son!

"Brave heart!" the youth, faint-sighing, said:
"Since thou hast spilt this blood of mine,

"Know Destiny will thirst for thine,

"Nor rest till thy heart's blood be shed.