This Has Often Filled Me With
Wonder; But I Know That They Are All Deluded By Satan, Who Is The Father
Of Division.
Their illiterate priests are called Bramins, being the
same with the Brachmanni of the ancients; and, for aught I could
learn, are so sottishly ignorant and unsteady, that they know not what
they believe.
They have little round-built temples, which they call
pagodas, in which are images in most monstrous shapes, which they
worship. Some of them dream, of Elysian fields, to which their souls
pass over a Styx or Acheron, and there assume new bodies. Others hold
that ere long, this world shall have an end, after which they shall live
here again, upon a new earth. They talk of four books which were sent
them about 6000 years ago by their prophet Ram, two of which were
sealed up and might not be opened, the other two being read by the
Bramins only. They say that there are seven orbs, above which is the
seat of God; and they hold that God knoweth not of petty things, or, if
he doth, regardeth them not. They circumscribe God in place or
dimensions, alleging that he may be seen, but far off as in a mist, and
not near or clearly. They believe in the existence of devils or evil
spirits; but that they are so bound in chains, as to be incapable of
doing hurt. They call man Adam, from the first man of that name; whose
wife, as they say, when tempted with the forbidden fruit, swallowed it
down; but, as her husband was about to do the same, it was stopped in
his throat by the hand of God: Whence men have a protuberance in that
part, which we call the pomum adami, which women have not.
[Footnote 239: By Terry, the Hindoos are uniformly denominated the
Gentiles, a word of vague and general meaning, merely signifying
idolaters, or unbelievers, literally the nations, as contradistinguished
from the Jews. By some authors, the natives of Hindoostan are called
Gentoos, a word of uncertain origin. The term of Hindoo seems the more
appropriate name; at least it has now become universal. - E.]
As anciently among the Jews, the priesthood is hereditary with this
people; every son of a Bramin being a priest, and marries with the
daughter of a Bramin. So also among all the Hindoos, the men take their
wives among the daughters of those who are of the same tribe, sect, and
occupation, with their own fathers. Thus the son of a merchant marries a
merchant's daughter, and every man's son that lives by his labour,
marries the daughter of one of the same profession with himself, so that
they never advance themselves to higher situations. The Hindoos take but
one wife, of whom they are not so fearful as are the Mahometans of their
numerous women, for they are suffered to go abroad. They are always
married very young, at six or seven years of age, their parents making
the contracts, and they come together when twelve years old. Their
nuptials are celebrated with as much pomp and jollity as those of the
Mahometans. The habits of the Hindoos differ little from those of the
Mahometans, already described; but many of their women wear rings on
their toes, and therefore go barefooted. They have likewise broad rings
of brass, or of more valuable metal, according to their rank and wealth,
which they wear about the small of their legs, being made to put off and
on. These seem to resemble the tinkling ornaments about the feet,
mentioned by the prophet Isaiah, or the ornaments of the legs, anciently
in use among the Jewish women. They have also such on their arms. The
laps of their ears are pierced when young, and the hole is daily
stretched and widened, by things put in on purpose, so that it at length
becomes large enough to hold a ring as broad as a little saucer, made
hollow in its edges to contain the flesh. Both men and women wash their
bodies every day before they eat, and they sit entirely naked at their
food, excepting only the covering of modesty. This outward washing, as
they think, tends to cleanse them from sin, not unlike the Pharisees in
scripture, who would not eat with unwashed hands. Hence, they ascribe a
certain divine influence to rivers, but above all to the Ganges, daily
flocking thither in great companies, and throwing in pieces of gold and
silver, according to their devotion or abilities, after which they wash
themselves in the sacred stream. Both men and women paint their
foreheads, or other parts of their faces, with red or yellow spots.
In regard to their grosser opinions, they do not believe in the
resurrection of the flesh, and therefore burn the bodies of their dead,
near some river if they can, into which they strew the ashes. Their
widows never marry again; but, after the loss of their husbands, cut
their hair close off, and spend all their remaining life in neglect;
whence it happens, that many young women are ambitious to die with
honour, as they esteem it, throwing themselves for lore of their
departed husbands into the flames, as they think, of martyrdom.
Following their dead husband to the pile, and there embracing his
corpse, they are there consumed in the same fire. This they do
voluntarily, and without compulsion, their parents, relations, and
friends joyfully accompanying them; and, when the pile of this hellish
sacrifice begins to burn, all the assembled multitude shout and make a
noise, that the screams of the tortured living victims may not be heard.
This abominable custom is not very much unlike the custom of the
Ammonites, who made their children pass through the fire to Moloch,
during which they caused certain tabrets or drums to sound, whence the
place was called Tophet, signifying a tabret. There is one sect among
the Hindoos, called Parsees, who neither burn nor inter their dead.
They surround certain pieces of ground with high walls, remote from
houses or public roads, and there deposit their dead, wrapped in sheets,
which thus have no other tombs but the maws of ravenous fowls.[240]
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