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النشر الإلكتروني

MYTHOLOGY OF THE CANDIANS.

latter upon the works; all included in the name of a moral law, given by the joint. Boodoos in their times, and at various places.

Q. Is there, after this life, any other which men can expect, and is there in that other life, any reward for the good which men did in this life, and any punishment for evil? If so, what reward and what punishment?

A. Undoubtedly there is a life after this for the virtuous, to be expected, and also a reward for his good deeds; but that reward he does not enjoy, unless he dies first several times; and he must appear as many times in the six dieuevelokes, to be again born in the world, till he at last, having enjoyed in the eleven below brachmelookes, a foretaste of felicity, gets into the five triumphing heavens, where the transmigration takes place no more; and there he enjoys in full lustre all desirable happiness.

Bad men, on the contrary, after their death, are born in hell as irrational animals; and if any one did any good in his lifetime, he is released after a long period from their hellish banishment; and is born again in the world as man, and he has even hopes to come to the state of felicity, if he avoids evil and does good.

Q. What and where is the paradise? what and where is the hell? what do they believe thereof?

A. Paradise is the proper name thereof, but where it is situated, the Singalese do not know; they call it a place secure from all sin, full of joy, felicity, and satisfaction; it signifies a glory-hall of deceased bodies, and is, according to the testimony of Gauteme Boodoo, situate upon the top of the highest of the twenty-sixth heaven, which is magnificently adorned with gold, silver, precious stones, and pearls. On the contrary, hell is supposed to be concealed under the abyss of the earth, and to be under the hellish water, where winds blow much stronger than ever a hurricane can upon earth.

The learned say, according to the testimony of Boodoo, that there are eight large hells, exclusive of one hundred and twentyeight small apartments more, whereof there are sixteen. Each of the large hells has four doors or outlets; and there are in each of the small apartments, or small hells, some peculiarities. All these buildings are square, formed of pure iron, the walls being thirty-six miles thick each, and the ground and roof are also of the same solidity and extent. The punishments inflicted on the damned are various, but in the last mentioned hell it is the greatest and the most

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dreadful, according to the deserts of the wicked. Their punishments are inflicted with tools or instruments, thereto appointed: namely, bills, sledges, bone-breakers, hammers, pincers, spits, &c. their skin is pulled off from head to foot, and melting lead is poured in the throat.

Q. Shall there be a last judgment, and resurrection of the body?

A. No, but a judgment following immediately after death is acknowledged, which is pronounced by one of the inferior gods of the below heaven. This is to be the portion of men who did in the world both good and evil, and who may still entertain hopes to come to felicity. The wicked, on the contrary, go directly to hell unheard, and even without approaching the tribunal.

Q. What must man do to get salvation? A. Direct his thoughts, words, and works, according to the published doctrine of Boodoo, and observe the same constantly, according to his law.

Q. Have the Singalese a peculiar divine prayer, like as we have the Lord's prayer, if so, did Boodoo prescribe it to them, or who; and how does it sound?

A. No, they have no peculiar prayer, but several other prayers made according to the circumstance of the occasion, namely-when, and upon what subject, the prayers are to be said, as well by the people in public, as by each in particular in his own dwelling-place. These prayers were given by Gauteme Boodoo, by word of mouth to his fellow-believers; and, four hundred and thirty-three years after his death, were published by the king, in writing to the people in general, as first under the government of that king, the art of writing was found out.

Q. Are there fixed or stipulated times in which one ought to pray, and how many times every day?

A. Yes, three times every day always: namely, in the morning at half-past four or five, at noon, and in the evening at half-past six; but those who pray constantly, and also worship Boodoo at the time fixed, render themselves more agreeable to him.

Q. To whom do the Singalese pray? A. To Boodoo, to his doctrine, and his apostles and disciples, with a religious reverence to his written law-book, or other relics; however, without attributing a miraculous working to the said relics.

Q. Have they in every week a fixed day separated for their religious service, like our Sunday?

A. Four days in the month: namely, the new and full moon, and the first and last quarters, are separated for their religious

service; they then come together in their temples, but those that cannot come, perform at home their religious service; there are also many who fast on such days.

Q. What festivals have they?

A. There are no fixed festivals, but any one may appoint a feast-day, and exerting all his power, withholding himself of all evil causes, and directing to that festival his thoughts, words, and works, he may, with a serious intention, worship his saviour Boodoo, by praying and fasting.

Q. In what manner do they perform their religious service in the temples?

A. Temples are called the lodgings of the priests; but in the temple of Boodoo, they perform their religious service in the manner following:

The priests are by turns obliged to clean the temples every day with brooms, and to keep them clean, and the religious fellowbelievers go three times every day: namely, in the forenoon, afternoon, and evening, even after sun-set, in order to worship there. In the forenoon from eight to eleven, dressed victuals, namely, rice, &c., and after sunset, flowers are offered, and the altar and the images are perfumed with incense by the priests.

The victuals offered are eaten by the priests, and the servants of the temple, and the flowers offered are exchanged the following evening for other fresh ones. When the priests worship and offer, the people must remain out of the temple, but when the people do worship, one of the priests must remain within the temple, in order to give the following words of the prayer to the mouth of those who are not learned. "The help and salvation of Boodoo befall me, and thereto his doctrine, and his Rahatoens assist me:" having said those words, some make vows with their thoughts, words, and works, to commit no more sin intentionally, and further to keep the five commandments; namely,

1. To kill no men nor beasts.
2. Not to steal.

3. To commit no adultery.
4. To tell no lies, and

5. To use no strong, or any other liquor. There are again others who undertake to observe eight commandments; namely, besides the aforesaid five:

1. To eat after noon no dressed victuals, or such as have been on the fire, but to subsist themselves upon the juice of fruits, with the exception of young cocoa-nut water.

2. To attend no idle pleasure parties of dancing, playing, and singing.

3. To sleep upon no bed which is higher

than a cubit, (carpenter's measure,) from the ground: and there are some who make vows to observe two other commandments. 1. To smell no odoriferous flowers, herbs, &c., and,

2. To wear no sumptuous clothes, gold, silver, or precious stones whatever. But some make vows to observe ten millions of commandments.

Q. In what way do they perform their religious service?

A. In the temple. Drums and timtims are beaten in honour of the gods, in the morning and evening, and trumpets and horns are sounded; but in the month of July the great offering takes place, and in the month of November the temples are illuminated.

Q. Must they also do public penance for their sins; do they also know of holy water, or any other means to sanctify or purify themselves of sin, and to guard themselves against wicked spirits like the Bramins, who rub a sort of ashes upon the forehead, in order to sanctify themselves?

A. No; those outward ceremonies are by those of the persuasion of Boodoo considered as additional systems, and therefore rejected by them.

Q. Why have they such a respect for

Cows?

A. That the Singalese do not kill cows, or eat their flesh, is not on account of any respect which they have for those animals, but from gratitude for the many services which they render to them, and the great use which they have of the same in ploughing their fields, as well as on account of the milk, upon which they and their children subsist themselves. For these reasons, there is even a prohibition, as the Singalese learned authors say, of a certain king, against the killing of cows, and eating the flesh thereof. The good king, whose name is kept a secret, gave a general order to perform a magnificent illumination in honour of Boodoo, and to burn the lamps, not with oil, but with gey; whereupon his counsellors went to him, and told him that it was impossible to fulfil his order, unless he prohibited every one, by a mandate, the killing of cows in future. This the king immediately issued; not only because a great quantity of gey is required to light the illumination lamps, but also because the grease is useful for the food and subsistence of men; exclusive of the many services which those animals render to men in carrying all sorts of burden, as well as in ploughing and labouring their fields; and the sharpest menaces were further thrown out, that those who ate beef

THE BUSHIMEN ON THE ORANGE RIVER.

should be reckoned amongst the tim-tim beaters; these being people of very low

cast.

Q. May any person kill himself; and is that no sin amongst the Singalese ?

A. Suicide is a more horrible crime amongst them than to deprive another of life. Q. Do the Candians know from their books what Adam and Eve signify, or have they heard it but from the Portuguese? Was the paradise on Ceylon? Did Adam leave that footstep upon the place commonly called Adam's Peek, (or Adam's Hill)? Is the lake found upon the hill formed of the tears shed by Eve on account of her sins; are Adam and Eve represented by the images which are in the temple; and is that pagoda called Adam's Hill on that account? What images are those which are therein; and what idols are those that have the shape of women?

A. The footsteps to be seen at the place commonly called Adam's Peak, is of Gauteme Boodoo, and the large images which are found either lying or sitting in the temple, represent in a true sense that of Boodoo alone; and by the images which are smaller the chief and inferior gods are represented; but those that have the shape of women, and are painted on the walls, represent queens, princesses, and other women of rank, of whom the learned authors speak much.

The other questions put heretofore are answered finally in the negative, upon this declaration, namely, that if there are such opinions, whence these questions could arise, they ought to be rejected; it being ungrounded according to the doctrine of Boodoo, to make one believe that the Singalese have any notion or knowledge of Adam and Eve, and that the paradise of the earth was in Ceylon.

OBSERVATIONS ON THE BUSHMEN OF THE ORANGE RIVER, CAPE OF GOOD HOPE. BY LEWIS LESLIE, ESQ., ASSISTANT SURGEON OF THE 45TH REGIMENT. (From the Edinburgh Philosophical Journal.) THAN in the vicinity of Nurgariep, a military post, and along the Hornberg, purer examples of this extraordinary race are perhaps nowhere to be found; and whatever follows, as it regards only them, may differ from any account of other portions of the tribes along the African frontier.

Small in stature as the Hottentot race is, they are, in the quarter mentioned, less than any where else, seldom exceeding five feet, but of the most perfect symmetry; they are 2D. SERIES, NO. 1.-VOL. I.

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active in their movements, but indolent in disposition; their colour is dark, but is rendered still darker by filth; their features are peculiarly forbidding, on account of the great distortion of the bones of the face; and the facial angle approaches considerably to that of the monkey.

The Bushman will seldom submit to coercion and restraint,-if he does, he becomes the Boor's most wretched menial, and perhaps is worse treated than any slave in the world. In a state of liberty, they dwell in kraals, under the authority of a chief, whose rank is among them hereditary. The number in one kraal seldom exceeds thirty-men, women, and children. Their dwellings are formed of mats, if in the plain, just large enough to creep into; but they often reside in a high and ridgy mountain, under some projecting ledge of rock, the approach to which is narrow and difficult. If attacked there, they seldom flee. They have no fear of death; and, if possessed of a more powerful weapon, might defy the attacks of the Boors, make them less frequent, and more fatal. Nothing but the privations they suffer would make any one of them submit to the cruelty of the farmers; and, living as they do on locusts, ants, and some farinaceous roots, there can be no better proof of the insufficiency of their tiny bow, and of the general inertness of their celebrated poison; yet they are themselves impressed with the conviction of its strength, and they have been able to impress their enemies with a dread of its effects, if not of its fatality. I have never been able to procure one well-authenticated relation of death produced by it in man. I have known some cases of horses and dogs dying from the insertion of the arrow into the leg; but some of them seem to die rather from the effect of violent inflammation in the limb, than from any specific power in the poison itself. In one instance of a dog, however, the animal became stupid and insensible in a few minutes, and died in twenty. Some colonists who have been wounded, assert that they are subject to periodical attacks of insanity, under certain states of atmospherical influence; but I believe this to be, like most of their tales, quite unworthy of credit.

The poison of the Bushman of the Hornberg is extracted from plants, and from plants only, so far as I have been able to learn. In that quarter, they use no mineral poison, nor the venom of snakes. Two specimens of plants used by them accompany this; the bulb is the species of Hamanthus; but never having seen the other plant in flower, I have been unable to learn its name. Its leaf exudes a milky juice,

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and, cut up and bled, forms a tenacious extract, which is spread on the arrow, to some thickness. There is another plant which they use likewise, either alone or with the other two; which, together, forms the strongest they procure; its name is "mountain poison." Growing on the stony hills, and very rarely to be found, I have never got a specimen of it.

Their dexterity in the use of their bow is remarkable, and the distance they can shoot, with such a light arrow, is astonishing. They will throw the arrow upwards of a hundred yards, and with great correctness; but, as might be expected, it will seldom wound at such a distance; and I have known a cavalry cloak protect a soldier at twenty paces. The bow is not brought to the eye in shooting, They fix their eye upon the object, grasping the bow with the left hand, while the arrow passes through the fingers on the right side,—a mode of shooting I believe peculiar to them.

Their treatment of a wound made by a poisoned arrow is truly scientific. It is laid freely open, the poison cleaned out, and a horn applied in the manner of a cupping-glass, exhausted by suction at the small extremity. This, as far as I could learn, is the only treatment they adopt, never making use of any herb as a specific. The Boors consider gunpowder and urine as very efficient, and prescribe those in every arrowwound, and in every case of snake-bite. Cupping would seem to be the Bushmen's favourite treatment of every complaint accompanied with pain, and so frequent do they resort to this, that by the time they are full grown they appear scars all over.

The length of time a Bushman can live without food is surprising, often living for three or four days without a mouthful; and the quantity they can devour after such abstinence is equally remarkable, one man having been known to eat an African sheep (thirty pounds) in a single night. When unable to procure food, a belt round the body is tightened as the craving increases, and they resort to the smoking of dukka (a species of chanvre or hemp), which produces intoxication. The narcotic effects of this plant no doubt produce much of that shrivelled appearance which is observable in all of any age. When possessing plenty of their dakka, they can smoke and sleep for several days and nights without eating.

A Bushman has no idea of the perpetuation of property; I might say, no notions of a prospective existence. He is wholly dependent on nature or on man: he will nei ther imitate the Caffre nor the Boor, will neither grow corn nor breed cattle.

The figures drawn by them on the rocks are often remarkable for the correctness of the outline; they hit the attitude of the animal, but seldom care about truth in the colouring: speaking phrenologically, they have the organ of form, but not of colour. I have never seen any animal resembling the unicorn among their paintings, but such an animal is said to exist beyond the Orange River. They are fond of music and dancing, but their musical instrument is rude, and without power or variety, consisting of one string stretched upon a bow, whose vibrations are produced by the breath, with great exertion.

The Bushman's conception of a Supreme Being is, that he is an evil deity; and their notion of futurity, that there will be an eternity of darkness, in which they will live for ever, and feed on grass alone. They imagine that the sun sends rain, and when he is clouded, they hold up burning wood, in token of disapprobation. They believe that the sun and moon will disappear, to produce the darkness they anticipate.

The Bushmen's bow is made of a peculiar tree, called the Blue Bush, whose branches are almost moulded by nature to the artificial form. The sinews of the quagga yield powerful bow-strings, and the arrow is formed of a slender reed, headed with antelope's horn, and pointed with a small triangular piece of metal, which they procure from the Caffres.

DUELLING.

WE were sitting in our library lately, ruminating, among many other bitter fancies, upon a late disastrous and fatal occurrence which has given so much pain and sorrow to many in Dublin, when we chanced to cast our eye upon Lord Bacon's celebrated charge against duels. As the evil is one which arises chiefly from paying more and higher regard to the law of man's opinion, than to the law of God's will, we thought it might not be unuseful to bring before the public eye, the recorded sentiments of one who has been celebrated as the wisest of mankind, upon the subject. Among barbarians, the custom of single combat may have been a step in the progress towards civilization; among civilized men it is certainly a remnant or vestigium of barbarism, which even human wisdom ought to be sufficient to see the necessity of eradicating. Lord Bacon condemns it thus:

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Again, my Lords, it is a miserable effect, when young men, full of towardness and hope, such as the poets call 'auroræ

CHARACTER OF MAGNA CHARTA.

filii,' sons of the morning, in whom the expectation and comfort of their friends consisteth, shall be cast away and destroyed in such a vain manner; but much more it is to be deplored, when so much noble and genteel blood should be spilt upon such follies, as, if it were adventured in the field in the service of the king and realm, were able to make the fortune of a day, and to change the fortune of a kingdom. So that your lordships see what a desperate evil this is; it troubleth peace, it defurnisheth it bringeth calamity upon private men, peril upon the state, and contempt upon the land.

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Touching the causes of it, the first motive, no doubt, is a false and erroneous imagination of honour and credit, and therefore the king doth most aptly and excellently call them bewitching duels; for, if we judge of it truly, it is no better than a sorcery that enchanteth the spirits of young men, that bear great minds with a false shew, species falsa,' and a kind of satanical illusion and apparition of honour, against religion, against law, against moral virtue, and against the precedents and examples of the best times and valiantest nations. But then the seed of this mischief being such, it is nourished by vain discourses, and green and unripe conceits, which nevertheless have so prevailed, as though a man were staid and sober minded, and a right believer, touching the vanity and unlawfulness of these duels, yet the stream of vulgar opinion is such, as it imposeth a necessity upon men of value to conform themselves, or else there is no living or looking upon men's faces; so that we have not to do in this case, so much with particular persons, as with unsound and depraved opinions, like the dominations and spirits of the air, which the Scripture speaketh of; hereunto may be added, that men have almost lost the true notion and understanding of fortitude and valour. For, fortitude distinguisheth of the grounds of quarrels, whether they be just, and not only so, but whether they be worthy, and setteth a better price upon men's lives, than to bestow them idly: nay, it is weakness and dis-esteem of a man's self, to put a man's life upon such light performances; a man's life is not to be trifled away, it is to be offered up and sacrificed to honourable services, public merits, good causes, and noble adventures. It is in expense of blood, as it is in expense of money; it is no liberality to make a profusion of money upon every vain occasion, nor any more is it fortitude to make effusion of blood, except the cause be of worth."

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Mr. Joseph Hamilton, of Annandalecottage, near Dublin, has petitioned the king to consider the expediency of abolish ing the practice of duelling, in the course of which he says, "The grievous extent to which duelling is and has been practised, can only be ascertained upon a due examination of recorded cases; that your petitioner can produce four modern newspapers in which twelve fatal_meetings were announced; that before Captain Sandys shot Mr. Kerman in the side, he had already killed or wounded thirteen adversaries in as many combats; that Major Schallenged eight officers, and wounded four of them, upon a single day; and that George Robert Fitzgerald was introduced to the king of France, as an Irishman who had fought six-and-twenty fatal duels." He states too, "that an officer who collected the reports of one hundred and seventy-two cases, found sixty-three indi viduals were killed, and ninety-six were wounded; and that your petitioner has collected several thousand cases, in which the disastrous terminations bear an adequate proportion."

In the following lines, Cowper thus reprehends this brutal practice :

"Tis hard indeed if nothing will defend Mankind from quarrels, but their fatal end. Perhaps, at last, close scrutiny may show The practice dastardly, and mean, and low, That men engage in it compelled by force, And fear, not courage, is its proper source; The fear of tyrant custom, and the fear Lest fops should censure us, and fools should sneer: At least, to trample on our Maker's laws, And hazard life, for any, or no cause, To rush into a fixed, eternal state, Out of the very flames of rage and hate, Or send another shivering to the bar, With all the guilt of such unnatural war, Whatever use may urge, or honour plead, On reason's verdict 'tis a madman's deed."

CHARACTER OF MAGNA CHARTA.

Ir is observable that the language of this Great Charter is simple, brief, general withcut being abstract, and expressed in terms of authority, not of argument, yet commonly so reasonable as to carry with it the intrinsic evidence of its own fitness. It was understood by the simplest of the unlettered age for whom it was intended. It was remembered by them; and though they did not perceive the extensive consequences which might be derived from it, their feelings were, however unconsciously, exalted by its generality and grandeur.

It was a peculiar advantage that the consequences of its principles were, if we may so speak, only discovered gradually and slowly. It gave out on each occasion only as much of the spirit of liberty and reformation as the circumstances of succeeding generations required, and as their character

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