with dry eyes, and even without a groan. Diodorus relates an instance of cruelty which strikes the reader with horror. At the time Agathocles was about to besiege Carthage, the inhabitants, perceiving the extremity to which they were reduced, imputed all their misfortunes to the just anger of Saturn, because that, instead of offering up children nobly born, who were usually sacrificed to him, he had been fraudulently put off with the children of slaves and foreigners. To atone for this crime, two hundred children of the best families in Carthage were sacrificed; besides which, three hundred citizens, from a sense of their participation in the guilt of this pretended crime, voluntarily sacrificed themselves.

HINDOOS.-There is perhaps no other people on the globe, whose religious belief and mythology are so strange and so unaccountable, as those of the inhabitants of Hindostan. The temples erected for the celebration of their worship, appear to have been in ancient times of the most costly and magnificent description. Their early structures bear also a peculiar form, so dissimilar to those of modern date, that they would seem to be the monuments of some mighty people who no longer exist. The most remarkable are those found in different parts of the Deccan, not consisting of masonry, but excavated in the sides of mountains, which, in many instances, have been entirely cut out into columns, temples, and images. The most celebrated, perhaps from having first attracted observation, is the Cave of Elephanta, termed by Mr Maurice

"the wonder of Asia." It is situated about half way up the declivity of a hill, in a small wooded island near Bombay. Three entrances are afforded between four rows of massive columns, and the principal one is two hundred and twenty feet long by one hundred and fifty broad. The most conspicuous object, placed in the centre, is a triple head of colossal dimensions, being six feet from the chin to the crown. It was

long supposed to represent the Hindoo tuad; but is now believed to be simply a figure of Siva, to whom this temple is dedicated, and with whose images it is filled.

According to the Hindoo views of religion, none manifest a more zealous devotion than they. Their ceremonies employ every day and almost every hour; their ministers of religion rank above almost every other class, even above kings; there is no history, and scarcely any poetry, but what relates to the actions of the gods and deified heroes. Unhap pily, this devotion, unenlightened by divine instruction, and misled by the perversities of the human heart, instead of being a lamp to their path, has involved them in an abyss of absurdity, and impelled them to follies, and even to crimes, of which there is scarcely an example in any other pagan worship.

The Supreme Mind, according to the Braminica! system, displays its energies in the three grand operations of creating, preserving, and destroying. These are expressed by the letters AU M, united in the mystic syllable O'M, which the Hindoo always pronounces with the profoundest veneration. These three powers are separately imbodied in Brama, Vishnu, and Siva, whose names, according to the philosophers, express only attributes of the one Supreme Mind; but the popular theo

tion of the loftiest and the meanest, the purest and most corrupted features in moral nature.

To Brama, the first and highest person in the Hindoo trinity, is assigned the work of creation. Mr. Ward thinks that he is considered by the Indian sages as the soul of the world; yet, from the examination of their writings, it does not appear that they took so refined a view of the subject. They represent him rather as having produced or drawn the universe out of himself, so that all that ever was, or is, once formed a part of his essence. His own origin was very singular. The Supreme Mind, it is said, having created by a thought the waters, laid in them an egg, which remained inactive for many millions of years, till Brama, by the energy of his own thought, caused it to divide, and from it he himself was born in the shape of the divine male, famed in all worlds as the great forefather of spirits.

Brama, among the Indian deities, holds decidedly the pre-eminence, sharing even the essence of the Supreme Mind; yet, perhaps from the very circumstance of this lofty position, he attracts comparatively little attention or worship. He has neither temples erected, nor sacrifices offered to him, nor festivals celebrated in his honor. He gives name indeed to the great caste of the Bramins or priests; but no sects derive from him their appellation, or specially devote their lives to his service. In return, the priests in regard to him have indulged less in those scandalous and indecent fictions which crowd the history of inferior divinities.

Vishnu, in the sacred annals of India, makes a much more frequent and conspicuous figure. In his character of preserver, or more properly deliverer, he is represented as having interposed whenever the world and the race of men were threatened with any peculiar danger. The avatars of Vishnu, his descents to the earth in various animated forms, furnish the most fertile theme of Hindoo legend and poetry. The chiefs and heroes whose exploits appeared to indicate a celestial origin were considered as incarnations of this deity. These illustrious personages, in becoming Vishnu, did not lose altogether their own identity; they acquired a sort of compound existence, and had worship paid to them under both characters.

This latter god, according to the Hindoo mythology, has at different periods undergone several transformations, called avatars. His first appearance on earth was in the likeness of a fish; his second, in the likeness of a boar; his third, was to act a conspicuous part in an extraordinary process, called the churning of the ocean, by which the whole of the mighty deep was converted into one mass of butter; his fourth appearance was that of half man and half lion, &c.

Siva, the third member of the Hindoo triad, is represented as passing through an equal variety of adventures, most of them in the highest degree strange and unnatural; but he does not appear under so many characters, nor are his exploits on the whole so striking. Although the destroyer be his proper appellation, it seems more applicable to Doorga, his female partner, whose aspect and deeds do indeed combine whatever is most awful and terrific. He is represented as being of a silver color,

exhibiting various shapes, having sometimes five faces, sometimes only one with three eyes. Elsewhere he is seen naked riding on a bull, with serpents hanging from his ears like jewels. Worship is rendered to him by numerous votaries, who exalt him as the supreme deity, greater and more ancient than either Brama or Vishnu. He is peculiarly revered in the mountain territory; and, under the appellation of Mahadeo, is described as throned in the most inaccessible precipices of the Himmalehs.

But the chief disgrace of his religion consists in the lingam, a symbo! resembling the phallus of the ancients, which is not only displayed in the temples, but worn round the necks of all his votaries. Yet it is remarkable that these sectaries make a boast of leading more pure and even austere lives than the generality of Hindoo devotees.

Doorga is the chief among the female deities, and indeed the most potent and warlike member of the Hindoo pantheon. The Greeks had Minerva, an armed and martial goddess, whose prowess equalled that of their greatest male divinities; but she was a weak and pacific maiden when compared with the spouse of the Indian destroyer. The wars waged by the latter, and the giants who fell beneath the might of

her arm, form prominent themes in the wild records of Hindoo mythology. Her original name was Parvati; but hearing that a giant named Doorga had enslaved the gods, she resolved to destroy him. He is said to have led into the field a hundred millions of chariots and one hundred and twenty millions of elephants. In order to meet this overwhelming force, Parvai caused nine millions of warriors, and a corresponding supply of weapons, to issue out of her own substance. The contest, however, was ultimately decided by her personal struggle with the giant, whose destruction she then succeeded in effecting. In honor of this achievement, the gods conferred upon their deliverer the name of the huge enemy whom she had overcome.

It would be of little interest to enter into details respecting the minor divinities, whose number is very great. Indra, though presiding over the elements, and invested with the lofty title of king of heaven, is not destined to reign for ever; he has even, by the efforts of men and giants, been already repeatedly driven from his station. Kartikeya,

the god of war, riding on a peacock, with six heads and twelve hands, in which numerous weapons are brandished, presents a striking specimen of the fantastic forms in which Hindoo superstition invests its deities.

Ganesa, a fat personage with the head of an elephant, is so revered that nothing must be begun without an invocation to him, whether it be an act of religious worship, opening a book, setting out on a journey, or even sitting down to write a letter. Surya is the deified sun; Pavana is the god of the winds; Agnee, of fire; Varuna, of the waters. Yama, the Indian Pluto, pronounces sentence on the dead; but his judgmentseat is not beneath the earth, but in its southern extremity, at a place called Yamalaya. A large share of homage is attracted to him by the mingled influence of fear and hope.

Among a superstitious people, it is not wonderful that the grand objects of nature should be personified, and excite a feeling of devout veneration. Great rivers, from their mysterious sources, their broad ex