Asiatic studies : religious and social

Front matter

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CORNELL

Chapter I. Religion Of An Indian Province

The actual religious condition of India, with its extraordinary variety of rites and worships, exemplifies the state of the civilized world in the ages of classic polytheism, before Christianity or Islam had arisen — A brief account of the religious beliefs in one province, Berar, may serve as a sample of Hinduism — Constant gi'owth, movement, and change, of religious forms and conceptions — Classification, suggesting successive development, of the prevailing beliefs and liturgies, worship of things inanimate, of animals, of spirits, of ghosts, of divine incarnations, of the supreme Brahmanio Gods — Some description of each class, with their connexion and the gi-adual evolution of deities from ancestral spirits, saints, heroes, and demi-gods — Successful wonder-working the selecting agency whereby this evolution is earned on j and the system of divine embodiment often the process of transmutation into and assimilation with the higher deities of Brahmanism — Probability that the existing state of Hinduism will not last long. ,

Chapter II

ON THE ORIGIN OF DIVINE MYTHS IN. INDIA.

Grote's conclusion, in the History of Greece, regarding myths — Remarks upon his argument — Comparative observation of heroic and religious myths of India may throw some light on the general subject of growth of myths — Leading authorities on mythology ascribe myths too largely to personifications of natural phEeuomena — Suggestion that the theory of Euemerus has been too entirely condemned, and that in India the deification of humanity is one main source of divine legends and of theogonies — The process of the generation and development of god,? can be witnessed in India — Mythology developes into polytheism out of the mystery of death, out of wonder at the deeds, sufferings, and

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saintly character of remarkable men — The Heaven thus created is a reflection of the earth below, and religion rests upon the analogy of nature — Spiritual ascetics absorbed into materialistic divinities- General conclusion as to the various sources of the deities, their legends, and attributes 30

Chapter III. Influence Upon Keligion Of A Rise In Morality

Religion regarded by primitive and civilized men respectively from two different stand-points — In Europe religion could not now stand apart from morality ; in India there is still no necessary connection — In India morality unable to advance without the concurrence of religion, which adopts and authorizes useful and progressive ideas as soon as they become popular, thus accommodating itself to the gradual improvement and enlarged ideas of mankind — As moral sentiments and notions of utility thus develop, the religion which accepts them becomes more refined and more rational ; and the sacred books lay down * consistent rules adjusted to new ideas and uses — Influence of morality tends to modify the capricious and malevolent character of early divinities, while the recognition of order and regular sequence lessens their direct responsibility for the world's affairs — Difficulty of introducing moral systems without leaning for support on divine sanction, which is the basis of all authoritative teaching, and of all claims, temporal or religious, to legislate or command— Titles of Indian dynasties run back by presumption to divine origin— British Government alone in India rests on purely secular rights and its own power— Question whether physical conditions of India permit any great national or moral changes •■....,.. 54

Chapter IV. Witchcraft And Non-christian Religions

Enquiry into distinction between witchcraft and the lowest types of religion— Suggestion as to diff'erence of origin and princi^e— Religion works invariably through some agency supposed to be divine • witch craft works independently of priests and deities, and probably be<rins with some accidental discoveries of natural laws— Witches persecuted in polytheist countries because their underworking is contraband unaided by recognized supernatural powers or methods— Resemblance of practices and devices of witch finders in India to those formerly used in Europe— Cruelties inflicted on witches because they are sup-

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posed to be personally the cause of calamities ; also, because the priests shift on to witches the blame of all inexplicable evils which the gods cannot or will not cure — As religion becomes purified and elevated, this shifting process increases, and witchcraft becomes more degraded and detested — Men go to vritohes for disreputable purposes, or when the gods fail to help — Witchcraft protected by the British Government in India ; is possibly the lowest phase of empiric observation and inchoate, and thus superior to mere vague supernaturalism 75

Chapter V. Missionary And Non-missionaey Religions

Professor Max MUUer's Lecture in Westminster Abbey, December, 1873 — His classification of religious systems as Missionary and Non-Missionary — Remarks on the classification of Brahmanism as non-missionary, not upon the view that, as a proselytizing religion, it is dying or dead — Brahmanism still proselytizes in the sense of accepting and admitting members from the outside — Its spread among Non- Aryan tribes ; examples and illustrations — Its vitality as shown by reforming and purifying movements from within ; and as an indigenous religion and social system — Question as to the future of Brahmanism — Whether it can transmute and raise itself in accordance with rising standards of intelligence and morality — Extensive changes will probably be gradual — Present state of Indian polytheism compared with Gibbon's sketch religion in the Roman Empire — Possible difficulties and hazards of a transitional period of general decay of traditional beliefs . . .99

Chapter VI. Relations Between The State And Religion In China

Difference between earliest and latest ideas or relations between Religion and the State— Controversies in Europe over the question — Separation between religion and civil government is becoming a recognized principle in Europe, while the contrary is still the rule in Asia — Islamitic institutions— Position of the Chinese Government, and its method of dealing with the three official religions of China— Confucian, Buddhist, Taouist, all independently established as separate creeds — Publia worship of the Chinese, rites performed by Emperor— The Pekia Gazette ; illustrate the attitude of the Government toward religion, and explain its influence— Posthumous honours and titles bestowed on deceased persons, their deification by order of Govemment— Titles and rewards given to divinities for public services.

XVI CONTENTS.

instances quoted — Control exercised by the State over Buddhist incai"- nations, cases cited from Gazette — Intelleclual condition of a people which sees no clear distinction between the unseen and the visible world, between gods and men— Danger of too close connection between religion and the State 122

Chapter VII. On The Foemation Of Some Clans And Castes In India

Early history of nations nins back to a tribal period — Reference to this period in European history — The Native States of Central India, which have been left outside the great empires of India, are still in the state of tiibal formation— Description of this state of society, no nationalities, the people are classed in clans and sects, by kinship or worship — Examples of grouping by consanguinity and by religion — Description of the structure and development of a consanguineoiis gi-onp — Circles of affinity — Connection between lowest and highest gi-oups, Non-Aryan tribes, predatory tribes, half blood and pure blood clans — Influence on a clan of the original founder or leader — Effect upon social formations of religious ideas, rise of sects, and their transition into castes — Narrowing of circle of affinity — Possible connection of these early phases of society with latest European forms . . .160

CHAPTER VIII. THE EAJPtJT STATES OF INDIA

Political institutions of Eajputana preserved by the English Description

of the country called Rajputdna, its boundaries, and the States which it includes— Origin and development of Rajput States and the dominant clans— Brief retrospect of their histoiy during the time of the Moghal empire ; connection of the ruling famiHes with the Emperors —Effect on Eajputina of period of anarchy during 18th century when the empire collapsed— The States rescued from destruction by the English Government — Extinction of predatory rights by Lord Hastings, and his establishment of permanent peace— Examination of the constitution of a Rajp6t State and of the nature of its organization : the Chief is the head of a clan, and the descendant of the State's founder— Rules of succession to chiefship and customarv practice of selection; the hereditary right subject to condition of fitness— Policy of English Government in disputed cases-Subordinate chiefs and landholders, their rights and obligations— Tenures not feudal, but according to tribal usages and privileges of kinship— Primogeniture- Marriage customs— Religious niovements— Fosterage— Remarks on the character and durability of these institutions

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Chapter IX. Isiam In India

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Dr. Hunter's literary skill and success as a writer on India — Eeferenoe to Mahomedan grievances as stated by Dr. Hunter in Ms " Indian Musalmans," and by Colonel Lees in a pamphlet — Remarks and criticisms upon these statements, and upon the real position and feelings of Indian Mahomedans — Brief historical retrospect of our relations with the Mahomedans, and of the cause of events leading up to the existing situation, in which the' English have succeeded to the political supremacy over India relinquished by the Mahomedans — Question whether religious texts or rulings have much practical effect on the acts or attitude of Mahomedans — Observations upon the inevitable anomalies and difficulties surrounding English government in India — Same discontent and disappointment among Mahomedans unavoidable — Syud Ahmed's polemical controversy with Sir WiUiam Muir — Unpopularity of Wah4bis among Mahomedans— The educational policy of the Indian Government, how far it actually deserves the imputation of formidable errors and grievances — Examination of specific charges ; nature and effect often exaggerated — Explanation of our general policy ; the substantial complaints against it mainly founded on incidents inseparable from the situation ; to be remedied by time, goodwill, steady and impartial administration, and tlie general spread of our cirilizing influences 228

Chapter X. Our Religious Policy In India

Difficulty of position of the British Government in India, in regard to the numerous creeds and sects ; and to the widely different phases of religious opinion in Europe and in Asia — Brief sketch of the early policy of toleration adopted by the English in India, disregard shown for political reasons to native Christians ; careful performance of State ceremonial towards Hindu worships — Gradual effect of missionary pra» tests against connexion of English Government with the religions of the country; withdrawal of Government from superintendence of endowments ; counter protests of natives against total withdrawal ; course and tendency of legislation on the subject ; effect upon it of the mutiny— Grievances of the Mahomedans as put forward by English writers ; criticism of their views— Suggestions as to the proper policy to be followed 258

XVIU CONTEN'TS.

CHAPTER XI. THE EBIilGIOUS SITUATION IN INDIA

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The striking appearance presented by the reKgious aspect of India as a sui-vival of tlie world of prae-C.hristian ages — Geographical and historic reasons why India has been thus preserved, whereas all Asia west of India has been levelled by Islam, which only partially established itself in India — Incoherence and confusion of religions in India, to be accounted for mainly by its political history — India has never been organized, as a whole, into one great State ; and it has been dilapidated by incessant wars — The multitude of gods and rites recalls the description of polytheism in the Eoman empire, given by Eusebius — Analogy between the effect on ancient polytheism of the establishment of the Eoman peace, and the possible influence upon Hinduism of the English government in India — Speculation as to the futui-e of Hinduism under civilized influences and an ordinary government — Probable disappearance or complete transformation of existing . ideas and worships— The English have only to superintend gradual moral and intellectual progress ; their empire the most efiieient instrument of civilization among dissociated communities , , .287

ASIATIC STUDIES

RELIGIOUS AND SOCIAL.

Chapter I. Keligion Of An Indian Province

The actual religious condition of India, with, its extraordinary variety of rites ami worships, exemplifies the state of the civilized world in the ages of classic polytheism, before Christianity or Islam had arisen — A brief account of the religious beliefs in one province, Berar, may serve as a sample of Hinduism — Constant growth, movement, and change, of religious forms and conceptions — Classification, suggesting successive development, of the prevailing beliefs and liturgies, worship of things inanimate, of animals, of spirits, of ghosts, of divine incarnations, of the supreme Brahmanic gods — Some description of each class, with their connexion and the gradual evolution of deities from ancestral spirits, saints, heroes, and demi-gods — Successful wonder-working the selecting agency whereby this evolution is carried on ; and the systen^ of divine embodiment often the process of transmutation into and assimilation with the higher deities of Brahmanism — Probability that the existing state of Hinduism will not last long.

The general form and complexion of Hinduism is familiar enough to those who take interest in the subject of Asiatic religions. Many persons know that the Hindus are divided, as to their theology, into various sects, schools, and orders ; that their orthodox Brahmanical doctrines express an esoteric I Pantheism by an exoteric Polytheism ; and that the mass of the people worship innumerable gods with endless diversity of ritual. A few students of India in England know a great deal more than this ; but I doubt whether any one who has not lived among Hindus can adequately realise the astonishing variety of their ordinary religious beliefs, the constant changes of shape and colour which these beliefs undergo, the extraor-

2 KELIGION OF AN INDIAN PROVINCE. [Chap. I.

jdinary fecundity of the superstitious sentiment — in short, the scope, range, depth, and height of religious ideas and practices prevailing simultaneously among the population of one country, or of one not very extensive province. It is not easy, indeed, for Europeans of this century to realise the condition even of a great continent in which there are no nationalities ; or to perceive how in a mere loose conglomeration of tribes, races, and castes the notion of religious unity, or even of common consent by a people as to the fundamental bases of worship, can hardly be comprehended, much less entertained. For nationality is, as we know, a thing of modem growth ; when Charlemagne restored the "Western Empire, he swept within its pale not nations but tribes — Franks and Saxons, Lombards and Gauls — just as we have subdued and now rule, in India, Sikhs, Pathans, Rajputs, and Marathas. It is therefore, perhaps, by surveying India that we at this day can best represent 1 to om'selves and appreciate the vast external reform worked '( upon the heathen world by Christianity, as it was organised j jind executed throughout Europe by the combined authority of ' the Holy Roman Empire and the Church Catholic. From this Asiatic standpoint, looking down upon a tangled jungle ot disorderly superstitions, vipon ghosts and demons, demi-gods, and deified saints ; upon household gods, tribal gods, local gods, universal gods ; with theii- countless shrines and temples, and the din of their discordant rites ; upon deities who abhor a fly's death, upon those who dehght still in human victims, and upon those who would not either sacrifice or make offering —looking down upon such a religious chaos, throughout a vast region never subdued or levelled (hke all Western Asia) by Mahomedan or Christian monotheism, we realise the huge enterprise undertaken by those who first set forth to establish one Faith for all manldnd, and an universal Church on earth. I We perceive more clearly what classic polytheism was by real- (izing what Hinduism actually is. We have been so much habituated in Europe to associate any great historic religion with the idea of a Church (if not in its medieval sense, Then in the sense of a congregation of the faithful), that most 'of us jassign this kind of settled character and organic form to

Chap. I.] A FAIR SAMPLE OF HINDUISM. S

paganism, modei'n or ancient, so long as it is not barbarism. We are thus prone to assmne that a people like the Hindus, ■with their history, literature, sacred books, and accumulated traditions, must bj' this time have built up some radical dogmas, or at least some definite conceptions of divinity, which the upper classes would have imposed on the crowd as limits to mere superstitious phantasy. For centuries Christianity has marched, along its entire settled frontier, with no other religion beside Mahomedanism, which has distinctive tenets and a lirmly-set pale ; therefore we do not readily appreciate the state of millions of Hindus to whom any such common bond or circumscription is altogether wanting. "We can scarcelj' comprehend an ancient religion, still alive and powerful, which is a mere troubled sea, without shore or visible horizon, driven to and fro by the winds of boundless credulity and grotesque invention.

I have supposed, therefgre, that it might be worth while to attempt a brief description of the actual condition, character, and tendencies of the religious beliefs now prevailing" in one province of India. It wiU present, I believe, a fair average sample of Hinduism as a whole, like a pail of water taken out of a pond. But I do not purpose to draw the well-known figures of Brahmanic theology, nor to rehearse standard myths and heroic fables common to all India. The doctrine of Brahmanism, and the whole apparatus of its ceremonial, with its sects, orthodox or heterodox, flourish in this particular province much as they do in all others; I assume that the outline of them has been studied and understood. My present plan is to try whether the different superstitious notions and forms of worship which fall under everyday observation in an Indian district, can be arranged so as to throw any light upon 1 recent theories as to the gradual upward growth and successive j development of religion through connected stages. That the I sphere of observation has, for the purposes of this essay, been mostly confined within provincial limits, is a condition not without certain advantages. By comparing different ages, diverse societies, and men under dissimilar physical environment, we may collect without dif&culty every species and

B 2

4 RELIGION OF AN INDIAN PROVINCE. [Chap. I.

variety of superstition required to fit up our respective theories of religious evolution ; and people have thus been accustomed to construct such theories upon materials drawn from an mnnite diversity of habitations or races scattered over long periods of time. The convenience of ranging over such a wide field of selection may sometimes tempt us to ascribe to the customs and fancies of distant and greatly differing societies a closer relationship and inter-connexion than really exist. But if the living specimens can all be gathered from one country, then ' their affinity may seem more demonstrable, and the manner of their sequence or descent more intelligible. At any rate, the actual facts may be thus brought more easily under a connected view, and within compass of accurate research ; while it may be interesting (setting aside all theories) to observe a whole vegetation of cognate beliefs sprouting up in every stage of growth beneath the shadow of the great orthodox traditions and allegories of Brahmanism.

The province (commonly called Berar) from which I have drawn my facts is situated nearly in the centre of India ; it is almost identical in area with the present kingdom of Greece on the mainland; and it contains* 2,250,000 inhabitants, of whom 155,000 are Musalmdns, and the rest (of the natives) are loosely called Hindus. Now just as the word Hindu is no national or even geographical denomination, but signifies vaguely a fortuitous conglomeration of sects, tribes, races, hereditary professions, and pure castes ; so the religion of this population of Hindus is at first sight a heterogeneous confusion. Without doubt much of this miscellany may be at once referred, for its source, to the composite character of its people. The Hindus proper, who can be ranged in known wastes, have come in by migrations from North, South, and West ; there is a strong non-Aryan leaven in the dregs of the agricultural class, derived from the primitive races which have gradually melted down into settled life, and thus become fused with the general community ; while these same races are still distinct tribes in the wild tracts of hUl and jungle. Nevertheless, the various superstitions have long ceased to correspond ' * 1868.

Chap. I.] THE SYSTEM OF CASTE. 5

with ethnic varieties ; they have even little accordance with 1 gradations of social position or of civil estate. Moreover, the ' characteristic which, after close examination, most strikes an Em-opean observer, is not so much the heterogeneity of the j popular religion taken at a glance, as the fact that it is a thing which is constantly growing ; that it is perceptibly following ' certain modes of generation, transmutation, and growth, which point toward and lead up from the lower toward the higher kinds of belief. Here, as everywhere in like conditions, the floating and molecular state of society has prevented religious consolidation ; while again the multiformity of religion reacts continually upon the societj', subjecting its constitution to a perpetual inorcellement. And the wedges which have riven asunder and are keeping separate the general mass of the Indian people are furnished and applied by the system of Caste. The two great outward and visible signs of caste fellowship, intermarriage and the sharing of food, are the bonds which unite or isolate groups. Now Caste seems to be the stereotype mould which has in India preserved those antique prejudices of blood and religion that have been worn out or destroyed in almost all countries of equal or inferior civilization ; and so far as caste is by origm Ethnological, Political, or Professional, its tendency in modern India is to subside and fade away out of active life. But to this threefold classification (by Professor Max Miiller)* of the source of Indian caste must be added, I submit, a fourth term, Sectarian, meaning the castes which are produced by difference of rehgion, by J new gods, new rites, new views, and new dogmas. While the' three first-named sources are virtually closed, producing no fresh varieties, this fourth source is still open and flowing, and its effect upon the social fabric is still actively dissolvent. Where tribal and political distinctions are blending and amalgamating according to the ordinary operation of civilizing forces, ^his process is in India continually interrupted and foiled by the religious element of disseveration ; the community, instead of coalescing, is again split up by divergences of doc-

* " Chips from a German Workshop.''

6 RELIGION OF AN INDIAN PROVINCE. [Chap. I.

trine, of ritual, or by some mere caprice of superstition, into separate bodies which eat and intermarry only among themselves, thus establishing and preserving isolation. New objects of adoration are continually being discovered and becoming popular; certain shrines get into fashion, or an "image is set up, or a temple built ; new prophets arise with fresh messages to deliver, or with fresh rules for a devout life. Holy men are canonized by the vox populi after death, or even attain apotheosis as incarnations of the elder gods ; and these also have usually their recognised disciples. In fact, the chief I among these moralists and miracle-workers are the founders of 1 sects, and sects always tend to become sub-castes. Thus the objects of Hindu adoration are constantly changing, so that the Indian Pantheon, like the palace in the Persian parable, is but a caravanserai ; the great dome of manycoloured glass endures with little change, but its occupants come and go. And these novelties of teaching or practice mark off the persons who adopt them; the devotees often become known by a separate denomination which denotes a peculiar discipline or tenet, or perhaps only the exclusive worship of one god or deified man. So that, if a metaphor may be borrowed from physical science, we may say that in India all Hindu religions belong to the fissiparous order ; they have the property of disseverance into portions, each of which retains life and growth. And as the direction taken by the development of any considerable sect is toward the formation of a caste, the result is that continual piece-meal disintegration by religious anarchy of the mass of society, which I have endeavoured to describe.

We can perceive the vestiges of similar tendencies even in Great Britain, where very peculiar sectaries, lilie the Quakers, have lived and married for generations among themselves, and where any radical antagonism of creeds is still a serious bar to matrimony. But the state of things in India can only be realised by supposing that the Irvingites, for instance, should have become, as an inevitable and obvious consequence of their distinctive tenets, a class so far drawn apart from the rest of England that marriage beyond the communion would be of

Chap. I.] CLASSIFICATION OF BELIEFS. 7

disputable validity, and dining with them would compromiss the social and religious reputation of Anglican Churchmen.*

To give any inteUigible account of beliefs and liturgies tlius complicated, some system of classification appears necessary. I have therefore attempted to adopt one, though I do not pretend to much confidence in the hypothesis which it involves. Taking as the lowest stage of religious thought that conception which seems the most narrow and superficial, and proceeding upward as the ideas which I suppose to lie at the root of each conception become wider and more far-fetched, I should distribute the popular worship that can now be witnessed within/ Berar into the grades here following. It should be explained that these divisions in no way denote seiJarate bodies of exclusive votaries, nor do they correspond even with any parallel steps of civilized intelligence or of social position. The average middle-class Hindu might be brought by one part or another of his every-day religious practice, within any or many of these classes, namely : —

1. The worship of mere stocks and stones and of local configurations, which are unusual or gi-otesque in size, shape, or position.

2. The worship of things inanimate, which are gifted with mysterious motion.

3. The worship of animals which are feared.

4. The worship of visible things animate or inanimate which are directly or indirectly useful and profitable, or which possess any incomprehensible function or property.

* Much, might be suggested here (in approve of the common Hindu marriage

support of what Sir Henry Maine has ceremonies ; but for a long time it was

recently pointed out) upon the peculiar not safe for the Brahmoists to disregard

influence of the English law in arresting them, because any material omission of

in Indiathis process of constant change; the customary rites might invalidate

in stereotyping institutions once found their marriage in an English court of

to exist, or perhaps only found by books law. Had no such court existed, they

to have existed, the facts having would probably have gone their own

been long since transformed. Avery way, and become a sub-caste, with

notable example of this may be seen in matrimonial rules of their own, which

the history and present state of the would have been recognised as per-

modern sect called Bralimo SomAj. fectly valid, for Brahmists, by all

They are philosophical deists, who dis- Hindus.

8 RELIGION OF AN INDIAN PROVINCE. [Chap. I.

5. The worship of a Deo, or spirit, a thing without form and void — the vague impersonation of the uncanny sensation that comes over one at certain places.

6. The worship of dead relatives and other deceased persons known in their lifetime to the worshipper.

7. The worship of persons who had a great reputation during life, or who died in some strange or notorious way — at shrines.

8. The worship, in temples, of the persons helonging to the foregoing class, as demigods or subordinate deities.

9. The worship of manifold local incarnations of the elder deities, and of their symbols.

10. The worship of departmental deities.

11. The worship of the supreme gods of Hinduism, and of their ancient incarnations and personifications, handed down by the Brahmanic scriptures.

This category comprises, I think, all the different kinds of Fetichism and Polytheism which make up the popular religion of Berar. With the inner and higher sides of Hindu teaching and belief known in the country I do not now pretend to deal, except so far as these doctrines (which are usually to be respected as profound and serious) have degenerated into mere idolatry of symbols, a relapse to which they are constantly liable. And with regard to the varieties of worship in the catalogue just

(finished, they are of course deeply tinged throughout by the strong skylight reflection of over-arching Brahmanism ; whence the topmost classes now pretend to derive their meaning immediately. Yet it may be said of all (except perhaps of the

"latest classes in the series) that these ideas are not so much Ithe offspring of Brahmanism as its children by adoption ; they have not sprung out of any authoritative teaching or revelation which would control and guide their development, nor ai-e they the decaying survivals either of a higher faith or of a lower superstition. They are living and fexiile conceptions of species constantly germinating and throwing up new shoots, in the present age and in the country where they are found.

The worship of Stocks or Stones, for instance, is an active species which incessantly spreads and reproduces itself before

CiiAr. I.] WOUSHIP OF MERE STOCKS OR STONES. 9

our eyes, with different modifications that all eventually find their place and meaning in the general order of the people's religion. This worship has been placed in the lowest class, because it is taken to represent the earliest phase of Indian fetichism now existing. Let fetichism be defined as the stx-aightforward objective adoration of visible substances fancied to possess some mysterious influence or faculty ; then it may he supposed that the intelligence which argues that a stock or stone embodies divinity only because it has a queer, unusual form, expresses a low type of fetichism. And to this type I am disposed to refer, for their original idea and motive, all such practices as the worship of a stone oddly shaped, of a jutting bit of rock, a; huge boulder Ij'ing alone in the plain, a circle of stones, a peculiar mark on the hill-side or a hummock atop, an ancient carved piUar, a milestone unexpectedly set up where none was before, with strange hieroglyphics, a telegraph post, fossils with their shell marks ; in fact, any object of the kind that catches attention as being out of the common way. Now the Brahmanic explanation of this reverence for curious looking things, especially for things conical and concave, is always at hand and producible to the earnest inquirer after divine emblems or manifestations ; but these interpretations appear to belong to a later symbolism, which is habitually invented by the more ingenious to account upon orthodox principles for what is really nothing but primitive fetichism rising into a higher atmo" sphere. I mean that this worship would prevail in India if the Brahmanic symbolism had never been thought of — does prevail, as a fact, in other far-distant countries. For the feeling which actuates the uninitiated Indian worshipper of stocks and stones, or of what are called freaks of nature, is in its essence that simple awe of the unusual which belongs to no particular religion. It survives in England to this day in the habit of ascribing gi'otesque and striking landmarks or puzzUng antiquities to the Devil, who is, or has been, the residuary legatee of all obsolete Pagan superstitions in Christian countries. In any district of India such objects or local configurations as the Devil's Quoits (near Stanton), the Devil's Jumps (in Surrey), or the Devil's Punch-bowl (in Sussex), would be worshipped ; similar things