distance of sixteen hundred miles; and that one in ten of this immense assemblage die, -a mortality equal to one hundred and twenty thousand persons every year." At the time of these festivals every Hindu consecrates his dwelling with new images of these supposed deities, and devotes a portion of his means to their worship. In this way it occurs that image-making is one of the most lucrative employments in India.

When visited by any special calamity, such as drought, pestilence, and famine, the Hindus betake themselves for deliverance to the more earnest worship of images. There seldom occurs a year, in which any considerable town, wholly escapes a visitation of the small pox and cholera. The people suppose these fearful diseases to be the forms which certain cruel goddesses assume, for the purpose of chastising the neglect of their worship. When, therefore, any place is visited by either of these diseases, new images must be consecrated to the goddess who has come to redress her

wrongs, and propitiatory sacrifices and offerings must be made. As the disease becomes more virulent, so the people become more mad upon their idols.

Images are among the objects first presented to the mind of a child, and thus its first moral impressions become associated with this worship, and they grow with its growth, and strengthen with its strength. Often have I seen the father and the mother bring their young children to the temple, and there teach them to raise their hands, and bow their heads, in adoration of these gods of earth and stone. The Hindus are incited to the worship of images by the influence of example and habit. They every day, and many times in the day, witness this kind of worship. The high and the low, the rich and the poor, the king and the subject, pay homage to these imaginary gods. If the Hindu would avoid seeing this service done to idols, then he must needs go out of India. Otherwise, he cannot avoid witnessing it;-for it will meet

him in the house, and in the temple, in the school-room, and in the shop, in the highways and the by-ways of the town, in the fields, under every green tree, and upon every high hill. The Hindus are also

carried away unto these dumb idols by the influence of their passions and appetites. To acquire the favor of the gods, and to avert their wrath, they bow down and worship these images. On a certain day of each year, the people of the several castes do religious homage to the different sources and implements of their wealth and subsistence. The broker worships his gold and silver, the merchant his wares, the Bráhman his books, the cultivator his implements of husbandry, the herdsman his cattle, and the shepherd his flocks. A single example of this kind of homage will suffice. It is the custom in India for every man who keeps horses, to employ a keeper for each horse. On the day mentioned, all horsekeepers repair to their masters, and petition for a goat. Having obtained the