extent of the street, and is broken by a kind of pillow-like elevation, which divides unto each house its share; thus affording an agreeable open-air couch for the inhabitants. On these were seated a number of men, some cross-legged, like tailors; others with their black eyes peeping over the knees, which stood up dusky and meager, supporting the chin; others again, resting the weight of the whole body upon the heels, a position which, though less disagreeable to the eye of European than the last named, is more distressing to his feelings; as, in spite of his hopes, that use may obviate its disadvantages, he is put in pain for the poor man's heels and toes. These are the usual positions of the natives: the climate is so dry that no danger arises from sitting on the ground, and consequently the use of chairs would only be increasing the number of their wants without any corresponding addition to their comforts. For, though we may think otherwise, they feel more ease in their own posture than on a chair. I have seen a native seated in that manner fidget from side to side, backward and forward, and in every other way by which he could express uneasiness, until, taking courage, he pulled up his legs, crossed them under him, adjusted himself with an air of great complacency, and so sat perched as we are wont to see Eastern Kings painted on their musnuds."

Several women were passing along the streets: they are about the middle size, slender, symmetrical, and brown; the hair, long, glossy, and jet black, is gathered into one heavy and ungraceful clump behind. An elegant flowing garment covers the person from the waist downwards; from the left side a fold of the same piece passes across the shoulders, leaving the small of the back exposed, but covering the chest, and even the face, when the wearer pleases. In some cases a very small, tight bodice is added; for without this the other robe, like the Roman toga, requires the hand to be constantly preserving it in its proper position. The favourite colours are purple, white, yellow, and red; frequently plain, but often also in stripes or cheques; while a broad border, of some bright contrasting colour, is always disposed with great taste. The dyes are, to an English eye, very striking, as, probably from the advantages of climate, they have a vividness which we cannot give; while the white far surpasses our finest bleach. Thus attired, with the left hand supporting a waterpot on the head, and the right carrying another, the Hindu housewife returns from her morning errand with an air of considerable grace, but defective vivacity, presenting a figure more picturesque than animated. The waterpots are exactly the shape you would obtain by taking a cabbage, covering it with brass, and leaving a large aperture at the top of the form of a tulip. But no description, and no European drawing, can give so accurate a view of the natives of India, as is afforded by their own drawings on talc, where you have the colours of person and costume, the shape of implements, and the air of easy listlessness, or pompous conceit, with amusing exactness; while the very defects in perspective seem to render the picture all the more instructive. Besides the ladies who had been with their waterpots to draw water, a number of others were engaged in an occupation strange to western eyes,diligently gathering into baskets all the cow-dung they could find on the streets. This is as much a domestic duty as the former, and serves also both cleanly and culinary purposes. It is spread in broad patches on a wall for several months, to bake in the sun, and then used for fuel. Part of it is employed, while fresh, to wash the floors and walls of the mud-built dwellings; for which purpose it is highly serviceable, when plentifully diluted with water. Odd as this may sound in English ears, every one

who has proved the difference between a dirty choultry and the cleanly freshness of one just washed out with this strange preparation, will bear testimony to its utility for that unlikely purpose. Many other females appeared at the doors sweeping their houses, or marking the ground just before the entrance with white stripes of lime, crossed into various cheques, according to taste. This is done as a kind of cleanly ornament. It is a favourite amusement with writers on India to rate at the natives for dirtiness; but it is done in perfect ignorance of their domestic habits.

Though the whole scene was novel and interesting, one aspect rested on it all; one thought was continually recurring,—it was a city given to idolatry. The men and women before me were wont to worship and kneel down, not before the Lord their Maker, but before things themselves had made; the houses I was passing contained idols; at that instant incense was ascending to scores of miserable stocks; and hundreds of accountable immortals were in the act of prostration before man-made gods. These were thoughts to chill the heart; to invest eternity with redoubled awe; and to make the soul yearn with ineffable longing for the time when God should look down upon earth and see no rival to his claims, no wanderer from his fold.

A short drive carried us though the northern gate of the city into the suburb of Royapuram, where we were most hospitably received at the house of Mr. Orme, who kindly became our host in the absence of Mr. Crowther, then at Pulicat. We immediately sat down to breakfast, which differed only from a bountiful repast of the same kind in England, by the addition of several Indian fruits and such a profusion of dishes as made it resemble the French dejeuner à la fourchette. With tea and coffee, bread and butter, toast and eggs, one seemed almost more at home than suited the idea of an oriental meal; but yet the strange fruits, the crowd of black attendants, the play of switches protecting you from flies, and the swing of the punkah above, sufficiently attested a strange land. The favourite term to describe a punkah among Indian tourists is a large fan." It is hard to imagine what idea will be formed of a fan large enough to serve a whole company, and playing overhead, by a person who has never seen one. You have observed by the side of a country inn a sign-board suspended so as to flap about with the wind. Now just fancy one of these, instead of being nearly square, extended so as to stretch the whole length of a long dining-table; you suspend from the roof,—for ceiling there is none; in place of the wind, you use a line which, being attached to the punkah, is carried through a doorless doorway into another room, where stands a servant, and, by slow but constant pulling, produces a refreshing motion of the air.

It is said that some of the wealthy patricians at Rome had such a multitude of slaves, that one was constituted nomenclator, being charged with the duty of reciting to his master the names of the others, who were so numerous as to require an official memory. I am not aware that this ancient and reputable custom has yet been introduced among our countrymen in India; but certainly their retinue is such as to suggest its desirableness. This arises partly from a willingness to live in state, partly from the inactivity of the natives, who thoroughly believe the doctrine, that many hands make light work, and partly from their habit of considering the several offices of menial service as so many different trades; so that the man who cooks the meat would as soon think of washing the plates as would a milliner of making horse-shoes; and the man who grooms your

horse would as soon think of cutting grass for him, as a hosier would of making hats. All the servants find, or profess to find, their own provisions; sleep about the verandahs or outhouses, no one ever dreaming of affording them apartments; and receive wages ranging from five to ten rupees a month, according to the dignity of their office, and the wealth of their master.

After breakfast we were summoned to family worship. It is always refreshing to sanctify our mercies by the word of God, and prayer; but, on this occasion, the hymn seemed passing sweet, the word charged with fresh unction; and few can tell the feeling with which the Missionary breathes his first prayer on heathen soil. The soul has no greater thoughts than those with which such a moment supply him. Separated from home and its joys, the world and its excitements, he there gives up spirit, soul, and body to be employed of God in working out his great design of conferring, by the Gospel, life and immortality on multitudes who are hopeless and unholy. The knowledge that he is doing God's will, the hope of winning souls, and meeting them in heaven, fill his breast with a lofty happiness, which must strangely contrast with the feelings of those who land on such shores with no higher aim than to get a living, fill an appointment, or make a fortune.

During the morning we observed in the neighbourhood a high pole, with the appearance of some machinery at the top, on which sat a large bird, of bright brown plumage marked with white. The pole, we learned, was erected for the barbarous uses of the chettle-feast, about to be celebrated; and the bird was that species of kite which receives divine honours from the Bramhans, being that of Gararda, the steed of Vishtnu. To look on those two objects, and think of the worship the one was wont to receive, of the torments the other would be used to inflict, they seemed a meet emblem of idolatry seated on the pedestal of human woe.

Whilst walking in the verandah, some snake-charmers approached, and forthwith began to show us their skill. They produced several bags and baskets, containing serpents of the most poisonous kind,-the cobra de capello; then blew upon an instrument shaped like a cocoa-nut, with a short tube inserted, and producing music closely allied to that of the bagpipe. The animals were brought forth, raised themselves to the music, spread out their head, showing the spectacle-mark fully distended, and waved about with considerable grace, and less appearance of venom than might be expected. The men coquetted with them, and coiled them about their persons, without any appearance of either dislike or fear. This power of dealing with creatures so deadly is ascribed by the natives to magic skill. Europeans generally account for it by saying, that the fangs are extracted. But the most reasonable explanation seems to be, that when the snake is first caught, by a dexterous movement of the charmer the hand is slipped along the body, until it reaches the neck, which he presses so firmly, as to compel an ejection of the virus,-thus destroying, for the time, all power to harm; and that this operation is repeated as often as is necessary, to prevent the dangerous accumulation. If this be true, and I believe it is, -nothing is necessary to the safe handling of these reptiles, but a knowledge of the laws which regulate the venomous secretion. The wonder seems to lie in the power they possess of attracting the snakes by their rude music, and seizing them, in the first instance. But enough is known to make it evident that, in what all natives and many Europeans regard as mysterious and magical, there is nothing but experience, tact, and courage.

With a Hindu, the cobra is the most sacred of reptiles. Most of the natives pay him divine honours; in some places he has temples consecrated to his special worship; and not even the charmers, who seize, imprison, and sport with him, will take away his life. The grounds of this are several: Shiva makes him his chief ornament; Vishtnu reposes on his ample folds on the sea of milk; and the whole earth is sustained upon his head, to which is attributed the flatness observable on the back part of it when distended. The native Romanists are said to account for this by saying, he was the serpent that tempted Eve; and that she, requiring help to reach the fruit, availed herself of the offer of his head, on which the pressure of her foot produced the effect in question. As illustrative at once of their astronomical system, and their rare talent for flattery, the following circumstance may be named :-A Bramhan desirous of a court-appointment had obtained an introduction to the celebrated Bhoja Raja; and entering into learned discussion, delighted His Majesty by the display of superior parts. After having exhausted his store of problems in the vain attempt to perplex the candidate, the King, in despair, demanded to be told why the serpent was made without ears. "O," said the pundit, nothing at a loss, "the reason of that is very plain. When Brumha was engaged in the work of creation, he foresaw that, in process of time, Bhoja Raja would arise, and, by unequalled achievements, spread his fame through the fourteen worlds. Some great Rishi, in his delight, would hasten to Adi Shesha, the serpent who upholds the world, and recount the wonders that were astounding the universe. Adi Shesha, transported by the matchless rehearsal, would forget his position, and, as he does when delighted with music, would shake his head, by which the world would be cast out of equilibrium, and all things reduced to confusion. To prevent this, otherwise unavoidable, catastrophe, the serpent was made without ears." But though they, in theory, hold serpents to be deaf, they never walk in a grassy place at night without making a noise, to frighten them away. And, notwithstanding their veneration, I have known them to stand quietly by to see one killed; and the low-caste people make curry of the flesh, which they pronounce a delicious dish.

We spent the night under the same hospitable roof. The beds used in India are very hard mattress, generally of cocoa-nut fibre, with pillows of the same substance, so hard and unyielding, that some one has humourously compared them to petrified meal-sacks. A single sheet is the covering, and mosquito-curtains of thin gauze complete the equipment. It would be hard for the Madras Magistrates to impose a worse punishment, than to make a man lie, sleep if he could, in a good feather bed, with Holland sheets, Witney blankets, Marseilles counterpane, and damask curtains. A comfortable bed in England is a warm one, in India a cool one.

The next day we attended a prayer-meeting, held in the school-room under our Blacktown chapel. The larger part of the persons present were Indo-Britons; and it was no small happiness to hear fervent thanksgivings for our preservation, and prayers for our usefulness, offered up to God, by persons themselves the fruit of Missionary labour. For a full description of this chapel, as well as for many particulars connected with the Mission in Madras, and the Tamul country generally, I would refer to the valuable and accurate work of Mr. Hoole; a work full of information on the customs, literature, and religion of the Hindus, and quite free from the exaggeration and incorrectness by which so many clever books on India are vitiated.

At this meeting we first met with Mr. Crowther, who received us with a most affectionate welcome, and conducted us to his own house, where we were kindly entertained during the remainder of our stay. It was on this occasion I first entered a palanquin, and shall not easily forget my excessive discomfort at being carried by my fellow-creatures. But when one learns that the men are cheerful and content, have no other means of living, and are, physically, one of the finest castes of men in the country, though you do not become wholly reconciled to it, yet you feel it would be as unreasonable to refuse to employ them, as to refuse to burn coal in England, because your fellow-creatures must live and toil underground for your comfort. To form an idea of a palanquin, look at the body of an omnibus, and you have the exact shape; only just imagine it removed from the wheels, and reduced to about six feet long, with a corresponding decrease of the other dimensions. The entrance is on the side, which is open or close at pleasure, by means of sliding doors. From the centre of the end panel projects a thick pole, for about four feet, behind and before. The passenger having entered, has the choice of lying full-length, sitting up as in a bed, or, as the natives do, cross-legged ; but other posture he cannot adopt. Three men seize the pole in front, and raise it upon their shoulders; three more do the same with the one behind; the head-bearer strikes up a song, and the whole start off at a quick trot.

(To be continued.)

REVIEW.

Perilous Times: or, the Aggressions of antichristian Error on scriptural Christianity, considered in reference to the Dangers and Duties of Protestants. By George Smith, F.A.S., Member of the Royal Asiatic Society, &c., &c. 12mo. pp. xii, 434. Longman and Co.

THE question has often been proposed, with a supercilious and cynical air, by the Romanist, "Where was the religion of the Protestant anterior the time of Luther?" And it has been as often replied, “ In the Bible.” But while we consider this answer as sufficient, another might have been given, and one which was probably more to the point. Our deliberate conviction is, that, from the time that Christianity was first planted, there has ever been in existence a body of men, obscure, hidden from the gaze of the multitude, as the seven thousand in Israel, who had not bowed the knee to Baal, to whom the epithet of "the true church" legitimately belonged; and who, amidst the corruptions, the discouragements, and the dangers of a world with which they had but little in common, and which was altogether unworthy, pursued the noiseless tenor of their way,

"Little and unknown,

Loved and prized by God alone."

It is not an easy task to arrive with accuracy at the precise state of religious opinion when it differed from the Church of Rome, before the Reformation was ripe and manifest. It was at this latter period that the strings of the tongue were thoroughly loosed; when sentiments which, though in existence, and had long been " as a burning fire shut up in their bones," first found utterance and play. It has been the boast of Romanism, that, for many previous centuries, she was at union and peace with