^ N * INIVERSITY Of I CAUiOfiNIA ) Or: Fraq. Iron: ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS BY THE AUTHOR OF THE HINDU PANTHEON. . h^^-<'< VAff Spoils of" the gorgeous East, whence, hidden long Beneath the shroud of ages, they are brought, With all their dazzling mystery about them, To raise new wonders here !" LONDON : SMITH, ELDER, AND CO., CORNHILL, BOOKSELLERS, BY APPOINTMENT, TO THEIR MAJESTIES.' 1834. PRINTED BY A. J. VALPV, RED LION COURT, FLEET STREET, EST/9- TO MAJOR DAVID PRICE OF BRECON, ON THE RETIRED LIST OF THE BOMBAY ARMY. MY DEAR PRICE, Accept the Dedication of this little Volume a very trifling testimony of that Esteem and Friendship which have been growing uninterruptedly, not far short of half a century. Our destinies have run nearly parallel over a conside- rable portion of the course of our lives. In early day we started as " Soldiers of Fortune" for the same country. So long ago as 1783 we were, though then unknown to each other, within gun-shot perhaps, in military operations against TIPPOO on the coast of Malabar. We have since served together in the same armies, the same detachments, the same garrisons, and the same regiments. We have toge- ther stormed the same forts have been grievously t maimed and mutilated in the service of our dearly beloved Country, and our blood has moistened the same dust. After an active intertropical servitude of nearly a quarter of a century having filled almost every staff situation of the same army ; having gained the same military rank ; we returned with an honorable competency resulting from per- severing industry and economy, to our native Country, on the same ship ; and have set up our several resting-places within sight of our native hills. Unwilling to be altogether idle or useless, we alike share in the administration of the 157 IV DEDICATION. Justice, and in the preservation of the Peace, of our respec- tive Counties, by acting in various Commissions under the Crown. Not unobservant while in India of the people among whom our early fortunes cast us, or of their languages or litera- ture, we have, since our return, during the lapse of another quarter of a century, resorted to the Press ; and have pub- lished to our Countrymen the results of such observances with this difference, that yours have been chiefly directed to Mahommedan, mine to Hindu literature : and with this farther difference ; that you have made the most of the ad- vantages of a good and classical education, while I have had to contend with the disadvantages of a bad one. You have drank deep, while I have only sipped at those Oriental Literary springs. They who live long must pay the sad penalties of exist- ence : must see their old comrades, and associates, and friends, fall around them. If we look back for our early brethren in arms where are they ? And more and more recently we are called to mourn over the ripened Affec- tions of our later years. It behoves us therefore to rivet the more closely the remaining links of Friendship's early chain and to await, in contentedness and hiimble hope, its final severance. With these sentiments and feelings towards you, My dear PRICE, my oldest FELLOW SOLDIER and FRIEND, I most cordially and affectionately say FAREWELL. EDWARD MOOR. Bealings, Suffolk, March 1, 1834. PREFACE. PHILOSOPHERS and Scholars produce, no doubt, the most useful and instructive works. But a great portion of Readers, however willing to be instructed, seek what is also amusing as well as useful. If only the first classes of authors were to produce books, the wants of a great mass of Readers would remain only half-satisfied. Hence other grades of authors are called into productive activity. Or does their existence create the mass of Readers ? Or do they act on each other? No matter: hence pro- ceed works of a lower but let us hope not of an altogether useless class : still striving to hit the happy old medium of " mixing the useful with the agreeable." I have, I think, observed of late an increasing disposition on the part of the Public to receive with complacency the relations of travellers and others, of VI PREFACE. personal adventures, and feelings. 1 am not aware that I although sufficient of a traveller to have in part qualified myself to ask such courtesy have met with many adventures or that I have been very observant or that I am gifted as to the means of communication. Still I presume to hope that I may be borne with when I play the egotist. I rest this hope, chiefly on the conscious absence of ill intention. Touching the longest article or series of Frag- ments of this volume on the spread of " Sanskrit names of Places" I have I think elsewhere noted, that, extensive as it is, I have not read a single volume or page expressly in search of them. All have occurred in the currency of desultory and con- fined reading. If the extension of that article were deemed desirable, synonymic instances to almost any length might be multiplied, both in Greece and Africa, and in many other I had nearly said in all other countries. My casually-collected examples are by no means exhausted. It may be reasonably thought that the Index to this little book though severely abridged is dis- proportionate. I took the pains to compose it, and PREFACE. Vll at much greater length, from the consideration of the curiosity, not to say importance, of such wide spread of Sanskritisms. A reader, even an Orien- talist, finding such words or sounds in the Index, might not know their " whereabout," till he seek in the page referred to whether they appertain to the geographical nomenclature of Greece, Africa, America, the East Indies, or other regions. Can the like be said of any other language ? I know not if the hypothesis of such spread be mine : this is, I believe, the first attempt to show it. And I farther think that the time is approaching when the hypothesis of such extended spread of the language and religion of Brahmans for their language is almost a necessary portion of their religion will be more and more developed. Such evidence will lead to farther matter of curiosity, interest, and im- portance. LIST OF THE EMBELLISHMENTS, FRONTISPIECE ....... Described in pages 439 to 45. 50. 69. 70, 1. Plate Page f. r Fac- Simile of a Letter from! ^ , * AA ~ 6 { Dowlut Rao Sindeah . j 6 to 11. 44o. 1S to 22 - ^ 6 " III. 22 { Si fipp ^ in & g c S . & c Hyder A1 ! Y ' } 22 to 34. 445, 6, 7. 9?. iv. rs { **$$5>*$^' H } ^ to 79. 447. V. 488 f Illustrations of Indian, Egyp- ~] < tian, Grecian, and Chris- [> 280 to 304. 447 to 88. {. tian Gnostics, &c. &c. &c. j VI. 489 Specimen of the Koran . . 489,90. VII. 493 An Indian Shield . . . 491, 2, 3. ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. FRAGMENTS FIRST. 9^ ON EASTERN CORRESPONDENCE SEALS STONES ORIENTAL MSS. &C. &C. SEVERAL writers have noticed the refinements observable in the correspondence of Asiatics. I have myself had occasion to mention it at some length ; and, finding among my memoranda a collection of materials on the subjects enumerated at the head of this chapter, I purpose to illustrate them rather fully. Without much affectation of arrangement, I hope I may produce an article not altogether incurious or unprofitable. I will premise that between "persons of condi- tion "in England or France, fine gilt paper, sealed with the arms of the writer, is appropriate. But nothing farther is expected when a private gentle- man may address a duke or the king. Not so in India, as we shall presently show. Between ladies of rank, indeed, in these western regions of refine- A 2 ORIEiNTAL FRAGMENTS. ment, especially between young ones, we do observe something farther finer note paper, tinted with beautifully embossed emblematic margin, sealed with variegated and perfumed wax, with a classical or antique impress, and fancifully pretty poesy. These, and other niceties that may not have reached my eye or ear, would mark an elegant attention to the external delicacies of style, that may remind us of Oriental refinement. But they still fall far short. Gentry of most grades among us affect, more or less, to imitate the higher ranks in many or most of the points that are above noted. Between trades- men, inferior paper with uncut edges, closed with a wafer, would, perhaps, on common occasions be deemed sufficient. Sometimes, however, the youth of this class raise themselves a step or two in the external forms of correspondence, and imitate the fashion of others we may not, in these days, nor peradventure in truth, say as in days of yore, " of their betters." They imitate the others also in learn- ing to dance, sing, play, draw, and certain things ending in -ology. In this, I am not disposed to blame them it arises chiefly from the commenda- ble desire of rendering themselves agreeable and attractive ; nor can I discommend a pleasing extent of smartness in dress and decoration. Excess, or the extreme in everything, is to be reprehended. We can, alas ! have no unmixed good. He is, perhaps, too fastidious, who sees first and chiefly the possible, lurking, remote evil in these efforts to please him. For myself, I cannot resist the intended effect. Coming once after a short sojourn and travel in CORRESPONDENCE. 3 Flanders and Holland, again into France, the plea- sing effect of the becoming smartness of the French toiirmtre, &c. was such a relief after the skull-caps and ugly habits of the Vrows, so well depicted by TENIERS and his compatriots, as is not to be easily imagined. What, indeed, are niceties in dress, but amatory correspondence telegraphed ? The Hol- landers are strikingly contrasted to the French in their externals, and perhaps in their internals too. They are an ugly, honest, tasteless race. Among ourselves we thus see that different de- grees of refinement distinguish our external forms of correspondence. I may also note another or two : among persons of ton in London, letters or notes must not be sent by post. So in India, letters of exalted persons are sent by special messenger (I may, perhaps, see it fit to notice how I have had the honor of being the bearer of a letter from the King of England to the Ruler of the Mahrattas) : nor in London must the address of the recipient party be superscribed. The name is all-sufficient. It is not predicable that any one can be ignorant of the abode of " The Right Honorable The Lady Honoria ." " 'Twould argue one's self unknown." In the like feeling, the houses in Grosvenor (or, as some well- disposed persons of both sexes have of late years sought to deserve favorably of their country by calling it, Gravenor)' Square are not numbered. Little folks affect to smile at all this : and let them. It is an allowable revenge at their exclusion from a participation in these and other fashionable frivoli- ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. ties ; which few, who have a choice, abstain from on principle. Between gre^t men in the East, special messen- gers must convey their letters. Between kings they pass sometimes in great pomp, attended by magni- ficent presents. The letters are written on beauti- fully manufactured paper, besprinkled with inter- woven flowers, and ornaments of gold or silver. I do not know that I have ever seen paper more ex- quisitely manufactured than that on which the letters of exalted persons, as well as the fine specimens of Oriental penmanship, are written. The letter is rarely an autograph. Sometimes a particular mark or flourish is made at the top or bottom. This is I think called byse ; but I am not sure if that be an Indian or a Turkish designation : perhaps both. Sometimes, more especially I think between Mahommedans, the impression of a signet ring is made at the top or bottom, or side of the letter. This is said to be regulated by form and eti- quette. If to a superior, or to one to be conciliated, or flattered, it would be placed at the bottom ; as it would be from any affectation of humility. An as- sumption, or a decidedly real superiority, would induce a superior signature : lateral, equality. The paper marks also, in very nice distinctions, the grades of the parties, especially of the receiver. To the very exalted, that already described must be used. To others you may use paper of a quality superior to the precise rank of the party addressed ; but by no means of a quality inferior to his pretensions. A , CORRESPONDENCE. ij nice knowledge in these matters is of importance, and is an accomplishment duly studied and appreciated. The letter being written on paper usually about twelve inches long and six broad, varying to perhaps one-third greater extent, is re-doubled in small folds of about an inch : its length being the breadth of the paper. It is then put in an envelope of fine gold or silver powdered paper, about two inches wider than the letter : this is folded up in a peculiar way, not easily described, in folds of the size of the letter ; but the ends of the envelope are not all folded or doubled in, but project, as it were, beyond the folds or doublings-in : the enclosure is thus secured in a manner not admitting of easy abstraction. The last edge of the envelope is managed so as to end at the middle of the letter, and is closed with paste or size in its whole length. The signet-ring usually is im- pressed over the middle of the pasting, and generally contains the name and principal title of the writer sometimes his name only. The signet is of stone, cornelian, emerald, turquoise, &c. : if of metal, the seal is mostly in the form of a stamp ; it is dipped on a hard, inked cushion, leaving an impression of a black ground the uninked inscription white. The direction, or address, is then added at considerable length ; not, however, the name merely of the ad- dressed, with a handle or tail, equivalent to our Sir Charles, or Right Honorable, or Bart, or Esq., but the style and titles in full, interlarded with amplifi- cations and complimentary adulations. It runs sometimes half, sometimes the whole length of the letter, from right to left, in a single line. 6 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. Several of such letters are in my possession, from and to great men from the King (Great Moghul) ; the Governor Generals, Lords WELLES LEY and TEIGNMOUTH; DOWLUTRAO SINDEAH, Rajah of Koorg, &c. 8tc. to exalted persons. Of some of these we will speak more particularly presently, and give impressions of their seals ; but we have not yet done with our first subject, the letter. It is written, folded, closed, stamped, and directed. Plate I. is a well-engraved fac-simile of such a letter, not selected for the importance or curiosity of its contents, but because it is the shortest in my possession, and the only one that could be most con- veniently copied into the required size. It is from DOWLUT RAO STNDEAH to the Governor of Bom- bay, on some occasion, as will be seen, of a family quarrel on the sea-coast. It is read from right to left, beginning at the right of the top line. The Alif 1 at top is the initial of Allah, the reverenced name in, and with, which all Mahommedans with any pretensions to piety (and they are among the most religious of mankind) com- mence every undertaking, important or otherwise. The anomaly of such an invocation in a letter from a Mahratta to a Christian will be noticed hereafter. It is written in Persian, in the hand called Shekesteh, or broken, or, as we should call it, run- ning ; carelessly pointed, on very fine smooth paper, covered with an interwoven besprinklement of silver dust. The paper is just twelve inches long, and six and a half wide. The writing occupies something more than a quarter of the paper, the left hand Or. -Frag M.I. CORRESPONDENCE. 7 bottom quarter. The I is at the very top in the ori- ginal, in the engraving brought down to the wri- ting. In the Plate it has been necessary to place the address on its end in the margin. It is written in the same broken, running hand ; in which the letters are strangely transformed, almost ad libitum, the short vowels or diacritical points omitted, or mis- placed, or mis-written, with other puzzlings to a tyro. A practised friend thus translates it for me. Address on the envelope placed upright in Plate I. " Let this come under the consideration of the be- nefactor of his friends, the distinguished in the state, the Amein (conservative governor) of the country en- trusted to his care, Ounahty (a word obscurely writ- ten it may be Onatun, and an initial J has perhaps been omitted these supplied, we may read JON A- THAIS)DUNCA N the renowned, the lion in battle on whom be peace from the Most High. " Sir, the benefactor of your friend peace be with you from the Most High the noble and exalted in dignity BABU RAOANGRIAH, invested with confi- dence on my part, recently dispatched a certain Cheilah (a slave or a freedman) of his own of the name of JEY SING RAO, for the purpose of regulating and ad- justing some affairs of the fortress of Callian (this word is as much like Colabah) and the districts de- pendent on it. The said personage, accordingly, on his arrival, took possession of the country, moreover advancing batteries against the fort. But according to the sordid and contracted character, which is pe- 8 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. euliar to himself, the said RAO, revolting from his allegiance to the noble and exalted in dignity, above named, and with views of worldly interest, and worse than this might have been expected from his habits, has proceeded to sow dissension ; apparently relying upon the assistance of the English Company, ever renowned, to aid him in the reduction of the said fortress. Now the relations between the two Sirkars (governments that is, Sindeah's and the English) being in unison, and having due regard to the har- mony thus subsisting, means have been forwarded to chastise the said revolter, and to remedy the dis- orders of which he has been the occasion. Therefore it is that I have employed the pen to express a de- sire that in no shape shall such aid or assistance be ever extended to him, and that in no case shall any reliance be ever placed in his insidious represen- tations. What more should I write ? " The last sentence is in the margin of the MS. as in the plate in the latter divided by a faint line from the external address. The broad dark charac- ter at the extreme end may be a mark merely of termination ; but it is rather supposed to be DOWLUT RAO'S autograph. The exterior signet-seal of the letter is placed at top of the plate, and may be thus read and translated : " 36. Chief Governor of Kingdoms the beloved son of eminent station Maharajah DOWLUT RAO SINDHEAH, Bahadur, 1208." A. H. CORRESPONDENCE. 9 Maharajah is equivalent to great prince. DOWLUT RAO and his predecessor were usually so called, and addressed ; abbreviated to Meraj. The 36 is the date of the reign of the King, by whom these titles were granted the late SHAH A ALUM. Of this more presently, In reading the impression of this seal, you begin at the bottom on the right. Reaching the ivJl you stop, and go to the second line, where the < $ is elongated its whole length, the line having but two letters. You must then return to the lower line, and read to the end ; skip the second line, read the whole of the third, skip the fourth, read the fifth or top line till you come to the last syllable of SIN- DEAH, then read the fourth, which comprises but three letters C^J Baha, and finish with the ^ dur, at top. All this may seem complicated and difficult; and doubtless is so, to novices ; but by those ac- customed to it, it is as currently read as a news- paper; by Sir GORE OUSELEY, for instance, and Major PRICE. The observable anomaly of Indian Courts and diplomatists, be they Christian, Mahommedan, or Hindu, communicating with each other in the Per- sian language, even where both parties may be wholly ignorant of it, has been adverted to. In the south of India, except about the Mahommedan Courts of Hydrabad and (late) Seringapatam, Per- sian scholars are rarely met with. Here and there a Mahommedan munshi, or writer, or teacher, may 10 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. be found in the service of a native prince or others ; also a Mahommedan gentleman who understands Persian, and perhaps more or less of Arabic ; but such persons are not common. A good reader of the Koran does not necessarily imply that its language is understood, even by him ; ninety-nine times in a hundred, its hearers are altogether ignorant in that particular. Hindu rulers, commanders, and other great men who may have occasion to correspond with their equals, mostly employ a Mahommedan penman. I do not recollect that I ever met with more than one Hindu skilled in Persian : he was a Brahman, in the service of my old Brahman mili- tary commander, PURSERAM BHOW, (PARASU RAM A-BHAO). He was also my munshi, or teacher, in Persian, and my guru in Hinduism. His name was Mo HUN LAL. I name him with pleasure; for I felt and feel myself under deep obligation to him ; for when I was lying grievously wounded, he rode fifty miles at considerable personal risk, through an enemy's country, solely to visit me ; and on taking leave, thinking or fearing that in such a strange country, in such strange times, and under such strange circumstances, in a remote Mahratta town, I might be in want of means, pressed on me with the most delicate apologies a purse of gold. I dis- tressed him by persisting in not taking it : the odds were greatly against our again meeting on this side the moon ; for my wound was a bad one, and the coming events were strangely fore-shadowed. We did, however, meet; and I keep with affectionate remembrance, a copy of HAFEZ, one of the most CORRESPONDENCE. 11 beautiful manuscripts I ever saw, a present from that kind friend. If alive, may prosperity be with him if dead, peace ! Although natives see fit to employ writers in a foreign unknown language, the English do not labor under that disadvantage. So many of the East- India Company's civil and military servants are completely skilled in Persian, and other languages, that it is not difficult to find gentlemen, so quali- fied, for the various diplomacies and missions at and to all the Courts of India. Thus, my kind friend Mr,. DUNCAN, to whom the noticed letter was addressed, was an elegant Persian scholar ; but his exalted correspondent, DOWLUT RAO SINDEAH, knew not a letter of it. This comprises, I think, all that I have to say on the subject of Plate I. Our letter being written, folded, closed, stamped, and directed, is put into a loose bag of fine muslin, which is placed in another bag, of ample size, in reference to its contents, say a foot long and three inches in width. This bag is made of a very rich stuff called kamkhab, by us usually kincob. It is of silk, red generally, sometimes blue, embroidered in gold or silver, mostly of gold, with flowers, some- times so fall as to show but little silk. This bag is called kharita. Men and women's dresses are some- times made of this rich stuff, especially trousers, pajama, sometimes coats : it is very gorgeous cushions, pillows, palky-bedding, &c. are also covered with it. In the khelaat, or honorary dress, so often given by great men to visitors of note, a 12 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. piece of kamkhab for the trousers is usually one of the five, seven, nine, or more pieces of which the khelant, according to the rank of the parties, is com- posed. The compound name e.->UrP kamkhab, which has rather forcibly been translated restless, sleepless, dreamless, is said to have been given to this rich stuff, from its uncomfortable roughness to the touch ; but it is perhaps a fanciful derivation. Sheets made of it would certainly induce deficiency of rest, the literal meaning of its name. But, in truth, the derivation may be rejected. Sleepless or dreamless is spelt L-jl^sv* not L >Ls-P as above. The top of the kharita being securely tied about two or three inches down, with a slight long string of silk and gold twist, tasselled at the ends, the string is passed through a flat mass of red wax, im- pressed with the great or state seal of the writer. The tassels showing themselves beyond the seal sometimes contain in a knot a slip of paper tied round its middle. On this slip is written the name and short principal title of the writer. Of these some specimens will be given. The spread of wax is regulated by the size of the seal from one inch to four or more inches in dia- meter, and from the thickness of a dollar to a quar- ter of an inch. It is skilfully managed, exhibiting a pretty exact circle, with smooth even edges, or oval, or polygonal, as the seal may be shaped ; but most commonly round. The kharita thus prepared is put all together, seal Or:Fraq. SEALS. 13 and all, into another bag of fine white muslin, and is ready for the hand of the special messenger. It remains to describe more particularly these great seals of great men. The central subject of Plate II. is an exact representation of the seal of DOWLUT RAO SINDEAH, of whom the world has heard so much, and will hereafter hear so little, ap- pended to the Letter of Plate I. It is four and a half inches in diameter the wax a quarter of an inch thick. Nothing can exceed the accuracy of the engraver, l nor, I think, the beauty of his execution of this as well as the other subjects of this book, which bear his name. The impression of this seal is easily read. Be- ginning at the bottom on the right, it runs to the left, upwards, thus : ri (j Uw Jib ^5-jli xU, jb Jlc ^li, /r*A It is well cut not, I should think, in the Dekkan. At Hydrabad, and Surat, and perhaps at Aurun- gabad, artists may, however, be met with capable of such work. 1 Mr. Swaine of Queen Street, Golden Square. B 14 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. Such Sanskrit words as Sri Nath and Pundit Purdhan, look awkwardly in Persian, and might puzzle a mere Isfahani, or a Shirazi ; but an Indo- Persian recognizes them immediately. And, it may be asked, how came the Persian word c^-ojJ dowlut, wealth, to appear as the proper name of a Mahratta? I am not aware that it has any relationship with the Sanskrit. In an earlier work, published nearly forty years ago, I have shown the proneness of the Mahrattas to borrow vocables from any other language. From Arabic, Persian, Hindustani, English, and probably others, numerous words are legitimatized into theirs. I do not immediately recollect any Mahommedan proper name at all con- nected with Sanskrit, or any language strictly Hindu nor, indeed, any other Hindu having a Persian proper name (independently of titular acquirement) except DOWLUT RAHU SINDEAH. A learned friend has favored me with the follow- ing excellent translation of this great seal of this (once but like NAPOLEON, he came once into hostile contact with WELLINGTON, and therefore this once) great man : " Pillar of Nobles among sons most distinguished Exalted in Dignity Maharajah DOWLUT RAO SINDEAH, Bahadur (renowned warrior) to the Divine Nat ha Conqueror of the age Lieutenant, with powers unlimited Minister absolute Lord of Lords Son, among the excellent, most excellent, of the sublime in dignity, Pundit Purdhan (pre-eminent divine) Maharajah Dehraj Sevai MADHU RAQ SEALS. 15 NARRAYEN Bahadur Servant, devoted to SHAH AALUM, Emperor Victorious" (over infidels). In the right-hand upper corner is the date of the Hejra 1208, corresponding to 1793 A. I). To the left of the second line from the bottom is 36 the year of the long reign of poor SHAH AALUM (" Emperor Victorious !") DOWLUT RAO must at the above period, 1793, have been a mere lad. I first saw him in 1796, and he was then a very young man under twenty perhaps. In cutting these seals, the artists seem to put the dates where most convenient the 36 is in the mid- dle of the word Natha. They like to make, by a sort of arbitrary nourish, letters to run backwards or forwards, wholly across. In this seal four run back- wards, and one forward for which, save for appear- ance, there was no occasion. Showing, since this was written, my pretty plate to another friendly and accomplished Orientalist, he favored me with another translation of SINDEAH'S great seal, as follows : " The Pillar of Nobles the beloved Son, of emi- nent station Maharajah DOWLUT RAU SINDEAH Bahadur Sri Nath, the victorious of the age, the Minister with absolute power, supreme Deputy of the Lord of Lords, the most particularly beloved Son, of the highest rank, Pandit Pardhan Mahara- jahdiraj Sevai MADHU RAU NARAIN BAHADUR, vassal of SHAH AALUM, King, Hero of the Faith." A. Hejiri 120836 of his reign. The MADHU RAO of this seal was Peshrca when 16 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. I first visited Poona. His brief history is somewhat singular. I may devote a future page to it. I have now pretty well done with the first general subject of Indian Correspondence, and with SIN- DEAH'S seal, in particular. The other figures of Plate II. remain to be described. But before I de- scribe them I have a few remarks to offer on the acquisition of titles from the King (Great Moghul) by the other sovereigns or rulers of India, Ma- hommedan and Hindu, as well as by individuals of almost every nation and religion, and of almost every rank. These titles are high-sounding, as may be seen above, and according, more or less, with the rank of the honored not, however, very exactly. It has, indeed, been said, that of the later years of poor SHAH AALUM, the fees on these titles were actually of importance to him as revenue ; and that a douceur, well applied, would obtain a title beyond the real rank of the aspirant. This, to a certain degree, may be true ; but it would be manifestly absurd to grant such titles as those of SINDEAH to any but a puissant personage. To him even the total absence of absurdity may not be at once conceded. It should be recollected, however, that SINDEAH was at that time, as was his predecessor, indeed a mighty Sove- reign, wielding despotically the potencies of immense armies overawing all the powers of India, save the English, including his own immediate superior, the Peshwa, the "MADHU RAO NARRAIN, Pundit Purdhan " of the seal ; and the Badshah himself, the TITLES. 17 aged, blinded, reduced, SHAH A ALUM ; whom he held in a direct state of thraldom, comfortless to the unhappy King, and not honorable to himself. His predecessor, MADAJEE SINDEAH, was the master-mind that did all this for DOWLUT RAO, his adopted ; he rescued the King from a tenfold depth of misery and degradation in the hands of the infamous, beyond all names for infamy, G HO LAM KHADIR, and left a mighty sway to DOWLUT RAO. It is said that he, as HYDER did to his son TIPPOO, cautioned the ministers and guardians of his adopted I believe nephew, and the lad himself, to avoid, to the last effort, hostility with the English. MADAJEE SINDEAH and HYDER were master- minds, fitted to raise themselves to empire Do w LUT RAO and TIPPOO, from different reasons, were like- lier to lose it. It was to MADAJEE SINDEAH, probably, that the titles of Ameer al Omra, and Wakeel Motluck, were granted. The first, " Lord of Lords," may have been merely complimentary ; but Wakeel Motluck, u Lieutenant, with powers unlimited," is, as I have known in another, a substantive patent, giving ex- traordinary power to a minister. Many Englishmen, residents in India, have re- ceived these patent titles of honor from the reigning King. Persons of high rank, Governor-Generals, Governors, Commanders-in-Chief, Ambassadors at different courts; and others of inferior dignity, aggregately a great many, have received them. At native durbars, or courts, you take precedence in 18 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. conformity with the grade of your a1khaab t or hono- rary title. But I believe this is confined to Mahom- medan durbars. At the native courts I have heard the entree of these title-bearing nobles announced in a very flourishing style by the full-mouthed proper officers ; who so well know how to make the most of the most pompous titular phraseology. After such fine high-sounding grandiloquence, I have seen enter, literally, a " gentleman without a shirt," as CRISPIN HEELTAP puts back in the "Mayor of Garrat." But he was, notwithstanding, a man pf note; wearing, albeit shirtless, a sword and shield, on which alone the haughty warrior plumed himself. I once, when residing at a native court, had the ambition I will not give it POPE'S prefixture in his invocation to St. JOHN to become an Omrah of the Moghul empire. Mentioning it one day to my kind and much-lamented friend General PALMER, one of the most noted and skilled of Eastern diplomatists, he offered to procure me a title from Dehli, where he was very influential. But if it was ever conferred, I never received it. I was removed from the pre- sence of my friend he was immersed in the turmoil of important state affairs, and I in matters of less moment, but not less incessant times and circum- stances changed my alkhab was perhaps forgotten my friend died and I am still a commoner, whether at the court of Dehli, or elsewhere. My highly-gifted friend also undertook to pro- cure for me from the archives of Dehli, a list of all TITLES. 19 the Europeans on whom titles and honors had been bestowed by the kings of India, with those titles at length. In my thirst for collecting, I thought such a list, with a translation, like the foregoing, of the high-sounding honors so conferred on my country- men, and a brief memoir of such as I could learn any thing of, might be entertaining ; but, like my own alkhab, if ever made, such document did not reach me. These honors have not been confined to the English Frenchmen, Portuguese, Italians, Ameri- cans one instance only is known to me of the last have received them. To some I have known them give pleasant and profitable precedence at court. Mahommedans, speaking of such individuals, give them their native titles ; dropping their European names. I have heard such a person have the insolence to call Lord CORNWALLIS by his Dehli title of and DOWLUT RAO SINDEAH by his, of 3 \j^\ CL?^ Omdut al Omra pillar of nobles. I may dilate farther hereon in another page ; but I rather wish to return hence to Plate II., and to make an end of what I have to say specifically on that plate. No. 2. is the seal of my much-respected and ac- complished friend, the Right Honorable Sir GORE OUSELEY, Bart., containing the titles conferred on him by the king SHAH AALUM. It is, like the others, an exact fac-simile of his seal, which is cut in a white agate. 20 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. Reading, as before, from the right at bottom, it runs thus : ; lv< ^Al! Imtiaz ud Dowlah mumtaz ul mulk GORE OUSELEY, 1212, Bahadur Zuflfer Jung. " The Distinguished of the State the Exalted of the Kingdom GORE OUSELEY Bahadur (Hero) Victorious in War." 1212 A. H. 1797 A. D. Or, as translated by another skilled hand, thus : " Pre-eminent in the State Distinguished in the Realm GORE OUSELEY Behadur Victorious in Battle." This seal is well and beautifully cut by a Lucknow artist of celebrity. No. 3. of the same Plate II. is a curious specimen of a whimsical style of writing and graving, in which Arabians I think more particularly delight and ex- cel. Persians and Indians imitate them success- fully. It is called toghra, or flourished. The writing reads the same, backwards or forwards and the art seems to rest on making the letters, of which the words or names are compounded, as difficult to read as possible, by unexpected and whimsical, and some- times scarcely authorized, combinations. I shall leave it to the ingenuity of my readers to find this out. It is not difficult ; as the letters of the names are not very tractable as to combinable facilities the four medials, out of the eight letters, resist union with their neighbours. The first and last two are more tractable. The date is 1211 A. H. of A. D. 1796. It is a cornelian seal. SEALS. 21 By way of filling up the Plate, three more im- pressions of seals are given below. The central, No. 5, is cut on a topaz, set in a ring, with this inscription, in Sanskrit : " Sri KRISHNA sahai GORE OUSELEY." That is, " GORE OUSELEY the favored of the Holy KRISHNA." The other two at the bottom of this Plate, Nos. 4 and 6, I shall leave unexplained, to be made out, which is easy enough, by the reader. No. 4. is on a cornelian called yemeni, the finest kind : it is a ring. No. 5. is a stamp seal the dates 1212 and 1210 A. H., corresponding with 1797 and 1795 A. D. A critical reader will perceive that in SIN- DIAH'S great seal the initial of MADHU in the second line is not strictly correct, being l> instead of U . But the original seal, of which I have two impres- sions, is exactly copied. I will here interpolate the remark that Indian wax is so hard as not to yield to the climate. Impres- sions can be preserved through the hot seasons, and for many years. I have many that I have had thirty or forty years, as sharp as ever. English wax yields to a very little heat 100 degrees, perhaps, or less. I remember when I was a postmaster in India, the use of wax on letters crossing the peninsula, or for despatch by the overland packets to England, was interdicted. English wax is sent out in great quan- tities, and is chiefly used, officially and privately, in India while the country wax is so much better and cheaper. 22 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. This is all that I have to say on the immediate subject of Plate II. We turn now to Plate III. This I reckon a very beautifully executed work of art, as relates to the engraving, and filled with curious and valuable sub- jects. No. 1. is Sifac-simile impression of the signet- ring usually worn by the lately renowned, now half- forgotten, HYDER ALLY, first Sultan of Mysore. It is characteristic of HYDER plain, useful, and unostentatious. It is a common red cornelian, set in silver, with black enamel. It has this inscription read from the top : " HYDER ALI KHAN Bahadur. 1173." This corresponds with A. D. 1759. A figure 6 is observable about the middle. This may be the year of his assumption of the style of sove- reignty. This ring, together with the subjects 2. 3. 4. 5. and 6. which will be noticed presently, were found among the booty captured with Seringapatam, and were purchased at the prize sales by Major PRICE, prize agent for the Bombay army. They are still in his possession. He has favored me with impressions. The subjects themselves have been, indeed, years in my possession. No. 2. is the seal-ring of TIP POO. It is cut on deep red, liver-coloured, cornelian, set in gold. It bears simply ^UaLw j TIPPOO SULTAN, with the date 1215, and prettily beflowered. But in this instance the date is not of the Hejra, or Flight ; and is perhaps the only instance of a Mahommedan pre- suming to alter that universally received and re- ! b* o^ I AjeJuJ *) t SEALS. 23 vered era. TIPPOO invented and used an era of his own. Ignorance on this point led me, on a former occasion when I published and descanted on TIP- POO'S coins and coinage, into various surmises on so, then, unaccountable an anomaly ; but the subsequent publication of WILKS' South of India, and MARS- DEN'S Numismata Orientalia, has fully cleared the subject of all embarrassment and difficulty. I pur- pose, in another place, to devote a page or two to this matter of chronology, and some others con- nected with it. No. 3. of Plate III. has no immediate legendary connexion with TIPPOO or his family. Having been found, and being kept, among such subjects, and having probably been engraved by the command of TIPPOO, and used by him, or one of his family, it has found a place in my pretty plate. It is a seal of yellow cornelian, set in gold, bearing the date of 1199 A. H. (here) corresponding with 1784. It has this inscriptionread from the top : ^&- < *}f^, Ya maroof Kirkhee. " O, thou ! who wast manifested at Kirkh." This is reasonably supposed to refer to the 7th Imaum, MOUSSA al KAUZEM, who is buried at Kirkh, a suburb of Baghdad. He was poisoned by KHALED, one of the Barmecides, in the reign and through the jealousy of HARUN RASHID. It is probable that TIPPOO, in a pious or fearful feeling, may have thus and otherwise invoked the blessing or protection of the holy martyr on himself, or one of his family, on the occasion of a birth, per- 24 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. haps, or some impending danger. But this is mere conjecture, No. 6. contains the same invocation, on a smaller scale, differently written. This is to be read from the bottom. The date is the same as on TIPPOO'S ring, 1215. This may have appertained to another of the family. No 4. is a gold ring, with a yellow cornelian, en- graved with the name of &*$ ^j^ Mo HI ud DEEN, one of TIPPOO'S sons which, in the order of succession, does not immediately occur to me ; but he was, I think, one of the two hostages surrendered by TIPPOO to Lord CORNWALLIS, for the due per- formance of the first Seringapatam treaty of peace of 1792. The date of the ring is 1218 read the wrong way, it is true but if read the other, it would carry us out of all chronological bounds. It is of his father's era ; for if taken as of the Hejra, it would correspond with A. D. 1803, four years after the subversion of his father's power and the duration of his life. Of this prince Mom ud DIN, this anecdote may be worth relating. To arrange and catalogue the vast amount of pro- perty captured at Seringapatam, to make it avail- able for sale, or division among the captors, skilled individuals were selected. Major, since Major- General, OGG of the Madras establishment, and Major PRICE of Bombay, were selected to inspect and arrange TIPPOO'S splendid and invaluable library. While engaged in this interesting employ- SEALS. 25 ment, the prince Mo HI ud DIN (who, with the rest of the royal family, were under liberal surveillance) came into the library ; and, after observing some time in silence, was overheard muttering at his de- parture, " Look at those hogs ! polluting my father's books." Poor youth ! it may easily be forgiven him. His name means " Restorer of Religion." No. 5. of Plate III. has no other relationship to TIPPOO than as having, like Sand 6, been found as- sorted, purchased, and kept with the same lot. It is a small gold ring of yellow cornelian. The fol- lowing names are almost illegibly engraved or scratched on it, ALLAH MA HO MM ED ALI FATIMA HUSSEN HUSSEYN : being the Deity, and the holy family. It may have been worn as an amulet not used as a seal for the engraving on the stone reads unre- versed, as in the Plate. It is a curious subject. Women are very rarely brought to notice or recollection by Mahomedans. FATIMA, it may be scarcely necessary to note, was the daughter of the prophet, the wife of the great ALI, and the mother of HUSSEN and HUSSEYN, who were most atrociously murdered by the infamous YEZZID. No human being, probably, that ever existed, has had so much execration heaped upon him, or more deservedly, than the said murderer. The copious subject of the fate of these martyrs on which more pathetic poems and essays have been composed, and more c 26 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. feelingly recited, and more tears shed, than on any other, perhaps, since the fall of man may probably invite re-attention in a future page. At present I shall only stop to add that the memory of F ATI MA, the prophet's beloved daughter, the " Mother of the Faithful," is held in deep respect. This may be supposed, when the character given of her by the prophet is to this effect that " he had known many really good or perfect men but only four faultless women:' 7 these were ASIA the wife of PHARAOH, the Virgin MARY, KADIJAH the daughter of KHO- w AILED (the prophet's first wife), and his own daughter FATIMA. We will now turn to No. 7. of Plate III. This is a representation of a very curious and valuable sub- ject. It is an agate, or cornelian, most elaborately and beautifully cut to a degree, I think, exceeding any 1 have ever seen of a like nature. It was pur- chased by a deceased friend in Persia. It was shown by a common friend, in whose hand I placed it for that purpose, to Professor LEE, who returned it with this memorandum : " The inscription round the border contains the opening chapter of the Koran, very beautifully an4 correctly written. The inscription in the middle compartment is bismiUah, altogether unimportant. It is with them as the sign of the cross with papists. It means, " In the name of GOD the Merciful the Compassionate." GIAAB, a celebrated Arabic writer, relates that " when these words were sent from heaven, the clouds fled on the side of the East, the winds were lulled, the animals erected their ears to listen, and the devils were precipitated from the celestial spheres." ,^^1x1! L-J^ rabbi 'lalamin, with which the chapter opens for ah ! he who knows His heart is weak, of heaven should pray To guard him from such eyes as those." Lalla Rookfi. He will, I hope, pardon my having changed two words not for the better, for who can change two 122 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. words of MOORE'S for the better, but to suit my story. But this was not the only danger of danger, in- deed, here was no great (that is, there was a grate). The courtesy of some of the priests was not altoge- ther limited to their usual display. My attentions at convent and church for these semi-divine min- strels sang there were thought well of; and a kind feeling of pity, and I believe a wish to save me from the results of heresy, were noticed. Our stay at J5a//?a was not sufficiently lengthened for much to be effected ; and I was put on my guard by my ob- serving and listening messmates. And however frail one might have proved, opposed to such fearful odds as might in more time have been put in operation against me, backed by the approaching recurrence of the detested tossings of the Atlantic, I happily escaped from becoming a novice, and embarked unscathed, save by the black eyes aforesaid. I ought to look back with thankfulness rather than with levity, on the above passages of my early life ; for few lads ever left their family circle, offer- ing more yielding materials for zeal or knavery to make an impression on. Ignorant, precocious, tender, credulous, half broken-hearted these ele- ments intermingled with others that may be gathered from what precedes, combined to render me the easy victim of misdirected zeal, or the ready devotee of kindness and sympathy. I am tempted to relate one little anecdote of my yet earlier life, to show what melancholy stuff my mind was, even then., composed of. EDUCATION. 123 In my father's book-case was, of course, the Pilgrim's Progress: not in that form so tempt- ing to all " with cash and sense/' as it now appears in, from out of the hands of my much-respected friends SOUTHEY and BARTON ; but in that nine- penny shape, where honest JOHN'S immense hand supports his more immense head, in his rapt imaginary dream. Passing over the strange embo- dying of the artist's notion of the Valley of the Shadow of Death, and CHRISTIAN'S Combat with APOLLYON, whose cropped ears still dwell in the smiling eye of remembrance there was one picture by which I was " perplext i' th' extreme." It was where CHRISTIAN meets EVANGELIST, by the sea- shore, with a beetling cliff over their heads. The sea-shore had been the scene of my contemplations, or rather of my wonderment, since infancy and it so happened, or I so fancied, that a neighbouring cliff at Bawdsey resembled the cliff represented in the picture. I had read BUNYAN'S book so often and so intently as to have been amused into enthu- siasm and another book, that I now deem of a dangerous tendency, until I was wound up almost into despair. This latter book had for its frontis- piece a monstrous pair of expanded jaws, armed with enormous teeth, and with goggle eyes. A dragon-like forked tail convolved above. Imagina- tion might furnish the body and entrails. Into these flame-vomiting jaws divers grinning devils with pitch- forks were driving terrified sinners, or their souls. To my infinite horror, one or more of these affright- 124 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. ed sinners seemed about my own age. Beneath the print was this motto : " Oh ! who can dwell in everlasting torments ?" In a long ague, and during the lingering weak- ness of recovery, this terrific picture haunted me. I began to think that I was old enough and wicked enough to be damned : and I write now not in levity, for I much doubt if the lapse of more than half a century have yet wholly worn off the effect of that picture I consulted a neighbour, one of our washerwomen, on the subject ; and she had the good sense to comfort me with the assurance of my groundless fear. In this mood EVANGELIST and CHRISTIAN> the sea and the cliff and these words of the text of the Pilgrim's Progress also, came to my comfort : " CHRISTIAN What shall I do to be saved?" <( EVANGELIST Flee from the wrath to come.' ? And in my convalescence, I loitered and lingered under Bawdsey Cliff, in the earnest and eager hope of also meeting EVANGELIST ! I may at that time have been six or seven years old. I note all this not perhaps very wisely for fwo reasons : one, as a warning to those entrusted with the care of children to keep such terrifying books out of their way ; the other, to show, as I have said above, of what mystical, enthusiastic stuff my young mind was composed, when my destinies drew me to the grates of Bahia. I was still very young so young as not to be sus- NUNS. 125 pected by the innocent inmates of my favorite con- vent, of any treachery or baseness. I took a tender leave of several of one in particular; and the good abbess kissed me, and wept and prayed over me at my last visit. She said she was a mother, and had lost her son. I can never forget her. Heaven's peace be with her ! Fifteen years elapsed eventful years fraught with all the wanderings and voyagings, and bustlings of a soldier's life compounded of drilling, reviewing, campaigning, hunger, thirst, maims, wounds, excite- ment, depression, exultations, and miseries, &c. &c. and my destinies again led me to So?tth America. I ought before to have noted that I had served as a soldier in all the quarters of the world before I was twelve years old. Times were changed so was I. No longer a beardless, heedless boy, but a sobered man; still, however, as to years, in my prime under thirty with the cares of a family superadded, and the "coming events" and my fortunes, still, as much as ever, shadowed in futurity. The magnificent entrance to the spacious harbour of Rio for St. Sebastian was the city I was now ap- proaching was equally, if not more, striking and admired ; and so were the smoothness of the waters of St. Janeiro compared with his immediate neigh- bour, the vast Atlantic, and the manifold beauties of the scenery and city. Another baffling voyage, under however less unfavorable aspects, had brought its mitigated sufferings ; but the dread of capture and imprisonment for it was again war-time, 1796 had 126 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. recurred augmented and the indescribable sinkings of sea-sickness are always the same. But I was changed. Here were again the orange-groves, and priests, and nuns almost as young and beautiful as those of Bahia ; but the grate was no longer my daily resort. It is to those of Bahia (where are they ?) that I apply the lines above quoted. To resume : The Roman Papists are a much more enlightened race than the Greeks. The latter may well be pitied in their mental darkness ; governed, as so many mil- lions of them have long been, by the degrading des- potisms of Russia, Turkey, and Persia. It is, no doubt, equally the object of the Greek priests and rulers to keep their flocks and subjects in, if possible, more than Romish ignorance, fear, and slavish dark- ness knowing that the cradle of reflexion, reasoning, and intelligence, is, if not the grave of superstition, and king-craft, and priest-craft, at least a plank in its coffin. A great many a majority, perhaps of the Greek priests may be themselves besotted, and almost believe what they teach. I, of course, speak not now of doctrines common to all Christians if, indeed, any do remain unsophisticated, uncorrupted to all but of monkery, mummery, miraculous le- gends and lies, too common to many. The Romish priests must, very many of them, know better. How is it possible that in Rome, the general resort of intelligence and philosophy, her popes, cardinals, bishops, priests, gentry, and others, can believe in the mendacious stuff preached and practised ? May I be forgiven if I wrong them ; but iust not their lives PAPACY. 127 * some of them be " one vast hypocrisy?" Are they without sense to perceive it, or without candour to confess the truth ? As was said by one of their heathen predecessors (was it CICERO?) of the Aruspices, or augurs, of his day the worthy fore- runners of the popes, cardinals, &c., of this " two cannot pass each other in the streets without thrusting their tongues into their cheeks " in insolent derision of their poor, stupid, misguided flocks. But knavish priests work every where with the same tools, and on the same crude materials, and of course with the same results. Their work must be undone with caution. Premature attempts at enlightenment are of little use : they are or rather, have been more likely to result in the punishment of the incautious, hasty teacher his incineration, haply than in much good to the willing victims of mysterious de- lusion. "They shall have mysteries ay, precious stuff For knaves to thrive by mysteries enough Dark tangled doctrines, dark as fraud can weave, Which simple votaries shall in trust receive While craftier feign belief 'till they almost believe/'' And again very pat to my purpose Still they believe him ! Oh! the lover may Distrust the look which steals his soul away ; The babe may cease to think that it can play With heaven's rainbow ; alchymists may doubt The shining gold their crucibles give out: But Faith fanatic Faith once wedded fast To some dear falsehood, hugs it to the last." Lalla Rookh. 1 1 It seems an ill requital to make, for the pleasure afforded 128 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. A mind individual or general thoroughly em- bued and besotted with papacy and monkery, may be easily kept so ; and in the sad fanaticism of sup- posing all wrong, save self and Co. It is easy to fiddle effectively to those bitten by a tarantula. No people are greater fanatics or bigots than the Abyssinian Christians, as they call themselves. For fastings, processions, and manifold mummeries, none exceed the Christians of Habesh : nor are they ex- celled, or exceeded rather, in debauchery and pro- fligacy by any of their own, or of any other, per- suasion. Their Lent lasts fifty-six days. The fasts for the Apostles fifteen in one year, thirty in the next (a mythos, no doubt, for which a " brave legend " is not wanted ). The feast of the Blessed Virgin most fortunate of women ! not so much for her honour in Habesh as in other quarters her fast continues fifteen days. The fast of Quos Quom Quos Quom! was there ever so good a word, except that fine one hum-bug? the fast of Quos Quom by this delightful poem, to cavil at its very first word. But it is a doubt with me, if LALLA ROOKH be a legitimate Ma- hommedsui female name. I have known many men I think both Mahommedan and Hindu named LALLA ; but never, I think, a woman. And very many names of females of both persuasions have officially passed under my eye. Lakh ruhh or rookh, if preferred . ^ or .L^.. t\] Laleli rukhsar, may be translated Tulip-cheeked. If rosy, or ruby, or red- cheeked were intended, it would be from a different word (JjJ laal, (see p. 64.) pronounced broad and open. Hence the UU! the " liquid ruby " of the Anacreontic HAFEZ. PAPACY EGYPT. 129 lasts thirty days. This is kept by priests only, (I warrant ye,) and those only who have fasted with priests, not exactly Quos-Quom-arians, as I have, can tell how. In all, they have one hundred and sixty-five fast-days a year. (In my better days I should have enjoyed the keeping all of them being, what LEXIPHANES would call, a palatician of pis- cine and ovivorous propensities, or, in plain English, fond of fish and eggs.) To spit, on the day of re- ceiving the Eucharist, is almost damnable. And as to creeds, no people are so well provided. Their commandments are short their observance, as elsewhere, shorter. On the whole the Habshis, Christian or Mahommedan, are a sad race. But, after all, what is man, that he should thus seat himself in judgment, as it were, and think and speak ill of his brother worm? The autumn, in which generous season I now scribble, furnishes, with its fruits and falling foliage, disorders for us all; and the winter's cold will convert them into acute diseases. Spring brings flowers to strew our hearse withal; and the summer yields turf and brambles, to cover and bind our graves. All these are our common lot and all are mere food for the omnivorous worm. Why then embitter the cup, whatever it be filled with, which Providence has variously put into the hands of his creatures ? Let us rather endeavour to render it palatable to the lip of our brethren, as far as may seem compatible with their benefit, immediate or remote. Some speculations are, I believe, on foot, tending to show that Habesh, or Abyssinia, was the cradle of 130 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. the religion of the Egyptians. If so, the mythology and religion of India, and of Greece and Rome > Rome pagan and papal may (must ? more or less) be traceable to the same source. But, not denying the possibility of all this, one may be allowed to observe that in these bold speculative days, no theory seems too outrageous for adoption, or too improbable for hypothetic ingenuity to show up, persuasively. On this topic, or bearing some- thing on it, I find two or three little memoranda, which I will take the liberty to give here : and, hereafter, as I may see fit, I may descant somewhat farther hereupon. As a counterpoise to the certainty that MOSES was in Egypt and, as it is said, in Habesh also then, perhaps, a portion of Egypt we may believe, if we please, that OSIRIS, or his brother PH.ZEDON, brought to Italy a colony of Egyptians, and do- miciled them at Turin. There is nothing like being particular on such occasions : so the year is given 1530 years A. C. The fine situation of Turin, at a junction of two rivers, in view of peaked rugged mountains, mark it as a probable site for an Egyptic- hindu to fix on, for an abode or for a temple ad- mitting his locality and power of choice. The cele- brated tablet of I sis at Turin gives a colouring rather faint to be sure to this fancy ; though it was not actually found there, but at Mantua. And after all, its genuineness is doubted in common with several hieroglyphic-bearing obelisks also in Italy. This fine region seems the destined abode of im- position. PAPACY EGYPT. 131 The Egyptians had the notion of the mysticism of the number four, in common with many other peo- ple. In a papyrus of great antiquity, divers quater- nions have been discovered. An altar with four horns is consecrated to mythic love invocation is made to him who made the four elements, and blended the four winds he is mentioned who agi- tates the winds of the four corners of the Red Sea. " Indeed," saith the Edinburgh Review, June, 1831, " the whole mythological system of Egypt may be described as a vast aggregation of tetrads or quater- nions. Besides the four elements, which are fre- quently mentioned by IAMBLICHUS, we have the four zones or firmaments the four primary cosmo- gonic powers ; viz. primordial darkness, A MM ON generator, his female emanation AMMON NEITH, and CHNOUPHIS PHRE the four divinities that presided over the birth of man ; viz. the Demon, Fortune, Love, and Necessity the symbolical cro- codile with four heads, representing, probably, the gods PHRE, SOON. ATMOU, and OSIRIS. Nor was it in Egypt alone that the number four was conse- crated, or peculiarly sacred. At an early period the same notion appears to have taken root in Judea. PHILO the Jew, in his Life of MOSES, dilates on the holiness of this number, while discoursing of the tetragrammaton, JEHOVAH composed of four let- ters : and JOSEPHUS holds it in equal reverence, by reason of the f OUT faces of the tabernacle; The four elements of matter were held by some ancient mystics as the image of the sacred number. Nor was this 132 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. doctrine confined to the Gnostics ; for we find IRE- N/EUS, one of the Christian fathers, maintaining that, as there were only four climates, fouf cardinal winds, and four elements, so there could be only four gospels, 1 and neither more nor less. Nor is he the only one of the lights of the Church 1 who had imbibed this fanciful and ridiculous notion." The Hindus have many mysterious quaternions ; but I think more triads. The four vedas proceeding out of the four mouths of BRAMHA ; the four arms of VISHNU, KRISHNA, RAMA, and others of their divinities, male and female ; the four, and twice four, cardinal and demi-cardinal points or winds, and the regents, male and female, presiding over them ; and the like of their divine matres or mothers, and many others that might be noted. But in this place I merely mention them with the view to the observa- tion, that I have collected many instances of fanciful superstition connected with numbers-^-3, 4, 7, 8, 9 also as connected with mystical letters. I mean to put together an article on these subjects of" Mysti- cal numbers and mystical letters," showing how widely such fancies have spread. The contemplated article will be superficial, but it is hoped amusing. It may include a number of the striking coincidences 1 Four Evangelists, or Gospel historians, rather for surely there is only one Gospel ? 2 Of the Church of Rome ? It may he questioned how far he, and others of the Fathers, can be termed the Lights of the Church of CHRIST, or of England. At any rate, their light is too often dimmed by superstition and credulity. CORONATION HINDUISM. 133 in the practices of the early Christian Gnostics and the Hindu Nastikas which last word might as well be written Gnostics of the present day. I do not like to allude too often to the subject of so many heathen and papal practices being retained in our ritual. In others of our ceremonials I am less compunctious. In those of the coronation of our sovereigns there seems too much of this. The dove and the oil savour of la saint e- ampoule of which something presently. They can have but little, if any, good effect even on our mere vulgar populace ; and they are not now admitted to view and admire such proceedings ; and surely all archbishops, &c. &c. down to mere poor philosophers, must, at the least, smile at them. In truth they are the mere lingering relics of pagan and papal priestcraft ; and take no good hold now on the public mind. The sceptre and the dove may be unobjectionable ; and so may now be the S , albeit a symbol of a less holy rite. On this occasion the king offers a wedge A of gold. This too is of Sivaic origin, as I shall endeavour to show in the little Essay " On IONIC and Lingaic Myste- ries." * Being of pure gold, and weighing a pound, no wonder that the king (or his people) has to repeat thrice this welcome wedge, this Linga A, to the gaping omnivorous recipients. The dirty ceremony of anointing, or what we in Suffolk call dinting, (see Suffolk Words) is, perhaps, the most objectionable. It is too ampoule-ish. Surely this 1 But whether in this volume or not, I cannot now say not being able to foresee the extent to which other Fragments may be dilated. M 134 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. cruciform application of the oleo santo might be dis- pensed with. Why should our passive sovereigns have the filthy operation of being greased, or ainted, inflicted on them ? It is a barbarous relic of super- stition, fit only for the inventors and upholders of the Heaven-descending holy phial and holy oil of King CLOVJS ; of which, as I have recently said, more hereafter. As long as the title of " the Lord's Anointed " availed, it had its use. But many ribald poets and others, both before and after PETER PIN- DAR'S day, have rendered the term rather ridiculous than sacred ; and the public feeling smiles in unison. Then the accolade the hugging and kissing. From what I gather from recent speechifying in the House of Lords I scribble this on the day of the Corona- tion of their gracious Majesties WILLIAM and ADE- LAIDE, whom Heaven preserve ! this vile custom is to be still observed, labially. Fogh ! it is too foreign too much in the whiskerandos vein alto- gether un-English. In continuation (this occurs in another page of my C. P. B.) of what I have said on the subject of the apparently idle, or worse cere- monies attendant on some parts of our august com- pact of Coronation, I take some hints from the news- papers of the day, which describe that of WILLIAM the Fourth and his good Queen. In the Times of the following day, I find nearly the same view taken of some of those usages that I had noted. After many loyal and sensible and pious observations, that influential journal offers some remarks, which I substantially quote with much pleasure and advantage : CORONATION. 135 " Never was an hereditary King so hailed and welcomed by a free and reflecting people. It must be added, however, that the sanction imposed ought to be drawn from the fountains of that peculiar faith which is received as truth by the parties binding themselves to observe it. " Nothing could be more foolish than to perform a Te Deum, read the litany, or appoint the Bishop of London to preach before a Mahommedan congrega- tion, on the accession of a descendant of the Pro- phet. So the bald Unitarian worship would little suit the prejudices of a Peloponnesian audience ; or the grotesque mixture of old feudal barbarism ad- monish, to any very salutary purpose, the King of England and his people, being Protestants, of even the most sacred of their duties. " Yet, with the exception of the Litany and Com- munion service, and the sermon (provided the lat- ter be an exception; that is to say, not a divine- right and king's-chaplain sermon) what can be more thoroughly and revoltingly compounded of the worst dregs of popery and feudalism, than a pro- digious number of the quackeries played off in the course of King WILLIAM'S coronation? " What a fuss with palls, and ingots, and spurs, and swords, 1 and oil for anointing (greasing) their sacred 1 Three swords, I think, are carried and three wedges of gold (A lingo) are offered. One sword is named Curtana it is called the sword of mercy, and is pointless a pretty, albeit a petty, conceit. It is sometimes, by old writers, written Curteyn, and called the " sword of King EDWARD 136 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. Majesties ! and whipping off and on of mantles ! and the rest of it. Why, what has all such frippery to do with an oath ? and what with the spirit of a great political contract ? what with the splendour of a public festival? " A recognition, if you will : there is a fine ani- mating shout of acceptance when the sovereign is pre- sented to his people. A crown, by all means. It is the received and immemorial badge of the kingly office. A procession too there is no harm in it, but much to put the people in good-humour, were it for nothing but a train of graceful and lovely women, sweeping past in the robes and ornaments which de- note their station by certain and intelligible symbols. *' But the matters which nobody understands or cares about the rigmaroles above alluded to, which we 'do not condemn because they are old ; but, be- cause, with reference to our religious and civil his- tory, they are now utterly untrue, and therefore no longer have any meaning what is their effect, but to give an air of " unreal mockery " to the whole affair to transform it into a masquerade, or puppet- show, and to weaken any solemn * and deep impres- the Saint/' It is perhaps a short sword. Giving names to swords, guns, &c. is an extensive usage of which something farther hereafter. 1 How ridiculous, even at solemn mass, at which one can- not help being sometimes seriously, and I hope usefully, af- fected, to see the incense-whirling urchin, at a particular part of the ceremony, lift up the petticoats of the officiating priest, and fumigate him a posteriori. This is, as I have been told, to scare away evil spirits, which might be lurk- CORONATION. 137 sion which the mind might otherwise be disposed to receive from those parts of the performance which do accord with our religious sentiments and our modern habits ? " Heaven forbid there should be any cause in the health or prospects of his present Majesty to think for many years to come of another coronation ! But when a leisure hour shall arrive, it will, we know, be an acceptable service to all reflecting people to recast the entire character of the solemnity rejecting those parts which had been fitted only to a period when the outward senses were made panders to the all-absorbing superstition within ; and retaining those in which an educated and reasoning people may see some relation between the form and the substance between the nature of the kingly contract and its accompanying incidents." Times. The ampulla, which, on such occasions, contains the " holy oil " the oleo santo is in the form of an eagle, with the wings expanded. The head unscrews, for the convenience of putting in the oil, which is poured out through the point of the beak. The bird is hollow. The anointing spoon is curiously orna- mented. The choice rings of the coronation appear to be of rubies. Her Majesty's ruby, with sixteen rubies sur- rounding it, is put on by the Archbishop, whose ing not like delicate ARIEL, "where the bee sucks" nor lying "in a cowslip's bell : " but fogh ! I have some- times thought the " incense-breathing censer " not altogether useless in reference to other mauvais svjets. 138 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. benediction on that occasion savours of the feeling of other people, noticed in Fragments First, p. 60, as to the mystical properties inherent in that stone. " Re- ceive this ring the seal of a sincere faith that you may avoid all the infection of heresy, and compel barbarous nations, and bring them to the way of truth." The greater part of the prayers used in reference to the Queen are said to be the same which were ad- dressed to Queen JUDITH in 856. She was the daughter of CHARLES the Bald, who married ^THELWOLF, the father of ALFRED, king of the West Saxons. These prayers are therefore nearly 1000 years old. The kissing of the priests by the King, and of the King by the nobility, was not discontinued at the recent coronation ; and the indelicate ceremony of oiling was inflicted also on Her Majesty's person. It is really too bad. Priests ought to be ashamed of themselves in thus pertinaciously striving to retain their ancient hold of these obsolete and disgusting observances. In addition to what I have before hinted of the possibility of these very ancient ceremonies not, as the Times sensibly remarks, therefore bad because old, but because, for the reasons given, they are re- volting, being of Eastern origin, I have a few more observations to offer : In the ceremonials of our Coronation we read much of palls, wedges, the ampullic eagle, holy oil, ruby rings, mystical spoons, &c. &c. CORONATION HINDUISM. 139 First, of the pall. This word has other significa- tions in English ; not all, perhaps, cognate in mean- ing. Coronation and funereal seem far apart. Our present sense of it is doubtless from the pallium of popery. Whence that is, may be difficult to show. The pallium was of old a most mystical thing an essential part of a bishop, sent or given by the pope, with much ceremony and cost, both at episcopal consecration and translation. The bishop could not wear the same pallium at two sees, and it was buried with him. In Sanskrit, pal or pala means protection, and is in that sense extensively used in India. The pro- tection which a monarch affords his subjects a war- rior to the weak a father to his family a nurse to a child a hen to her brood, and other similar relationships is expressed by derivations from pal or pala. In Hindustani, palna or pulna, is the infi- nitive to hatch; pala, hatched. The funeral pall may have reference to the spiritual protection afforded to the deceased over whose remains it is spread. And such may also have been a consideration in the superstitious times in which the over-spreading of the coronation pall consecrated most likely was first thought of. A pallium from the pope may have been as essential a thing at a coronation as at a consecration of a bishop, in those days when kings kissed his holiness' toe, and bishops held his stirrup, as, in mock humility, he mounted an ass. In times much later, perhaps still, happy was or is the man who could or can obtain a monk's cowl to wrap his dead head in. Such cowls have also been called 140 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. palls. The hoods of our more modern dignitaries are of a like description, but I believe never now so called. A pal or pall is again, on the western side of India, and perhaps in other parts and regions, a protection of j ust the same form or shape as our Coronation and funeral palls either a parallelo- gram or a square. It is indeed a tent with this difference it has no projecting hips, no rotundity, no upright walls. It is, when pitched, exactly of a pyramidal or wedge shape like the Royal Corona- tion offering of gold before spoken of that is Lin- gaic, or Sivaic but here accidental, probably ; not mystical. The Indian pall is of one long piece (made up, of course, to shape and size) of cloth, stretched to pegs, sloping close to the ground. It is a two- poled tent ; with a third, ridge-pole, between and connecting the two uprights, from front to rear. The ridge-pole supports the pall in its whole width, its ends being pegged to the ground. The upright back is close ; the upright front is open in the mid- dle, where it overlaps ; and when thrown back, which it may be wholly or partially, is the entrance. Looked at end-ways, it is of the wedge-form of a gabled roof. I know of no other name for this common descrip- tion of tent. It is sometimes conveniently spacious. In my early campaigns I lived in one for years. It is less dignified than a marquee. Mine may have been twelve feet square, or a little longer on the ridge-pole than in the frontal width. The sloping CORONATION HINDUISM. 141 sides coming close to the ground, render a pall less commodious than a tent. It is cheaper, and is more readily pitched, struck, packed, and carried. I have spoken of a conveniently commodious pall. Some are larger, more smaller, much smaller, down to a single cloth two or three yards long, stretched on short bamboos, like walking-canes, under which the poor sepoy and camp-follower sadly shelter their wives and families. Exactly such things are some- times seen in use by gypsies in England. Five minutes would, I should think, suffice for unpacking and pitching one of these humble dimensions and as many for striking, rolling up, and packing one on a donkey. My pall was made, as almost all tents are in western India, of white cotton cloth called kadi in Bombay, dungari, from the name of a village on that island, where it is, or used to be, made. It was four cloths thick the inner red, then called karoa. When green it is called horoa. When blue, which is most used for the inner cloth, or lining, it has another name ; which I have forgotten. Our magnificent Coronation pall, which appears to be also called dalmatica (Dalmatia, the region of gypsies ?) spread as above described over a ridge- pole, would form the body, or sides, all except the upright ends, of an Indian or gypsey pall. What do gypsies call their palls c t 1 expect, in my next discourse with those curious people, to find that pall is also their name. We have seen that the episcopal pall was a part of dress ; it was a sort of mantle, or robe. From 142 ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. some texts in our poetry, I should guess it to have been of some length, with a train : " let gorgeous Tragedy, In sceptred pall come sweeping by." MILTON, II Pen. " He gave her gold and purple pall to wear/' SPENSER, F. Q. I. vii. 16. " Crown'd with triple wealth and clothed in scarlet pall" FLETCHER, Purp. Isl. iv. 17. " In the old ballads, ' purple and pall ' is a fre- quent phrase" saith NARES ; from whose admira- ble Glossary the last two quotations are taken. Our word apall may originate in a fearful sense, traceable to the funereal gloomy super tunica so to borrow a coronation term or finaktunica of our poor remains : " Come, thick night, (saith SHAKESPEARE) And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell That my keen knife see not the hole it make/' The three linga-sh&ped pyramids, or wedges, of gold, offered by the King, I shall say nothing more upon at present. Of the ampulla, I have to note, that we have taken the name and the notion from the same source as the French did in KingCLOvis's day. I had a few notes on the holy vial of CLOVIS but I prefer taking the following account of this cu- rious matter from Dr. MIDDLETON, Miscell. Works, 1.361.: " This vial is said to have been brought from heaven by a dove, for the baptismal unction of CLO- VIS, the first Christian king of France, and dropped CORONATION PAPACY. 143 into the hands of ST. REMIGIUS, then Bishop of RheimSy about the end of the fifth century ; where it has ever since been preserved, for the purpose of anointing all succeeding kings. Its divine descent is said to be confirmed by this miracle that as soon as the coronation is over, the oil in the vial begins to waste and vanish, but is constantly renewed of itself, for the service of each coronation. 1 " The Abbe de VERTOT defends the truth of this miracle, by the authority of several witnesses, who lived at the time of REMIGIUS, or near to it, and of many later writers also, who give testimony to the same through each succeeding age. Yet a learned professor at Utrecht, in a dissertation upon this sub- ject, treats it as a mere forgery, or pious fraud, con- trived to support the dignity of the kings and clergy of France ; and ranks it in the same class with the palladium 3 - of Troy, the ancilia of old Rome, and the cross which CONSTANTINE pretended to see in the Cujus prece rorem Mjsit in ampullam coelestem rector Olympi, Corpus ut hoc lavacro regis deberet inungi, Deficeretque liquor, ibi corpore regis inuncto. NIC. de Braia de S. REMIGIO. s The protector or guardian genius : any reference to the Sanskrit palla ? The palla^inio. of Troy was, like Jaga- naut, of wood, three cubits long : both fell from heaven. A statue of CERES in Sicily an image of DIANA at Rome many images of the VIRGIN MARY there and elsewhere, were sent from heaven as well as the ancile, or heavenly shield of NUMA. The last-named article descended from the clouds, in great pomp, according to OVID, in the presence of all the people of Rome, Hindu legends match all these, 144 -ORIENTAL FRAGMENTS. heavens and the rest of those political fictions which we meet with in the histories of all ages." The Abbe de VERTOT begins his Dissertation in the following manner : " There has scarce ever been a more sensible and illustrious mark of the visible protection of God over the monarchy of France, then the celebrated miracle of the sacred vial. On the day of great CLO vis's baptism, heaven declared itself in favour of that prince and his successors, in a particular manner; and, by way of preference to all the other sovereigns of Christendom. So that we may justly apply to every one of our kings, on the day of their co- ronation, the words of the royal prophet God, even thy God, has anointed thee with the oil of gladness above thy fellows." Diss. au sujet de la S. AM- POULE. This is pretty well even for papal priests and ranks with the " brave legend " of the santa casa of Loretto, and another sainte ampoule at Naples, containing the blood of S. JANUARIUS and with the invention of the holy cross, and its mendacious accompaniments of the tottering ST. HELENA. What a convenient spiritual guide is that pri- mitive authority TERTULLIAN, who lays down this rule "that the true disciples of CHRIST have nothing more to do with curiosity or inquiry ; but when once they are become believers, their sole bu- siness is to believe on :" cum credimus, nihil de- sideramus ultra credere. From the time of CLO vis to that of Louis XVL, comprising a period of about 1300 years, this CORONATION PAPACY. 145 wretched farce was played off by the priests at Rheims ; where this heaven-descended-dove- brought- O never-failing vial of oil was, and is, kept. NA- POLEON, we may presume, did not condescend to be anointed but I am not sure of it. He did not go to Rheims to be crowned, as all his predecessors did ; and probably the Rheimish priests would not trust their precious charge to be brought to Paris. We may, however, marvel, if the fact were so, that the Pope would consent to perform his part in the drama of coronation without so important an in- gredient as the sainte ampoule and its self-wasting, self-renewing contents. If Louis XVIII. was anointed with it he went to Rheims , and most likely was he must have laughed at it ; for he had although almost half a papist, especially in the infirmities of his latter days something of a philosophic mind ; not content on ail occasions to follow TERTULLIAN'S dogma, merely to " believe on." But his bigoted niece of Angouleme would probably, in the mastery of her comparatively vigorous mind, have insisted on so important a measure being renewed on the person of her uncle, le Desire. CHARLESX. would of course undergo the greasing gladly. The Duchesse