16
HISTORY OF INDIA.
[Book IV.
A.D. — other reasons, the caste proscribes him from his father s house, and if his mother consent to talk with him, it must be by stealth, or at a distance from what Lossof caste, was once his home, into which he must never more enter. Hence the caste converts hospitality, friendship, and the very love of one's neighbour into crimes, and inHicts on the offender in some cases punishment worse than death itself"' It is true that the loss is not always final, and that by means of mum- meries and mortifications, and more especially by a liberal expenditure in the form of gifts or bribes to those who have influence in the expelling caste, the offending member may be restored. Cases, however, occur which are deemed too hemous to admit of expiatory remedies. Among these it cannot be forgotten that an abandonment of the native superstitions holds a principal place, and con- sequently that it is impossible for a Hindoo to embrace Christianity without becoming a martyr in the highest sense of the term. The sacrifices he must make equal, if they do not exceed those which were required from the converts of c.-uite an the primitive church, and hence the distinction of caste has raised up an almost the progress iusupcrable barrier in the way of the Christian missionary. The practical conse- tianity.* qucncc is, that among the outcasts of Hindooism are to be found some of the noblest specimens of humanity — men whom no fear of temporal loss has deterred from throwing off" the shackles of a degrading superstition, and making an open profession of the gospel. It must be confessed, however, that hitherto such specimens have been rare, and that the great majority of those who have lost caste justify, by their utter worthlessness, the sentence of exclusion which has been passed upon them. As a general rule, on being expeUefi from the society of their fellows, they lose all self-respect, and abandon themselves v/ithout restraint to every species of wickedness.
CHAPTER 11.
The Religion of the Hindoos.
F all nations, ancient and modern, there is none among whom religion occupies so prominent a place as among the Hindoos. Its language is constantly on their lips, and its ceremonies mingle with all their daily avocations. Almost every natural object on which their eye falls is in some way associated with it; Original and on every side are beheld shrines and pagodas, in which the objects of its the nTndL worship are supposed to be more immediately present. Its whole theological creed. systcm, too, iustcad of being transmitted by such an imperfect vehicle as oral
' Account of the Writings, Religion, and Manners of the Hindoos, ii. 120.
