the large rivers, as the Krishna, Palar, Pennaar, Coleroon, and Cauvery, are skilfully dammed up, and their waters turned upon the land as far as they can be used. But rice is not the only product which needs a regular supply of water. Sugar-cane, indigo, mulberry-trees for silk, ginger and turmeric, orchards and gardens with their numberless provisions for the luxuries and necessities of man, all require it; and where means of irrigation from rivers and artificial reservoirs are wanting, wells are used and the water is raised by cattle. Such irrigation, however, is very limited in extent in comparison with the others. In the south of India, where much of the soil is naturally dry, sandy, or gravelly, the necessity of storing up water was known to the people even before the Christian era. Dams of stonework were built across considerable rivers and streams; and by earthern embankments, faced with stone, thrown across valleys, large lakes were formed, some many miles in circumference, with an infinite number of small ones; from all of which the water is drawn off by sluices, and applied to the land. The periodical rains fill these reservoirs, and water is stored up, which enables cultivation to be carried on through the seasons of drought, until the next monsoon commences.

This method of storing up water is, however, by no means universal in India. From a line above the northern boundary of the Carnatic, except in a few localities, it is hardly practised at all. The people of the central and northern provinces of India do not use rice except as a luxury. They feed upon wheat, barley, and many kinds of millet and pulse. They are a hardier people, and require more substantial food than those who eat rice. Some of these cereals grow in the rainy season, and ripen at its close. Others, wheat and barley, as also cotton and oil seeds, are sown in the deep black soil of these regions at the close of the monsoon; and though there is no rain, the moisture retained by the soil, and the heavy dews, are sufficient for their growth until they ripen. In these tracts wells are used for what partial irrigation is required, or the small brooks are turned to use, as far as they provide means; but recently the government of India has constructed canals from the Ganges, the Jumna and the rivers of the Punjâb, for the purposes of irrigation: and there can be little doubt that the application of water to the land, in seasons when none falls from the skies, will become very extensive and productive.

It is a subject of general belief that India is a land of palmtrees, of luxurious vegetation, of deep cool groves, and umbrageous forests, of many rivers and streams, of gorgeous flowers and luscious fruits-in fact, a kind of warm, sensuous paradise. But though poets may write of these, and painters depict scenes like those in which fancy has revelled, it is not reality. Here and there,

the beauty of India is truly all that can be imagined, and even more; but such localities are rare. In the Himalayas, as previously stated, the scenery is the most sublime in the world. Stupendous mountain peaks, rising from eternal snow, are fringed by the luxuriant vegetation of Indian forests and valleys. In Bengal, owing to the redundant fertility of a prolific soil, watered by great rivers, adorned with noble trees and groves, and inhabited by a teeming population, which tills every available spot, the scenery is soft, and of a dreamy sensuous character. In the Concan and Malabar there is a combination of grandeur and beauty hardly to be described; but the rest of India is of a very homely character, if not indeed frequently very dreary in aspect. In the wide plains and downs of the central provinces and the Deccan, the traveller may pass for miles without seeing a tree to break the monotony of the scene, or afford him shelter. They are covered, it is true, with waving crops of grain and cotton, and admirably tilled, but they possess no charm for the eye, and are wearisome in their almost unchanging character; while in the wooded portions of the central mountain ranges, the absence of population, the sameness of outline, and the want of water, are no less repulsive. Through such scenes, great rivers run in deep channels; flooded to their brim in the monsoon, they dwindle to threads of water in the streams and to deep pools in the dry season-never beautiful, conveying no fertility to the countries through which their courses run, and impossible of navigation. Towns and villages occur every few miles, separated from each other only by the extent of their township lands; but no neat farmhouses are dotted over the country as in England, for the population, as it has ever done, still lives in communities for mutual security and protection, and will not separate.

And yet, with all its defects, India is a noble, gorgeous land, teeming with natural wealth, and possessing an orderly, industrious population of varied races and character; of which, and their history, it is purposed, in succeeding chapters, to give some

account.

CHAPTER II.

OF THE PEOPLE-HINDOOS AND MAHOMEDANS.

In the preceding chapter, a very brief and general sketch of the character of the country and some of its natural features has been given, with the object, not only of making the aspect of the great continent of India somewhat better understood than it generally is, but because there is a strong desire in the mind of every

intelligent person to follow by description what is detailed in a map, to realise the differences of situation and scenery-in short, to get a footing, as it were, in a strange land, among a strange people. It is also equally interesting to know by what classes of people it is inhabited; how they live, how they are fed, what clothes they wear, and what is their general character. And in regard to all these, and many other simple details, so much misapprehension exists, that a few pages seem necessary for their explanation. A book, and a very large and interesting one it would be, might be written on these subjects; for the differences in religion and caste among Hindoos, which separate whole classes of the people from each other as decidedly as if they were different nationsthe distinctions which arise from situation, local customs, usages and languages, as well between classes of Hindoos as of Mahomedans, would all furnish matter for description and illustration. All Europe is Christian; but Russians could not be described as Spaniards, or Italians, or Greeks, as English, French, or Germans; yet the continent of India contains many more separate peoples than Europe, and many more languages, which have no connection one with another; and though all have become blended together, under the influence of two great religions, Hindooism and Mahomedanism, they still preserve the marks of original nationalities. In our own country an Englishman is known from an Irishman or a Scotchman; there is a common language for all, yet they vary in character, and still preserve distinctive national customs. But apply this to India, and the difference is still greater and more marked. The language of the Hindoos of Northern India is as utterly incomprehensible by the Hindoos of the south, as that of a Spaniard would be to a Russian, or a native Greek to an Englishman. Thus a common religion, in the case of the Hindoos as with Christians, unites them in some degree, though in a very limited one; and as regards social customs or sympathy one with another, there is little or no unity. While, therefore, it is impossible to follow every variation of local character and custom, a general idea may yet be given of characteristics which belong to the people at large.

The population of India is divided in a general sense into two great portions, Hindoos and Mahomedans.

Divisions of the popula tion of India.

There

are besides the aboriginal races who are not Hindoos, Booddhists, Christians and other sects, as will be hereafter detailed. Of all, the Hindoos are by far the most numerous, and in proportion to the Mahomedan, are about five to one-that is, the Hindoos would represent 150,000,000, and the Mahomedans about 30,000,000 of the whole. Of the entire population, about 151,500,000, are British subjects; and their subdivisions

are shown by the following table, which has recently been compiled in India. The rest belong to the independent native States, of which there are 153 great and small, whose population is computed to amount to about 50,000,000. The whole therefore, in round numbers, may be estimated with safety at 200,000,000. The population of the British provinces exclusively, is thus classified :

Hindoos.

Hindoos are those who follow the Brahminical faith. They are pagans, and for the greater part worshippers of idols; and they are divided not only into many religious sects, but into castes which do not eat or intermarry with each other, though they belong to the same social communities, and live together harmoniously.

Mahomedans.

Mahomedans are believers in Mahomed, and are as much separated from Hindoos as Christians are; but from their numbers and long existence in the country, and in many cases descent from Hindoos who were converted to Mahomedanism in early times, they have become assimilated with them in more respects than is possible for Christians to be. Though they are opposed to Hindoos in religion as much as Christians are, and cannot eat with or intermarry with them, yet they share together labour of all kinds, trades and professions, military service, landed property, and distinctions of local rank. It will be obvious, therefore, that these two great classes are entirely different, and have little real sympathy one with another; and it will be shown hereafter, that the Hindoos were the original possessors of India till they were conquered by the Mahomedans, who held sway over them for many centuries, and indeed till the English conquered both.

and manners.

It may be doubted whether, in all essential respects, there is a more courteous and intelligent population in the world Character than that of India at large, whether Hindoo or Mahomedan, though they naturally differ in many respects. The Hindoo is cheerful, pliant, social, and for the most part amiable. The Mahomedan is graver, more formal, more proud

Hindoo

tics.

and reserved, yet courtly and polite. Many of the highest virtues of humanity may be claimed for both, while they exhibit many of the vices common to all people. Hindoos, characteris among themselves, are kind to their children, perhaps over-indulgent; they honour their parents and elders; are extremely charitable, for it is part of their religion to be so; honest in their transactions one with another, industrious, and in religious matters tolerant, unless specially excited. As soldiers, brave and patient; as merchants and traders, enterprising and persevering. Their vices need not be particularised, and it is enough to say, perhaps, that they are those common to human nature everywhere in which civilised elements exist.

Hindoos are accused by many writers of being habitually untruthful. This, however, may be denied in many respects, and doubted in others, for the examples before those writers were chiefly taken from the lower classes, and from legal experiences in which their worst qualities were developed. If their own standard of truth is not so high as we profess ours to be, it may be ascribed to the teaching of their religion, under which it is only wonderful that they are what they are. In this respect also there is a great difference between precept and practice; and while Hindoos profess to believe in the immoralities and crimes of the gods and demigods whom they worship, it would be impossible for them to put these in practice without incurring the penalties and censure, not to say the reprobation, of their castes, and of the communities in which they live. Thus when vicious, the vices of Hindoos are less obtrusive than our own; nor is undisguised depravity anywhere offensively apparent. The restraints of caste are repressing and injurious in many respects, but there is no question that the means possessed by caste divisions, of enforcing the at least outwardly moral conduct of their members, preserve Hindoo society in a great degree from any flagrant and habitual indulgence in vicious practices. In a general aspect, then, the Hindoos present an orderly, intelligent and amiable character, and the deeper the knowledge attained of Hindoo society may be, the stronger those qualities will be found to prevail.

Mahomedan

tics.

The more the Mahomedan character approaches to the Hindoo, the softer it becomes. Many Mahomedans, as has been characteris previously stated, are descended from Hindoo converts, and in agricultural districts there is only the difference of faith between the people; but the Mahomedans descended from the original warlike stock of invaders and conquerors are very different. Here is met the rigid formality and deep fanaticism of the race and faith: hating Hindoos because they are idolators and pagans; hating Christians even with a more bitter hatred