answered, that he should presently have an opportunity of giving that proof of his fidelity to his master. Upon which Theodore and the rest, forty-two in number, were beheaded.

Among the number, were two ladies of distinction, Flora and Mary. Flora was the daughter of an eminent Mahometan at Seville; from whence he removed to Corduba, where the Saracen king resided, and kept his court. Her father dying when she was young, Flora was left to the care of her mother, who being a Christian, brought her up in the true faith, and inspired her with sentiments of virtue and religion. Her brother being a professed enemy to Christianity, and of a barbarous and savage temper, Flora was for some time obliged to use great caution in the practice of such virtues as must have exposed her to persecution. She was too zealous to bear this restraint long; for which reason she left Corduba in company with her sister. Her departure soon alarmed her brother, who suspected her motives, and in revenge informed against several Christians of Corduba; for as he did not know whither she had gone, he determined to wreak his vengeance on such Christians as were present. When Flora was informed of these proceedings, she considered herself as the cause of what the Christians had suffered at Corduba; and having an inward conviction that God called her to fight for her faith, she returned to that city, and proceeded to the persecutors, among whom she found her brother. "If (said our glorious martyr) I am the object of your iniquity-if the servants of God are tormented on my account, I now freely offer myself to your disposal. I declare that I believe in Jesus Christ, glory in his cross, and profess the doctrine which he taught." None of the company seemed so much enraged at this declaration as her brother, who after some threats struck her; but afterwards endeavoured to gain her by expressions of pretended kindness. Finding her insensible to all that he could say, he then informed against her. He insinuated that Flora had been educated in the religion of Mahomet, but had renounced it at the suggestion of some Christians, who inspired her with the utmost contempt for the great Prophet. When she was called on to answer to the charge, she declared she had never owned Mahomet, but sucked the Christian religion in with her milk, and was entirely devoted to the Redeemer of mankind. The magistrates finding her resolute, delivered her to her brother, and gave him orders to use his utmost endeavours to make her a Mahometan. She soon found, however, an opportunity of escaping over a wall in the night, and of secreting herself in the house of a Christian. She then withdrew to Tuccia, a village of Andalusia, where she met her sister, and they never separated again till her martyrdom

CHAPTER XLVI.

GENTOOS OR HINDOOS.

THEY pretend that Bruma, who was their legislator both in politics and religion, was inferior only to God; and that he exist ed many thousand years before the Mosaic account of the creation. This Bruma was pro ably some great and good genius, whose beneficence like that of the pagan legislators, led his peo ple and their posterity to pay him divine adoration and honors.

The Bramins (for so their priests are called) pretend that he bequeathed to them a book called the Vidam, containing the doctrines and institution of Bruma; and though the original is lost, they are still possessed of a commentary upon it, called the Shaster, which is written in the Shanscrite, now a dead language, and known only to the Bramins, who study it.

The foundation of the Bramins' doctrine consisted in the belief of a Supreme Being, who has created a regular gradation of beings, some superior and some inferior to man; and in the immortality of the soul, and a future state of rewards and punishments, which is to consist in a transmigration into different bodies according to the lives they have lived in their pre-existing state. From this it appears more than probable that the Pythagorean Metemsychosis took its rise in India. The necessity of inculcating this sublime, but otherwise complicated doctrine into the lower ranks, induced the Bramins, who are by no means unanimous in their doctrines, to have recourse to sensible representations of the Deity and his attributes; so that the doctrines of Bruma have degenerated to rank, ridiculous idolatry, in the worship of different animals, and various images; and of the most hideous figures, either delineated or carved.

The institutions of religion publicly established in all the extensive country stretching from the banks of Indus to cape Comorin, present to view a scene nearly similar. They form a regular and complete system of superstition, strengthened and upheld by every thing which can excite the reverence, and secure the attachment of the people. The temples consecrated to their deities, are magnificent, and adorned not only with rich offerings, but with the most exquisite paintings and sculptural works which the artists, highest in estimation among them, were capable of executing.

The rites and ceremonies of their worship are pompous and splendid, and the performance of them not only mingles in all the

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transactions of common life, but constitutes an essential part of them. The Bramins, who, as masters of religion, preside in all its functions, are elevated above every other order of men, by an origin deemed not only more noble, but acknowledged to be sacred. They have established among themselves a regular hierarchy, and gradation of ranks, which, by securing subordination in their own order, adds weight to their authority, and gives them a more absolute dominion in the minds of the people. This dominion they support by the command of the immense revenues with which the liberality of princes and the zeal of pilgrims and devotees have enriched their pagodas.

It is far from being my intention to enter into any minute detail with respect to this vast and complicated system of superstition. An attempt to enumerate the multitude of deities which are the objects of adoration in India, to describe the splendor of worship in their pagodas, and the immense various attributes and functions which the craft of priests or the credulity of the people has ascribed to their deities; especially if I were to accom pany all this with a review of the numerous and often fanciful speculations and theories of learned men on this subject, it would swell this part of our work far beyond the limits ascribed to it. Yet I will sum up their creed in a brief manner, so as to give the reader an idea of the rites, ceremonies, and privations most prevalent among them.

1st. They style their supreme deity, Brumhu. Brumhu and life are one. Every kind of matter is without life; therefore all life is the Creator, or Brumhu.

2d. They consider Brumhu as the soul of the world, and that which animates all living bodies is only an animation from the divinity.

3d. Brumhu is everlastingly unchangeable. The world which is his work is subject to change and decay. That Brumhu after remaining during the revolution of ages (being destitute of ideas or intelligence, and fixed in a state of undisturbed tranquillity) after certain long intervals awakes to the work of creation: and that after a soul receives its mortal birth, it is separated from the source of happiness, and remains a miserable wanderer through various births and states, till it regains its place in the divine essence; that on its return from these wanderings, it is again absorbed in the divine nature: this they consider the utmost happiness to which they can aspire. In order to aspire to this, they will some of them devote their lives to the most perfect abstraction from all objects of sense.

4th. The deliverance of the soul from the world, and its absorption into the divinity, is the highest happiness they can form

any conception of; and if not obtained in one birth, is to be sought for through every future transmigration, until obtained: in order to obtain which they are taught by their priests to endure torments unspeakable, subduing every passion, and remain the same in friendship and hatred, in honour and dishonour, cold or heat, in pain or pleasure. That God is to be obtained by him alone who makes God the sole object of his works.

5th. That the priest who, in the deep solitude of the desert, devotes the day to meditation upon God, and the devotee who observes with scrupulous nicety the hour of prayer, do both perform one duty, and will both obtain the same end; provided that each alike perform the duties of life, quitting all interest in them, and placing their desires on Brumhu, (the Supreme Being) and not being tainted by sin, but remain unaffected by the world.

6th. Though the one God is never worshiped by them as a mere spiritual being, but always as connected to matter, they consider the universe as full of the divine majesty; therefore whatever creature partakes more largely and especially of the divine energy, that creature is considered as a fit object of ado

ration.

7th. When Brumhu resolved to create, he individuated himself into separate portions of animal life. The principal of these, are Shiou, Vishnoo, and Brumhu; and from these three superior Deities, a number of inferior deities have derived their origin, which are to be worshiped by man. These deities they consider as personifications, or certain qualities of the Supreme Being, as they appear in the works of the creation, the government and destruction of the world; and of these they have formed certain images, in order to fix the mind of the worshipper, and to assist him in forming suitable ideas of their attributes and splendour.

8th. They maintain that each of these inferior deities has power to save its votaries from eternal misery, provided they exercise an unshaken confidence in him; but if desirous of obtaining any earthly good, they must apply to that particular deity whose vince it is to bestow it.

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9. They compute on the waters of the Ganges 3,500,000 holy places. They have an incalculable number of sacred buildings on its banks, from each of which there is a flight of stone steps descending into the water; and thousands of pilgrims daily attending for months together, duly performing their devotions, standing up to their middle in the water, frequently bathing the whole body in the stream, also giving gifts to the priests and other persons esteemed holy who attend at these holy bathing places.

10. They also bring fruit, rice, cloth, sweet-meats, clarified butter, &c. to these waters, which, after various ceremonies and addresses to several Gods, including the inhabitants of the waters viz. the fish, tortoises, frogs, water-snakes, leeches, snails, and the shell fish, &c. they throw into the water; after which other ceremonies are performed.

11. The priests encourage them in the belief that there is no sin, however grievous, which may not be washed away by the Ganges. But we find from modern authors, that these waters do not always succeed (though they are supposed to possess such wonderful virtue,) they sometimes fail to relieve the pilgrim from his doubts and fears of having again to appear on earth after death in some other form. In this case, the priest who daily attends those sacred places, gives other instructions, and puts the pilgrim on another course, informing him that if by reason of his exceeding sinfulness the holy waters of the Ganges refuse their purifying influence, he must endeavour to win the favour of some other deity.

12. They are accordingly sent to the courts of the sacred buildings. These courts are sometimes very extensive, and contain the images or shrines of thirty-three millions of inferior deities, some placed under trees deemed sacred, others in small buildings, which buildings are consecrated each to its respective deity. Here he visits many of these sacred buildings, learning the names of a number of these deities, and the history and exploits of these demigods, whose celebrated actions are depicted in flaming colours on the outer walls of their respective chapels. Some of them are of monstrous size and horrible forms, some having many heads, others many arms; some presenting the heads of beasts, others the tails of fishes; some the countenance of man diabolically caricatured with every abominable and hideous variety of which the human form is capable. These idols are placed on pedestals in many places consecrated to their worship. Within these dark and filthy walls, they keep a small lamp, fixed in the side of the wall, constantly burning. The priests, after giving the pilgrims the names of the deities, telling them what favours such and such can bestow, inform them that they must choose out one of these gods for their peculiar adoration, and to take a string of beads, counting by these, repeat the name of that deity, at the same time to have their minds fixed on the image, without which this act of repeating the name would be inefficacious. The name of these gods, say the priests, is like fire, by which all sins are consumed.

13. They also perform certain acts of praise, believing by this that they may win the favour of these idols, all of which are