As anciently among the Jews, the priesthood is hereditary with this people; every son of a Bramin being a priest, and marries with the daughter of a Bramin.  So also among all the Hindoos, the men take their wives among the daughters of those who are of the same tribe, sect, and occupation, with their own fathers.  Thus the son of a merchant marries a merchant’s daughter, and every man’s son that lives by his labour, marries the daughter of one of the same profession with himself, so that they never advance themselves to higher situations.  The Hindoos take but one wife, of whom they are not so fearful as are the Mahometans of their numerous women, for they are suffered to go abroad.  They are always married very young, at six or seven years of age, their parents making the contracts, and they come together when twelve years old.  Their nuptials are celebrated with as much pomp and jollity as those of the Mahometans.  The habits of the Hindoos differ little from those of the Mahometans, already described; but many of their women wear rings on their toes, and therefore go barefooted.  They have likewise broad rings of brass, or of more valuable metal, according to their rank and wealth, which they wear about the small of their legs, being made to put off and on.  These seem to resemble the tinkling ornaments about the feet, mentioned by the prophet Isaiah, or the ornaments of the legs, anciently in use among the Jewish women.  They have also such on their arms.  The laps of their ears are pierced when young, and the hole is daily stretched and widened, by things put in on purpose, so that it at length becomes large enough to hold a ring as broad as a little saucer, made hollow in its edges to contain the flesh.  Both men and women wash their bodies every day before they eat, and they sit entirely naked at their food, excepting only the covering of modesty.  This outward washing, as they think, tends to cleanse them from sin, not unlike the Pharisees in scripture, who would not eat with unwashed hands.  Hence, they ascribe a certain divine influence to rivers, but above all to the Ganges, daily flocking thither in great companies, and throwing in pieces of gold and silver, according to their devotion or abilities, after which they wash themselves in the sacred stream.  Both men and women paint their foreheads, or other parts of their faces, with red or yellow spots.

In regard to their grosser opinions, they do not believe in the resurrection of the flesh, and therefore burn the bodies of their dead, near some river if they can, into which they strew the ashes.  Their widows never marry again; but, after the loss of their husbands, cut their hair close off, and spend all their remaining life in neglect; whence it happens, that many young women are ambitious to die with honour, as they esteem it, throwing themselves for lore of their departed husbands into the flames, as they think, of martyrdom.  Following their dead husband to the pile, and there