Bengal is blessed with a mild climate and a fertile soil.  Provisions are consequently cheap; and as neither substantial houses nor expensive clothing is there essential to comfort, we might naturally expect to see less of misery and destitution than in this country.  Such, however, is not the case.  Our severe winter engenders habits of industry and forethought, which are unknown in India.  The ease with which in most cases their few wants are supplied, renders the inhabitants of that country in the highest degree improvident; and nowhere do we see a greater number of beggars, and misery and destitution paraded through the streets in more revolting forms.

There are no poor-laws in any part of India.  Relief, however, is not withheld, nor indeed sparingly bestowed.  Many can afford to give a little; and where nothing is exacted, many give willingly.  Little charity is bestowed by Europeans in the streets, as they generally ride in palanquins or carriages, and as, besides, they feel the weight even of a purse too much on a hot day.  However, let it not be supposed that they, like Dives, wallow in wealth, and close their ears to the importunities of the heathen.  The Baboo or Sircar gives weekly or monthly pensions to some patronised beggars; and on a Saturday in some large towns, the blind, lame, and halt come to the gates of the grandees, and receive from the trusty durwan or doorkeeper a handful of cowries and coarse rice, of which one, two, or three rupees’ worth are mixed up, according to the circumstances of the master.  But it is not to ordinary beggars I now propose to draw the attention of the reader—­the infirm or the lazy, with whom we are all tolerably familiar.  But in India there is another class of beggars—­religious and professional beggars—­who are proud of their calling.  I do not mean that there are no religious mendicants to be found at home; but although the object to be attained in both countries may be similar, the agents employed in the East are so different, that a description of them will to many European readers have all the gloss of novelty.

The two principal sects in Bengal are known as Soneeassees and Byragees.  The former exclusively worship Mahado.  ’They are not to inhabit houses or temples,’ say their scriptures; ’but to live in woods and forests, under the wide expanse of heaven, there to meditate upon the greatness of the Creator, and contemplate his beautiful works.’  An infant who is to become a Soneeassee has from his birth the badge of Sheva upon him:  no razor ever touches his hair, and his locks are matted and dishevelled, when other children’s are neatly combed and anointed.  When he approaches manhood, he takes the vow of celibacy, he receives from the hand of the Brahmin the muntra or mystical creed, the dried skin of an antelope, and a piece of coarse, unbleached cotton, stained yellow with ochre, which he can use as a plaid, it being seven feet long; upon