fun, was the practice of mankind in the infan cy of the world. The earliest instance of these oblations on record is that of Cain, the eldest fon of the first great husbandman, who, doubtless, following paternal precedent, brought of the fruit of the ground an offering to the Lord, and of Abel, who alfo, to the facred altar of God, brought of the firstlings of his flock. The Jews, whofe religious customs are, in many respects, fimilar to the Hindoos, in every age and period of their empire, inviolably confecrated to heaven the firft-fruits of their oil, their wine, and their wheat, and, by the divine institution, even whatsoever opened the womb, whether of man or beast, was facred to the Lord.* Such was the origin of oblations; they were the tribute of the human mind, over-flowing with affection and gratitude to the all-bounteous Father. There was, according to Porphyry, a very curious and ancient festival, annually celebrated at Athens to the honour of the SUN and HOURS, which, in the fimplicity of the offerings, remarkably resembled the practice of the firft ages. During that festival, confecrated grafs was carried about, in which the kernels of olives were wrapt up together with figs * See Numbers xviii. 12, et feq. figs, all kinds of pulse, oaken leaves, with acorns, and cakes compofed of, the meal of wheat and barley, heaped up in a pyramidal form, allufive to the fun-beams that ripened the grain, as well as to the fire in which they were finally confumed. The festival was called Θαργηλιον, from Θαργηλία, a general word, fays archbishop Potter on this festival, for all the fruits of the earth.* The Indians, whose fyftem of theology, in many respects, retains its primitive feature, although, in others, it has been deeply adulterated, have a variety of festivals facred to Surya and his mythological progeny. There is one in particular, alluded to before, called Surya Pooja, or worship of the fun, which falls on the feventh day of the new moon in January, and, on which day, offerings of peculiar confecrated flowers are made to that deity. On the first Thursday in the month of Auguft, falls the Pooja, or worship of Lachfmi, the goddess of abundance or Ceres of Hindoftan, whose altars are then decorated with oblations of PADDY, the name given to rice in the hufk. She has another grand * The reader may confult Potter's Archæologia Greca, vol. i. P. 400. + Holwell's Account of the Indian Festivals, part ii. p. 154. Ibid. p. 127. grand feftival on getting in the harveft, when fhe is univerfally adored with many folemn rites. These feftivals I confider as of the most ancient date of any exifting in India, fince the first is a plain relic of the oldeft known fuperftition, and the others, probably, flourished ever fince nature was bountiful and man was grateful. The Grecian festivals to the Sun and Ceres were probably instituted from them; and, hereafter, clofer comparifon and investigation may, perhaps, fhew us, not only the Surya and Lachfmi, but many other Indian festivals flourishing in Greece. By degrees, the Indians, and mankind in general, advanced in the number and value of their oblations. From graffes, fruits, flowers, and grain, they proceeded to offer up rich aromatics; and, having experienced the purifying and healing virtues of many costly drugs, they burnt myrrh, aloes, benzoine, camphire, and fandal-wood, in the ever-flaming vafe of facrifice. From these agwara, according to Porphyry, the cenfer, or pan, in which the Greeks burned incense, came to be called upangios, and to perform facrifice was called uav, while the facrifices themselves were denominated Ouria. Hence the Latin word THUS, frankin cenfe, cense, or, as it is fometimes ufed, incenfe in general. There can be little doubt that the Indians, in burning these woods, were actu ated by the fame motives which guided the Egyptian priests; viz. to adminifter to health as well as religion, fince the numerous ablutions and purification of the Hindoos demonftrate that, like those priests, they thought the preservation of health a branch of religious duty. But, to proceed in describing the progrefs of facrificial rites, at least so far as India is concerned. They foon contrived to extract from these precious woods a rich effential oil, with the pureft portion of which they proceeded to anoint the idols they adored. Oil of gengely, oil of cocoa-nut, oil of fandalwood, and other expenfive oils, during the continuance of the Pooja, or public worship, with their rich ftreams, perpetually bathe the fhining countenance of the Indian deity, and the ftench, arifing from a hundred burning lamps, is, for a moment, vanquished by the more powerful effluvia of the most exquifite odours. I have before had occafion to mention the very high antiquity of this cus tom in the Oriental world, reaching up even to the time of the patriarch Jacob, who poured oil oil upon the ftone which he had fet up for a pillar, calling that pillar Beth-el, the house, or fhrine, of God. From this conduct of the pious patriarch, I contended, came the pagan practice of confecrating certain facred ftones called BÆTYLI, anointing them with odoriferous oils, and venerating them as divine ora-. cles, oracles into which the deity had deigned to defcend, drawn down by the energy of prayer and the force of magical incantations. The ardor of the devout brahmin stops not here. Inured from his youth to rigid temperance, and unconscious to the guilty banquet of blood, he beholds with horror the flesh of slaughtered animals: he is principally cherished by the nutritious milk of the benevolent animal, whom he confiders as the emblem of the deity; and he feeds upon the pure honey elaborated by the industrious bee. His grateful heart, therefore, returns a tithe to heaven, and ample libations of milk and honey lave the fanctuary of his god. When that milk becomes butter, a portion is fet apart for the deity, but clarified, left, during the process, any impurities fhould have been blended with it. With this clarified butter, or GHEE, as the Indians term it, upon grand feftivities, the holy flame of the altar is fed, and nume rous |