cufing himself, for having substituted Leah: in the place of Rachel to Jacob, in these. words: It must not be fo done in our country, to give the youngest (daughter) before the firftborn: this happened long before Mofes was: born. Thus, in the Hindoo code, it is alfo made criminal for a man to give his younger daughter in marriage before the elder, or for a younger fon to marry while his elder brother remains unmarried,

There is a peculiar law alfo in this code, by which a father is prevented from dispos feffing his children of their property in favour of aliens, and by which he is compelled to give them, if they demand it during his lifetime, even though difobedient and rebellious, the distinct portion which falls to the lot of each this is highly illuftrative of the parable of the prodigal fon.

In proof of the unrelenting feverity of the Hindoo code, in PENAL CASES, I have put together the few following examples.

An adultress is condemned to be devoured alive by dogs in the public market-place. Institutes, p. 236. In the next fentence, the adulterer is doomed to be bound on an iron bed, heated red-hot, and there to be burned to

death.

death. Ibid. But, what is not a little remarkable, for the fame crime, a Brahmin is only to be punished with ignominious tonfure. P. 237. He, who has committed inceft, is doomed to be extended on a red-hot iron bed, or be made to embrace, till he die, the red-bot iron image of a woman. P. 322. Of night-robbers it is ordained, that the hands be firft lopped, and that they afterwards be fixed on a fharp ftake, i. e. impaled. P. 281. The witnefs, who gives falfe evidence, fhall be faft bound under water, in the fnaky cords of Varuna, for a hundred years. P. 199. Naked and fhorn, tormented with hunger and thirft, and deprived of fight, shall the fame man go with a pot herd to beg food at the door of his enemy. P. 201.

For infulting a Brahmin with invectives, an iron style, ten fingers long, shall be thrust. red-bot down bis mouth: for offering only to inftruct him in his profeffion, boiling oil fhall, be dropped into his mouth and ears. P. 224. For ftealing kine, belonging to priests, the offender fhall inftantly lofe half of one foot. P. 231. An affaulter of a Brahmin, with intent to kill, fhall remain in hell

VOL. VII.

Hh

for

for a hundred years: for actually striking him with the like intent, a thousand. As many fmall pellets of duft as the blood of a Brahmin collects on the ground, for so many thousand years must the shedder of that blood be tormented in hell. P. 336. But, though fuch frequent exemptions occur in respect to the Brahmins, defcended from heaven, a portion of the immortal gods, none are made in favour of KINGS; and we cannot but admire the rigid fpirit of impartial justice that declares, where a man of inferior birth fhall be fined one pana, the king, who ought to be the fountain of honour and equity, for the fame offence fhall be fined a thoufand. P. 232.

}

Having had occafion to refer above to Mr. Halhed's Code, which I before obferved is rather an abridged than a complete ftatement of the general jurifprudence of India, compiled, from their most venerated books on the subject, by learned Brahmins affembled, by the invitation of Mr. Hastings, at Benares, in 1773; I fhall, in this place, infert a few other remarkable precepts from that book, and clofe my obfervations upon it, that our fubfequent attention to the Infti

tutes

tutes themselves, the grand original Code of Menu, may not be interrupted.

Several very fanguinary perfonal inflictions in penal cafes occur there alfo; and, among other fevere precepts, it is ordained that, if a man be guilty of grofs fraud in trade, the magiftrate fhall crush his hand, nofe, and teeth: if he repeat that fraud, the magistrate shall cut him into pieces with a razor. P. 245, quarto edition. Women, murdering their husbands or children, shall have their ears, nose, hands, and lips, cut off, and afterwards be expofed, if not pregnant, to be killed by cows: if they attempt to do it by poison, the punishment decreed is to have a large ftone fastened round their neck, and themselves thrown into the river. P. 306. Theft of goods is punished with, in the first instance, cutting off the hands; in the fecond, with crucifixion. P. 248. For ftealing a woman, the criminal fhall perish extended on a plate of red-hot iron. Ibid. For stealing an elephant, a horse, camel, or cow, one hand and one foot of the criminal fhall be amputated. P. 249. Even the Brahmin that steals is, with great feverity, punifhed corporally or banished, Hh 2

but

but never put to death; his hair may be cut off, his eyes torn out, and, what is rather a curious kind of punishment, refembling that anciently inflicted by Sefoftris on cowards, his forehead is to be marked, by means of a red-hot iron, with the pudendum muliebre. P. 245. According to this code, adultery, in the male, is punished by total caftration, and the offender, it is added, fhall afterwards be led naked round the city, mounted on an afs. P. 271. Adulterers, whofe crime admits of extenuation, as when deluded by the artifices of abandoned women, are branded in the forehead with the pudendum: muliebre. Ibid. Unlawful games are punished with a fine and corporal punishment, at the will of the magiftrate: fraudulence at play with the lofs of two of the fingers. P. 289.

Destroyers of fruit-trees, or trees of facred: ufe, and removing land-marks, are mulet with very high fines. P. 291. Of all domestic merchandize the king has a tenth for his tribute; of foreign merchandize a twentieth. P. 292. The inferior mechanic, labouring at his daily employ, fhall fuffer no deduction from his profit; and no tax fhall be paid

for