Daily National Intelligencer

SUPERSTITIONS OF THE EAST.

The last number of the Analectic Magazine contains a series of original letters from an American in Calcutta, representing Some new views of the Hindoo character. We extract the following as a specimen. Humanity shudders at the thought, that superstition can hold such absolute power over the mind. These deluded beings not only endure their self-inflicted tortures with firmness. but even with a degree of levity which seems almost incredible.

Before day-light, on the morning of the 5th, I was awakened by a noise of natives hallooing in the streets. The holyday season, I believe, commenced on that morning; and I was informed that all the Gentoo population went during the night to bathe; or, as they term it, to wash body, in the Hooghly. Very early in the morning the shore is lined with thousands of them; and this was said to be the case for a great extent up the river. The water near the shore was covered with flowers, strung in garlands, or strewed separately upon its surface; these being a species of tribute, or oblation, offered to the sacred stream. The Gentoos believe, or profess to believe, that the Ganges river comes from heaven direct. They will not admit that the object of their devotion has a terrestrial origin. This opinion may have originated in consequence of the very remote, and almost unknown sources of the river; or, it may have been in some measure allegorical; inasmuch as a large portion of its waters, in one season of the year, does come directly from the clouds. For several days after this general ablution and offering of flowers, I observed small parties parading the streets, accompanied by the music of the tumtum, or small drum; and some one of each group signalizing himself by voluntarily inflicting some violent and disgusting species of torture upon his own body. The favorite, or most frequent operation, was that of thrusting a long iron rod through a perforation which had previously been made in the tongue, by which means it was stretched out of his mouth; and, in this plight, with the blood trickling down his chin, he would dance, and perform a variety of grotesque gesticulations, to the music of the tumtum. When one of the party had thus displayed his fortitude, another would take the rod and undergo the same operation. Some, also, had bamboo hoops run through a loop made in the skin of their arms; and others through similar loops in their sides; all of which they slipped backward and forwards in order to increase the torture. The object of these sanguinary proceedings is said to be an atonement to God for their sins; but it seems they have also an eye to some temporal benefits in exhibiting these tokens of penance; for they take care to display themselves as much as possible before strangers, and make no scruple in soliciting a present, or buskshish, as they call it, as a reward for the exhibition.

These disgusting spectacles were, however, but trifles, compared to a process which I yesterday witnessed, and which, it seems, was intended to close the scene—as it certainly did cap the climax of these abominations. In the afternoon, I went with some gentlemen to the house of Ram Duloll Day, a principal and well known banian in this city, where arrangements had been made for the ceremony of swinging, a sort of penance performed by the bearer caste, and some other low castes. This exhibition is generally made in front of the house of some wealthy or influential native, by way of compliment; and a sorry one it would be, had not "that tyrant, custom," reconciled it to their feelings. A post, about 20 feet high, was planted before Duloll's door; a bundle of bamboos, of about the same length, were lashed together, and fixed by the middle, across the top of the post, on a kind of swivel or pivot, which admitted the bamboo lever to turn round in a horizontal direction. To the end of this lever was attached a rope, which reached nearly to the ground, and by which it was to be turned. To the other end there was also about six feet of rope, to which the swinger, if I may be allowed the term, was to be fastened. After I had waited some time, a crowd of natives approached, making a great noise with their tumtums, some of them smeared with mud, and sprinkled with a reddish dust; making altogether a most motley assemblage.

One of the company soon approached the swing, and mounted a scaffolding, in order to be attached to the short rope at the end of the lever. A couple of iron hooks, not unlike the hooks of a common steelyard, were passed through two loops made in the skin of his back, just below the shoulder blades, and a bandage was passed round his body and over the hooks, to secure him in case these should tear out. The hooks were then made fast to the line above mentioned, and the man was suspended in this way about 12 or 15 feet from the ground. Two or three natives took hold of the rope at the other end of the lever, and begun to run round with it, gradually quickening their pace until they whirled him about with amazing velocity. The swiftness with which the patient was carried round, caused him to extend the line almost horizontally; and my blood ran cold under the apprehension of seeing him break loose, and fly off in a tangent from the circle which he was describing. Such accidents, I am informed, do occasionally happen, but they do not deter these people from persevering in the practice.

After the first one had been swung a few minutes he was let down, and another came with four hooks in his back: he had no bandage round his body, but trusted entirely to the toughness of his hide. A considerable number were swung in this way; and each one seemed ambitious to have his turn first, and to excel his predecessors in these shocking feats. The fellow who sweeps our factory was up twice in the course of the afternoon, and was apparently much gratified at the attention we paid to his performance. The first time he swung fourteen minutes, by the watch. One man smoked his hubblebubble, ate fruit, &c. while he was swinging, to evince his fortitude and unconcern. In one instance, the person swinging had a small basket in his hand, containing some fruit, and a few young, half fledged doves; all of which he distributed among the crowd, as he passed round above their heads—and they eagerly caught at them, under an impression, as I understood, that it was a good omen for those individuals who were so fortunate as to get hold of them before they reached the ground. Another was suspended, with the iron rod through his tongue, in the manner already described; and he amused himself by slipping it backward and forward, from one end to the other, during his circumgyrations. The desire to outdo the rest, at length prompted one man to swing with only two hooks in his back, and without any bandage to save him in case of accident. Although there was not more than an inch of skin in each loop, yet these two proved sufficient, and he was whirled about with a velocity equal to any of the others. To crown all, a native woman stepped forth towards evening, and convinced them that her skin was as tough, and her courage as great as that of the men. She was suspended in the same manner, and revolved in her orbit with as much firmness as the most daring of her predecessors.