no more claim to special sanctity than a Sudra or a Pariah. The new doctrine gradually spread over many parts of India, and in due time won its way into Ceylon, Burmah, Thibet, and China. But Brahminism fought hard for life; in the course of centuries it supplanted its younger rival; and in the tenth century of our era Budhism in India was fairly trampled out. The only traces of it now visible there, besides the temples, halls, and other buildings which mark its former sway, may be discovered in the Jains, of whom a few hundred thousand dwell in Western and Central India, retaining some of the old Budhist usages mixed up with those of the Brahminic

school. Budhism as such is now confined to British Burmah and the hills bordering on Cashmere.

Another revolt from Brahminism was proclaimed in the 15th century by Nának Shah in the Punjab, who learned from his master Kabir, that lesson of spiritual brotherhood which he afterwards strove to practise in his own way. His chief aim was to establish a religious system embracing alike Hindoo and Mahommedan. But his followers, the Seikhs, as they were called, found so little favour with the Mahommedans, that after many years of persecution they took up arms under Guru Govind, a successor of Nának, and maintained a long and furious struggle which finally left them for half-a-century masters of the Punjab. Their fiery prowess must have made up for their numerical weakness, for at this moment the true Seikhs in the Punjab number little more than a million, as compared with over 16 millions. Mahommedans, and Jats and others.*

• Parliamentary Paper.

The native Christians of India are supposed to number about a million, most of whom are to be found in Malabar, Travancore, Tinnevelly, and other parts of Southern India. In the North there are only a few thousands, representing the scanty outcome of many years of missionary work. Of the southern Christians the great bulk belong to the Romish or the Syrian Church. Tradition assigns the origin of the latter to the preaching of the Apostle Thomas. Be that as it may, a Christian community appears to have flourished in Malabar since the second century of our era, and in the tenth century many converts were made by Syrian missionaries in Travancore. In the middle of the 16th century the zealous St. Francis Xavier gathered the first converts into the Romish fold. Swartz, the Danish missionary, did the like service two centuries later for Protestant Christianity in Southern India. Some fifty years elapsed before the first English missionaries set foot in Bengal ;amongst the most zealous and distinguished of whom were Carey, Marshman and Ward, Henry Martin, and Archdeacon Corrie the friend of Heber; and in more recent times, Dr. Duff and other eloquent and devoted men have worthily followed in their steps.

The Mogul Empire lost its power in India in a great degree by interfering with the religion of the people. The decline of the Portuguese dominion was also accelerated by the same cause. From that error we as a government wisely abstain.

CHAPTER VI.

THE PEOPLE-continued.

Caste-Character of the people-Hindoos-Mahommedans, &c.

Caste.—In the social and religious life of the Hindoos the caste system has always played an important part. The four castes or "colours" of the old village communities, as described in the Code of Menu, were marked off sharply from each other by rules and restrictions of the most binding character. First in order came the Brahmins, the favourites of the Gods, the privileged expounders of the holy books, to kill one of whom was the worst of crimes, while even to insult one was a wrong almost inexpiable. The Cahutriya or warrior caste ranked next. To this belonged most of the old Indian princes, and its purest living representatives are perhaps to be found in the Rajpoots of Central India. In the third rank came the Vaísyas, who concerned themselves in law, medicine, trade, and agriculture.

These three classes embraced all men of

pure Aryan

* "The first impression is, that caste is a thing positively unique; there is nothing in any country with whose history we are familiar, ancient or modern, with which it can be compared; it has a social element, but it is not a social distinction; it has a religious element, but it is hardly a religious institution; it finds its sanction in a religious idea, inasmuch as Brahma is said to have been its author, but it lives on irrespective of religious faith or observance."-"The Trident, the Crescent, and the Cross," by the Rev. James Vaughan. Longmans and Co., 1876.

blood; all the "twice-born," as they proudly called themselves, who alone had the right to wear the sacred thread that distinguished them from men of low or non-Aryan birth. To the fourth or Sudra caste were relegated all the "lowborn" and converts, who served as hewers of wood and drawers of water for the conquering race. They might follow only such trades and callings as were forbidden to the three higher castes. In order to keep them in their proper place, they were shut out from every privilege enjoyed by the twice-born. No Sudra for instance might dare to read the Védas, to eat or intermarry with a member of a higher caste, to sit on the same mat with a Brahmin, or even to amass property for his own use.

In course of time however, these distinctions tended to melt away or reappear under new aspects in everincreasing numbers. Caste still seems to bind Hindoo society together, but under conditions very different from those of Menu's day. Instead of four castes there are now some hundreds, most of which represent particular trades, callings, or creeds, and so answer to the guilds, tradeunions, and sects, of medieval and modern Europe. Even the Brahmins no longer form one caste, or refrain from pursuits once forbidden to their priestly forefathers. In the struggle for life they and the Sudras have often changed places, and a Brahmin now thinks it no shame to be a soldier, or a clerk in a public or merchant's office, or to fulfil still more humble duties. The very Pariahs and dregs of Indian society, scavengers, leather-dressers, conjurors, thieves, and so forth, have formed themselves into castes, each fenced round by strict rules. one shape or another, caste has made its way among

In

the Jains, the Seikhs, and even the Mahommedans, numbers of whom indeed retain little of Mahomet's religion beyond the name. As a means of holding society together, of keeping men under some kind of moral discipline, the caste system, in its present shape, must be regarded as a power for good rather than evil, whatever fault may be found with it as a hindrance to the spread of Western influences and the free play of individual energies.

Character of the People.—In mental as in bodily traits, there are certain broad differences between the Hindoos and the Mahommedans. The latter, as a rule, are bolder

in speech and bearing; more truthful, energetic, selfasserting; less refined in their tastes, less supple-witted, less patient of steady toil, less slow to move along new paths. Of the "mild Hindoo," we heard more perhaps twenty years ago than we do now; and remembering how he behaved during the Mutiny, one is tempted to think of Byron's Lambro, "the mildest-mannered man that ever cut a throat." Still, in a subject race, mildness of manner, if coupled with other good qualities, has an undoubted charm; and the Hindoos strongly resemble the Italians, alike in their worse and better traits. If they are more or less prone to crooked and cunning ways, if they are slow to forgive an enemy, and generally careless about speaking the truth, they are also, in the main, temperate, courteous, self-controlled, cheerful, industrious, keen-witted, religious, and kind-hearted. In short, according to Professor Monier Williams, as he lately told us, there are "no people in Europe more religious, none more patiently persevering in common duties, none more