The Hindus love amusements. They are fond of music and have many curious instruments. Dancing girls dance for the amusement of guests at feasts given in the homes of the wealthy. They usually take their own musicians with them; one of these plays upon a little drum, the other on a kind of guitar. Street exhibitions are frequent. Parties of acrobats go about performing feats. Everyone has heard of the Hindu jugglers. Mr. Ward describes some tricks he saw done. Thus, the juggler spreads a cloth on the ground: in a moment a movement is seen under it: the cloth is raised and under it are pineapples growing. The juggler picks the fruit and presents it to the spectators to show that it is real. Again, he takes a large, clay jar, fills it with water, and turns it upside down to let the water run out; when he turns it up again, it is full of water. Again, he puts a lean dog into a common basket; opening it, he shows the dog with a litter of pups; covering these and opening again, there is a goat; again the basket is put down and raised and shows a live pig; again—and the pig is dead with its throat cut; then he ends the trick by again covering and uncovering, when the pig is seen alive and well. _How_ does he do it? Almost as wonderful as these juggler’s tricks are the performances of the snake charmers. They carry the dreaded, poisonous cobras around in baskets and handle them, playing at the same time on their little flutes, quite as if the creatures were entirely harmless. [Illustration: HINDU SNAKE CHARMERS (BREHM).] Nowhere in the world are there more dreadful religious customs than in India. People there are so crowded that life is hard. The result of this was that parents often destroyed their little babies, particularly girls. Often the mothers themselves threw the little beings into the sacred river, where they were drowned in its waters or were eaten by crocodiles. At the great religious festivals, men tortured themselves fearfully, or threw themselves under the chariot of the god that they might be crushed to death. The dead among the Hindus were usually cremated—burned upon a great open fire of wood. Formerly the widow of the dead man mounted the funeral pyre and was burned with his body. The English government has put an end to many of these practices, and among them this _suttee_, or burning of the widow. It has really done little good, as a widow’s life is so sad that she might almost better die. A widow must shave her head, wear miserable clothing, and serve every one like a slave: she is despised and harshly treated.