Produced by Steven Gibbs, Julia Neufeld and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net Transcriber's Note: For this text version, t with a dot underneath is represented by [t.] as in "ba[t.]h". THE HINDOOS AS THEY ARE A DESCRIPTION OF THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS AND INNER LIFE OF HINDOO SOCIETY IN BENGAL. BY SHIB CHUNDER BOSE. WITH A PREFATORY NOTE BY THE REV. W. HASTIE, B. D., PRINCIPAL OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S INSTITUTION, CALCUTTA. London: EDWARD STANFORD, 55, CHARING CROSS. Calcutta: W. NEWMAN & Co., 3, DALHOUSIE SQUARE. 1881. PRINTED BY W. NEWMAN AND CO., AT THE CAXTON PRESS, 1, MISSION ROW, CALCUTTA. [_The Right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved._] CONTENTS. _Page._ PREFATORY NOTE. i INTRODUCTION. iii I. THE HINDOO HOUSEHOLD 1 II. THE BIRTH OF A HINDOO 22 III. THE HINDOO SCHOOL-BOY 30 IV. VOWS OF HINDOO GIRLS 35 V. MARRIAGE CEREMONIES 41 VI. THE BROTHER FESTIVAL 90 VII. THE SON-IN-LAW FESTIVAL 92 VIII. THE DOORGA POOJAH FESTIVAL 93 IX. THE KALI POOJAH FESTIVAL 136 X. THE SARASWATI POOJAH 151 XI. THE FESTIVAL OF CAKES 155 XII. THE HOLI FESTIVAL 159 XIII. CASTE 165 XIV. A BRAHMIN 180 XV. THE BENGALEE BABOO 191 XVI. THE KOBIRAJ, OR NATIVE PHYSICIAN 209 XVII. HINDOO FEMALES 216 XVIII. POLYGAMY 227 XIX. HINDOO WIDOWS 237 XX. SICKNESS, DEATH, AND SHRAD OR FUNERAL CEREMONIES 246 XXI. SUTTEE, OR THE IMMOLATION OF HINDOO WIDOWS 272 XXII. THE ADMIRED STORY OF SABITRI BRATA, OR THE WONDERFUL TRIUMPH OF EXALTED CHASTITY 280 APPENDIX 293 ERRATA. Page 49, line 4, for "_Butterfly_," read, "_Prajapati_--the (Lord.)" PREFATORY NOTE.