The Saw: Brahmans likewise, annually in some towna, Conjeveram for instance, perform the bloody rite to the Vedic gods, Indra, Varuna, Yam ; and both in 1859 and 18GO, the Saiva Brahmans in Madras so sacrificed. Several Brah mans are employed in this rite. One Brahman, waisted by his wife, the couple being styled the Soma Yaji and Sonia Devi, commences the rite by performing the fire sacrifice by pouring, glii into a large fire. The pujari, a Swint, then strikes the head from the victim, and large portions of its fleali behag thrown into the fire aud reduced to ashes, portiona are distributed to the assembly. Thia being a Prasad'ham or food offered to the gods, all castes mn partfle of it. Nfany partake of it.
Throughont India generally, at the present day, in almost MI the household aticrificest, in which the husband or head of the hottive is the priest, the oblation ia used as food. In North America, the animals sacrificed were killed and eaten or buried; sometimes the horse, instead of being killed, was simply set at liberty, in the presence of the warriors of the tribe. Sonnerat ' relates that tho Syrians at the feast of the torchea ' or funeral pile, and the Hebrews at the feast of the l'assover, made arboura before the temples, and tarried their gods round them in proccesion, whotn they afterwards burned. The people then presented their offerings, which commonly were Imulats and sheep ; and after the priest had made the first libation upon theni, each penion carried his victim home to eat it. Some texts of Menu would seem to authorize the eating of animal food at all seasons, observing merely the prelimi nary ceremony of offering a portion of it to the gods or manes, like the heroes of Homer, with whom the sacrifice was only the prelude to a feast.
The grand festival to Friya was in spring ; then boars were offered up to her by the Scandinavians, and boars of paste were made and eaten by the peasantry: So at the present day, Vasanti,' or spring personified, is worshipped by the Rajputs, who open the season with a grand hunt, led by the prince and his vassal chiefs, when they chase, slay, and eat the boar.
Self-destruction.—The Rev. Mr. Ward, writing in the early part of the 19th century, says it was difficult to form an estimate of the number of Hindus who perish annually, the victims of superstition ; but he conjectures 10,500 as the number of victims annually sacrificed,—Widows burned on the funeral pile, in Hindustan, 5000 ; pilgrims perishing on the roads and at sacred places, 4000 ; persons drowning themselves in the Ganges, or buried, or burned alive, 500 ; children immolated, including the daughters of the Rajputs, 500 ; sick persons whose death is hastened on the banks of the Ganges, 500.
A great change has been made in this re spect, through steady repression by the British Government of India. Up to the year 1802, Hindus drowned their children at the mouth of the Ganges, but. the rite was then prohibited. Until later times, men and women drowned themselves in the sacred river and frequently at the junction of the Jumua and 'the Ganges. They fastened earthenware pots to their bodies, and walked calmly into the river beyond their depth, filled the pots by turning them to one side, and as the pots filled they sank. As the century advanced, the Government ascertained that the sacred books of the Hindus gave no sanction to widows immolatino. themselves, as sati, along with the bodies of their deceased partners, and it was prohibited in 1829, during Lord 1Villiam Bentinek's administration, and rulers of the Feudatory States were induced to issue a similar prohibition. Akbar had endeavoured to put a stop to this practice, and on one occasion he rode about 80 miles to prevent the widow of the Jodh pur raja's son destroying herself, but was not listened to. Instances still occur from time to time, but the people generally avoid it.
Men, from time to time, bury themselves alive. The practice is known as Sainad'h, aud is had recourse to alike by fanatics as by persons in curably afflicted with leprosy or other severe diseases. Scarcely a year passes by without an occurrence of this kind, and, being done stealthily, the police are often baffled. Up to the early years of the 19th century, instances occurred of individuals being crushed under the wooden wheels of the huge cars in which their idols are carried in procession. It is 110W admitted that the statements about the frequency of self immolations and accidents in that manner were exaggerated ; by the care taken by the con stabulary, these 'Ccurrences are now unheard of.
According to former accounts writes Malcolm, self-destruction among men, b'y easting them selves during public festivals from a rock at Onkar Mundattah, and from a precipice near Jawad, was once common. The sacrifices have of late years seldom occurred. The men who sacrificed themselves were generally of low tribes, usually the Bhil, Dher, or Chamar. One of the leading motives by which they were said to be actuated, is a belief that they will be re-born as rajas in their next state of transmigration.