[104] Supposed to be a good omen.
[105] Share the booty.
[106] Bhawani is one of the many forms of the destroying goddess, the wife of Shiva.
[107] Wretches who kill with the narcotic seed of the stramonium.
[108] Better known as ‘Thugs,’ which in India means simply ‘rascals.’
[109] Crucifixion, until late years, was common amongst the Buddhists of the Burmese empire. According to an eye-witness, Mr. F. Carey, the punishment was inflicted in two ways. Sometimes criminals were crucified by their hands and feet being nailed to a scaffold; others were merely tied up, and fed. In these cases the legs and feet of the patient begin to swell and mortify at the expiration of three or four days; men are said to have lived in this state for a fortnight, and at last they expired from fatigue and mortification. The sufferings from cramp also must be very severe. In India generally impalement was more common than crucifixion.
[110] Our Suttee. There is an admirable Hindu proverb, which says, ‘No one knows the ways of woman; she kills her husband and becomes a Sati.’
[111] Fate and Destiny are rather Moslem than Hindu fancies.
[112] Properly speaking, the husbandman should plough with not less than four bullocks; but few can afford this. If he plough with a cow or a bullock, and not with a bull, the rice produced by his ground is unclean, and may not be used in any religious ceremony.
[113] A shout of triumph, like our ‘Huzza’ or ‘Hurrah!’ of late degraded into ‘Hooray.’ ‘Hari bol’ is of course religious, meaning ‘Call upon Hari!’ i.e. Krishna, i.e. Vishnu.