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placed it in his hands: he walked with it ftep by step, the space of three gaz and a half, through each of the feven intermediate rings, and threw the ball into the ninth, where it burnt the grafs that had been left in it. He next, to prove his veracity, rubbed fome rice in the hufk between his hands; which were afterward examined, and were fo far from being burned, that not even a blifter was raised on either of them. Since it is the nature of fire to burn, the officers of the court, and people of Benares, near five hundred of whom attended the ceremony, were astonished at the event; and this well-wisher to mankind was perfectly amazed. It occurred to his weak apprehenfion, that probably the fresh leaves aad other things which, as it has been mentioned, were placed on the hands of the accufed, had prevented their being burned; befide that, the time was but fhort between his taking the bale and throwing it down: yet it is pofitively declared in the Dherma Saftra, and in the written opinions of the most refpectable pandits, that the hand of a man who speaks truth cannot be burned; and Ali Ibrahim Khan certainly faw with his own eyes, as many others alfo faw with theirs, that the hands of the appellee in this caufe were unhurt by the fire: he was confequently discharged; but, that men might in future be deterred from demanding the trial by ordeal, the appellor was committed for a week. After all, if fuch a trial could be feen once or twice by feveral intelligent men, acquainted with natural philofophy, they might be able to affign the true reason why a man's hand may be burned in fome cafes and not in others.

Ordeal by the veffel of hot oil, according to the comment on the Dherma Saftra, is thus performed: the ground appointed for the trial is cleared and rubbed with cow-dung, and the next day, at fun-rife, the Pandit worthips Ganefa, prefents his oblations, and pays adoration to other

deities, conformably to the Saftra : then, having read the incantation prefcribed, he places a round pan of gold, filver, copper, iron, or clay, with a diameter of fixteen fingers, and four fingers deep; and throws into it one fer, or eighty ficca weight, of clarified butter or oil of fefamum. After this, a ring of gold, or filver, or iron, is cleaned and washed with water, and caft into the oil; which they proceed to heat, and when it is very hot put into it a fresh leaf of pippala, or of bilwa: when the leaf is burned, the oil is known to be fufficiently hot. Then, having pronounced a mentra over the oil, they order the party accused to take the ring out of the pan; and, if he take it out without being burned, or without a blister on his hand, his innocence is confidered as proved; if not, his guilt.

A brahman, named Rifhiswara Bhatta, accufed one Ramdayal, a linen-painter, of having ftolen his goods: Ramdayal pleaded not guilty; and, of much altercation, confented to be tried, as it had been proposed, by the veffel of oil. This well wisher to mankind advised the pandits of the court to prevent, if poffible, that mode of trial; but, fince the parties infisted on it, an ordeal by hot oil, according to the Saftra, was awarded for the fame reafons which prevailed in regard to the trial by the ball. The pandits who affifted at the ceremony were, Bhishma Bhatta, Nanapathac, Manirama, Patháca, Menirama Bhatta, Siva, Anantarama Bhatta, Criparama, Vishnuheri, Chrishnachandra, Ramendra, Govindarama, Hericrishna Bhatta, Calidafa: the three last were pandits of the court. When Ganefa had been worshipped, and the homa prefented, according to the Saftra, they fent for this well wither to mankind; who, attended by the two Dalroghas of the Divani and Faujdari courts, the Cotwal of the town, the other officers of the court, and most of the inhabitants of Benares, went to the place of trial; where he la

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boured to diffuade Ramdayal and his father from fubmitting to the ordeal; and apprized them, that if the hand of the accufed fhould be burned, he would be compelled to pay the value of the goods ftolen, and his character would be difgraced in every company. Ramdayal would not defift: he thruft his hand into the veffel, and was burned. The opinion of the pandits was then taken; and they were unanimous, that, by the burning of his hand, his guilt was established, and he bound to pay Rishiswara Bhatta the price of what he had stolen; but if the ium exceeded five hundred afhrafis, his hand must be cut off, by an exprefs law in the Saftra; and a mulet alfo must be imposed on him according to his circumstances.

The chief magistrate therefore caufed Ramdayal to pay Rifhifwara feven hundred rupees in return for the goods which had been stolen; but as amercements in fuch cafes are not ufual in the courts of judicature at Benares, the mulet was remitted and the prifoner difcharged.

The record of this conviction was tranfmitted to Calcutta, in the year of the Meffiah 1783; and in the month of April 1784, the governorgeneral Imaduddaulah Jeladet Jang Behader, having feen the preceding account of trials by ordeal, put many queftions concerning the meaning of Sanferit words, and the cafes here reported; to which he received respectful answers. He firft defired to know the precife meaning of homa, and was informed, that it meant the oblations meant to please the deities, and comprised a variety of things; thus in the agni homa, they throw into the fire feveral forts of wood and grafs, as palas wood, c'hadira wood, racta chandan, or red fandal, pippal-wood, fami, and cufha grafs, dubha, together with fome forts of grain, fruit, and other ingredients, as black fefamum, barley, rice, fugar-cane, clarified butter, almonds, dates, and gugal or bdellium.

To his next queftion, how many

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fpecies of homa there were, it was anfwered, that different species were adapted to different occasions; but that, in the ordeals by hot iron, and hot oil, the fame fort of oblation was used. When he defired to know the meaning of the word mentra, he was refpectfully told, that in the language of the pandits, there were three fuch words, mentra, yantra, and tantra : that the first meant a paffage from one of the Vedas, in which the names of certain deities occurred; the fecond, a fcheme of figures, which they write with a belief that their wishes will be accomplished by it; and the third, a medical preparation, by the use of which all injuries may be avoided; for they are faid to rub it on their hands, and afterward to touch redhot iron without being burned. He then asked, how much barley moiftened with curds was put into the hands of the accufed person; and the anfwer was, nine grains.

His other questions were thus anfwered: that the leaves of pippala were spread about in the hands of the accufed, not heaped one above another: that the man who performed the fire-ordeal was not much agitated, but feemed in full poffeffion of his faculties: that the perfon tried by hot oil was at firft afraid, but perfifted, after he was burned, in denying the theft; neverthelefs, as he previously had entered a written agreement, that if his hand should be hurt, he would pay the value of the goods, the magiftrate for that reafon thought him. felf justified in compelling payment: that when the before-mentioned ingredients of the homa were thrown into the fire, the pandits fitting round the hearth fung the flocas prefcribed in the Saftra: that the form of the hearth is established in the Veda and in the Dherma Saftra; and this fireplace is alfo called Vedi : that for the Imaller oblations they raise a little ground for the hearth and kindle fire on it; for the higher oblations, they fink the ground to receive the fire, where they perform the homa; and this fa

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cred hearth they call cunda.' The governor then asked, why the trials by fire, by the hot-ball, and the veffel of oil, if there be no effential difference between them, are not all called fire-ordeals; and it was humbly anfwered, that, according to fome pandits, they were all three different;

while others infifted, that the trial by fire was diftinct from that by the veffel, though the trial by the hot-ball and the head of a lance. were the fame; but that, in the apprehenfion : of his refpectful fervant, they were all ordeals by fire.

A Defcription of WANSTEAD CHURCH, in Effex: With a Perspective View of that beautiful Structure.

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the circular windows, at the eaft end of the galleries, are alfo of ftained glafs; that, on the right of the altar, being the royal arms; and the correfpondent one, the arms of the pa tron, fir James Tylney Long. Thefe ftained windows were executed by Mr. Eginton of Birmingham. The pews in the body of the church are of right wainscot; and, in the chriften

THE village of Wanftead is fituated on the skirts of Epping Foreft, fix miles from London. The firft ftone of the present beautiful church was laid at the north-eaft angle of the foundation, by the patron, fir James Tylney Long, baronet, affifted by the Reverend Dr. Samuel Glaffe, rector, George Bowles, efq. and other gentlemen, on Friday, July 13, 1787. On this ftone is engraved the following pew, is a font of curious working inscription:

Lapidem hunc angularem
Ecclefiæ Stae, Mariæ
de Wanftead,
Ad Gloriam Jehova,
Pofuerunt.

Jacobus Tylney Long, Baronettus,
Hujus Ecclefiæ Patronus,
Samuel Glaffe, S. T. P. Rector,
Sacrorum

Georgius Bowles, Arm. Cuftodes.

Arthurius Lord, Gens. S

Die Menfis Julii XIII,
Anno Domini
MDCCLXXXVII.

Simplicity and neatnefs were aimed at in this rural temple by the architect, Mr. Thomas Hardwick, of Rath bone-place, Oxford-ftreet. The portico is of the Doric order; and the cupola is fupported by eight Ionic columns. The whole of the external part of this edifice is faced with Portland ftone. The internal order is Corinthian. The pavement of the church, which is remarkable for its beauty and neatnefs, was brought from Panfwick in Gloucestershire: that of the chancel is of the fame kind of ftone, intermixed with black marble dots. The window of the chancel is of ftained glass; the fubject, Our Saviour bearing the Crofs:

manship. In the chancel is a fuperb
monument of white marble (removed
from the old church) to the memory
of fir Jofiah Child, baronet, grand.
father, of the late earl Tylney; and,
on a tablet, under the window of the
chancel, is the following infeription:
Hoc ædificium in Dei gloriam erigendum,
Summâ fundavit pietate J. T. Long,
Baronettus;

Studio promovit indefeffo Geo. Bowles,
Armiger j

Largis adauxerunt muneribus noftrates
ferè universe;
Confecravit Reverendus admodum Beilby
Epifcopus Londinenfis,
Die Junii XXIV, A. D. MDCCXC.
S. Glaffe, S. T. P. Rectore,
Geo. Bowles, Arm.
Arth. Lord, Gen.

Cuftodibus.

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