A MEXICAN TEMPLE TO THE SUN AND MOON

This Mexican Shrine is very remarkable because erected after themanner of the pyramidal temple of Belus. at Babylon, and evidently proves in n'hat country the Americans first caught the SABIAN SUPERSTITION

Prattent for

Tavernier describes the principal statue as resembling VENUS, and therefore the goddess here adored is, in all probability, BHAVANI, whom I have before observed to be the Indian Venus.

However venerable these four pagodas for their sanctity and antiquity, they are all exceeded, in point of magnificence, at least, by that of SERINGHAM, which is situated upon an island to which it gives its name, and is itself formed by two branches of the great river Cauveri. The pagoda of SERINGHAM stands in the dominions of the king of Tanjore, in the neighbourhood of Tritchinopoly, and is composed, according to Mr. Orme, of" seven square inclosures, one within the other, the walls of which are twentyfive feet high and four thick. The inclosures are 350 feet distant from one another, and each has four large gates, with a high tower; which are placed, one in the middle of each side of the inclosure, and opposite to the FOUR CARDINAL POINTS." The outward wall is near four miles in circumference, and its gate-way to the south is ornamented with pillars, several of which are single stones, thirty-three feet long, and nearly five feet in diameter; while those, which form the roof, are still larger: in the inmost inclosures are the chapels. "Here, (continues this elegant

historian,) as in all the other great pagodas of India, the Brahmins live in a subordination which knows no resistance, and slumber in a voluptuousness that knows no wants; here, sensible of the happiness of their condition, they quit not the silence of their retreats to mingle in the tumults of the state; nor point the brand, flaming from the altar, against the authority of the sovereign, or the tranquillity of the government."* All the gate-ways are crowded with emblematical figures of their various divinities. No Europeans are admitted into the last square, containing the sanctuary of the supreme Veeshnu, and few have gone farther than the third. In the war between the French and English in the Carnatic, this voluptuous slumber of the Brahmins was frequently interrupted; for, the pagoda, being a place of considerable strength, was alternately taken possession of by the contending armies. On the first attempt to penetrate within the sacred inclosure, a venerable Brahmin, struck with horror at the thought of having a temple, so profoundly hallowed for ages, polluted by the profane footsteps of Europeans, took his station on the top of the grand gate-way of the outermost court, and conjured the invaders to desist from their impious enter* Orme's History of Hindostan, second edition, vol. i. p. 178.

prize. Finding all his expostulations ineffectual, rather than be the agonizing spectator of its profanation, he, in a transport of rage, threw himself upon the pavement below, and dashed out his brains. This circumstance cannot fail of bringing to the reader's mind the fine ode of Gray, intitled "The Bard," and the similar catastrophe of the hoary prophet.

The artful policy of princes, and the superstitious terrors of the vulgar, operating together, had contributed to enrich many of the pagodas of India with revenues in money and territory equal to that of many sovereigns. The sacred and accumulated treasures of ages have, in modern periods, been dissipated by the sacrilegious violence of Mohammedan and European plunderers; and even of their territories much has been curtailed. What an ample provision indeed had been made in these hallowed retreats for the voluptuous repose, in which, Mr. Orme has just informed us, the luxurious priests of Brahma slumbered, as well as to what an astonishing number their body in the principal pagodas formerly amounted, will be evident to the reader, who will take the trouble of turning to the pages of that entertaining traveller and faithful narrator Captain Hamilton, or of the above-cited historian. The former assures us,