Penang, Singapore, &c. SHIPPING. Arrivals at Singapore.—Previous to Sept. 3. Ann Jane, and Nile, both from Liverpool; Ellen, from the Clyde; Coromandel, David Malcolm, John Adam, Wor. cester, Diana steamer, Poppy, Hero, Hooghly steamer, Sylph, Sea Queen, Highlander, Rob Roy, Mor, Madagascar steamer, and Ann (Spain), all from Calcutta; Harriet, Samuel Horrocks, Freak, Mary Charlotte, Lydia Eastgate, Catherine, and Coquette, all from Penang; Singapore, from Lombock; Lyra, Champion, and Duchess of Northumberland, all from Sydney; Futtal Barry, Inez, and Ann (Griffiths), all from Bombay; Louisa, Abbotsford, Georgetown, Belhaven, Orion, and Posthumous, all from Batavia; William, from Swan River; Resolution, Clarissa, Calumet, Mauritius, Sesostris, and H.M. S. Larne, all from Madras; Dumfries, and Countess of Durham, both from Adelaide; John Panter, from Siam; Flora, from Hamburgh; Iberia, from Manilla; Diamond, from Malacca. Departures from ditto.-Previous to Sept. 3. Wetherall, for Liverpool; Diana, for Cowes; Glenswilly, and Mary Ann, both for London; Adelaide, for Siam; London, for Lombock; David Malcolm, John Adam, Worcester, Poppy, Litherland, Hero, Ann Jane, Mor, Inez, Nimrod, Louisa, Ann (Griffith), Ann (Spain), and Madagascar steamer, all for China; Harriet, and Samuel Horrocks, both for Penang; Diana steamer, for Malacca; Champion and William, both for Manilla; Louisa (King), for Batavia. DEATH. Lately. The Sultan of Lingin, the greatest of the Malayan Princes. China. SHIPPING. Arrivals. - Previous to Aug. 23. Gondolier, John Tomkinson, Blakely, Saghalian, Delhi, Zenobia, Litherland, and Hope, all from Liverpool, Singapore, &c.; Albion, from London; Folkstone, Orient, H.M.S. Bentinck, Bengal Packet, Phlegethon steamer, Consuelo, Time, Worcester, John Adams, Miriam, Poppy, and Hero, all from Calcutta, Singapore, &c.; Conrad, Princess Charlotte, Victoria, Linnet, and Coromandel, all from Singapore, &c.; Anglona, from New York; Melekal Behar, Calcutta, Lord Amherst, Good Success, Caledonia, Alex. Baring, and Sesostris steamer, all from Bombay, Singapore, &c.; Betsey and Sarah, from Batavia; Bar. retto Junior, Prince George, and Bussorah Merchant, all from N. S. Wales; Middleburgh, from Batavia; Rameiro, and Dido, both from Manilla; Neptune, and Eliza Stewart, from Java; Thomas Lowry, Candahar, Isabella Watson, Simon Taylor, and Minerva, from various ports. Departures.-July 13. Recovery, for London.-17. H. M. S. Conway, for Cape and England; Apolline, for London.-27. Eusayo, for Manilla.-30. Ann McKimm, for New York. BIRTH. Aug. 23. At Macao, the lady of Crawford Kerr, Esq., of a daughter. DEATH. July 13. At Hong Kong, Lieut. O. C. Anketell, 37th Madras N. I. Mauritius. SHIPPING. Arrivals. Previous to Sept. 8. Annabella, Hesperia, Euphrates, Amphitrite, Union, Charles Madely, and Vanguard, all from London; Malabar, from Greenock; Mary, from Leith; Thomas and Joseph Crisp, and Martha, both from Cape; Amitie, and Sea Witch, both from Bourbon; Curraghmore, Martha, Juliana, Mauritius, and Minerva, all from Bordeaux; Victor, Arabella, Keen, Dorothy, and Garyonne, all from Marseilles; Victor, and Lydie, both from Nantes. Cape of Good Hope. SHIPPING. Arrivals in Table Bay, &c.-Previous to Sept. 22. La Belle Alliance, Dowthorp, Williams, Brothers, Crest, Troubadour, Thomas Metcalfe, Florentia, Bucephalus, Prince Rupert (since wrecked), Royal Exchange, Duke of Bedford, Courier, and Childe Harold, all from London; Elizabeth Moore, Coaxer, Wm. Miles, Ganges, and Maid of Mona, all from Liverpool; H. M. S. Pelican, from Gibraltar; Levant, Emerald, and Dover, all from Boston; Bangalore, from Clyde; Thomas Wood, and Camoens, both from Llanelly; H.M. ships Camelion, and Grecian, both from Rio de Janeiro; Clio, and Antilla, both from ditto; H.M. S. Cornwallis, from Plymouth. Departures from ditto.-Previous to Sept. 20. Boston, La Belle Alliance, Royal Exchange, and H. M. ships Camelion, Cornwallis, and Clio, all for China; Dream, Deborah, Hindley, Olivia, Coaxer, and Williams, all for Mauritius; Thomas Metcalfe, Bucephalus, Brothers, Duke of Bedford, and Dover, all for Calcutta ; Queen Victoria, and Florentia, both for Sydney; Elizabeth Moore, for South Australia; Tyrian, for Launceston; Regent Packet, Trekboer, and Troubadour, all for Algoa Bay; Bangalore, for Singapore; H.M. S. Pelican, for East-Indies; Emerald, for New Zea land; Mary, for Port Natal; H. M.S. Grecian, for Mozambique. Arrivals at Algoa Bay.-Previous to Aug. 31. Queen Victoria, Vixen, Transit, Sophia, and Briton, all from Table Bay; Laura, and Adelaide, both from London. Departures from ditto.-Previous to Sept. 4. Queen Victoria, for Sydney; Rainbow, and Adelaide, both for Mauritius. BIRTHS. July 4. At Cape Town, Mrs. P. A. Brand, of a son. 9. In the district of Swellendam, Mrs. A. Munnik, of a daughter. 23. At Stellenbosch, Mrs. Dickenson, of a son. Lately. At Stellenbosch, Mr. Advocate Faure, of a son, MARRIAGES. July. 13. At Simon's Town, F. B. D. Pinney, Esq., sub-collector of H.M. customs, to Catherine Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Francis Balston, Esq., of Sweetmilk Valley, Caledon. 16. At Cape Town, T. Christian, Esq., to Miss J. I. Eyre. Aug. 17. At Cape Town, Griffin Nicholas, Esq., of Ashton Keynes, Wilts, and Lieut. of the 62nd Foot, to Matilda Anne, youngest daughter of Lieut. Col. Bird, many years secretary to Government in the colony. 24. At Cape Town, Capt. Henry Aston, 10th Bombay N.I., assistant political agent in Kattywar, to Catharina Johanna Maria, eldest daughter of the Rev. A. Faure, senior minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, Cape Town. DEATHS. May 19. At sea, Capt. Galloway, of the bark Mary Catherine. Aug. 8. At Cape Town, Mr. R. Davy, late second mate of the Thomas Snook. 23. Henrietta Elizabeth, daughter of H. Bickersteth, Esq., aged 7 years. Sept. 5. In Table Bay, aged 23, J. R. Merewether, third son of Mr. Serjeant Merewether. As first officer of the ship Bucephalus, he had, during the night, made three trips to a wrecked emigrant ship, the Prince Rupert, in the course of which he had succeeded in saving the lives of thirty persons; returning a fourth time to complete his benevolent purpose, the boat was swamped. Drowned, by the upsetting of a boat in Table Bay, Charles Foord, Esq., of Dungannon, Ireland, a passenger by the Prince Rupert, aged 34. - At Simon's Town, Mr. R. M. Gransell, acting master of H. M. B. Curlew. St. Helena. DEATH. Aug. 14. In his 57th year, Andrew Darling, Esq. HOME INTELLIGENCE. ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. This Society resumed its meetings on the 6th November, when Professor Wilson, the director of the Society, took the chair. Numerous donations of books, &c., accumulated during the recess, were laid upon the table. Among them were the following valuable aids to the study of Oriental literature: Dictionarium Latino - Anamiticum, 2 tom. 4to., by the Bishop of Isauropolis; Meerza Ibrahim's Persian Grammar; Professor Wilson's Sanscrit Grammar; Dr. Mohl's edition and translation of the Shah Nameh, published by the French Government, in imperial folio. A bequest to the Society by the late N. B. Edmonstone, Esq., was also laid before the members. It comprised several exquisitely-written Persian MSS., some printed Oriental works, and an agate cup, formerly belonging to the Emperor Jehangueir, from a descendant of whom Mr. Edmondstone had received it. The cup is encircled with Persian couplets in praise of wine, in which the name of Jehangueir occurs. The secretary read a letter which had been addressed to him by Lieut. Newbold, referring to a donation to the Society of a collection of specimens of useful rocks and minerals found in Southern India; and a sculptured offering stone, bearing hieroglyphical marks, brought by him from the ruins of Gon-el-Kebir, in Upper Egypt. Lieut. Newbold, in this letter, remarked upon the late rapid disappearance of the magnificent remains of antiquity in Egypt, to which he had already adverted in a paper read before the Royal Society of Literature, in November last; and he now ventured strenuously to urge the Royal Asiatic Society to raise its voice against their further demolition at the hands of the Pasha's officers, who, to save a little additional labour in the quarries abounding in every part of the valley of the Nile, were in the constant practice of demolishing the ancient monuments, and using up the fragments in the erection of government buildings, and for other purposes. He had seen entablatures and friezes worked into the foundation of walls; and, one day, observed an Arab sawing the shaft of a beautiful column into mill-stones. Karnac, Luxor, and Antinoe, had not escaped these desecrations. That the Pasha countenanced these proceedings there was no reason to believe, judging from the encouragement he had always afforded to scientific and antiquarian research in the interesting country over which he ruled. Lieut. Newbold was of opinion, that a simple representation of facts, emanating from any of the learned bodies of Europe, would produce the desired effect, and save from utter destruction those stupendous remains of human art and industry, which had been respected by the conquerors of ancient times, and had, generally, escaped the misdirected zeal of religious bigotry. After some conversation among the members present, on the suggestion of Lieut. Newbold, it was resolved that the Society address a letter to the Pasha, as an honorary member of the Society, calling his Highness's attention to the circumstances mentioned by Lieut. Newbold, and expressing its confident hope that so great an abuse as that deprecated need only be pointed out to his Highness to ensure his immediate attention, and the adoption of efficient measures to prevent its continuance. Sir Thomas Phillips; Charles Russell, Esq., M. P.; Lieut. Colonel W. Borthwick; and Henry Jones, Esq., were elected resident members of the Society. Capt. H. N. Ramsey was elected a non-resident member; and the Rev. P. Parker, M. D., of the United States, a corresponding member of the Society. The time allotted to the meeting having expired, no further papers were read; and the meeting adjourned. 20th November.-The Right Hon. Sir Alexander Johnston, V.P., in the chair. William Jardine, Esq., was elected a resident member; and T. Tradescant Lay, Esq., a corresponding member. A paper was read, giving an account of the religious observances and human sacri fices of the Khond population inhabiting the alpine and subalpine parts of Gumsoor, in Orissa. This paper was compiled from the rough notes of Lieut. S. C. Macpher son, of the Madras survey department. The notes were transmitted to England by the writer from the Cape, whither he had repaired to recruit his health, which had suffered greatly from his residence in the pestilential country of Gumsoor; and the paper offered to the Society was prepared by his friends, on account of the great interest of the subject; but without his knowledge or authority. The Khonds are a primitive and barbarous race of people, who, with the Koles, Lourals, and other mountain tribes, claim to be the aborigines of the greater part of Orissa. They occupy a territory of about two hundred miles in length, and about 170 in breadth, which has been but little explored by Europeans. Their superstition may be said to be a vague, confused theism, with a subordinate demonology; and their divinities seem to have originated, like those referred to in the Hindu Védas, in the deification of the sensible powers of nature, and of the sun, moon, and stars. Their worship, based on fear and the apprehension of evil, is confined to outward ceremonies, and involves no principles of morality. They differ from the Hindus in having no idols; and in believing that the spirit of man actuates an endless succession of human forms. Some mixture of Hinduism, however, appears in their reverence of Kali, Parvati, and other Hindu deities. Their principal deity, the earth-god, is an abstraction of all that is terrible; but he is said to manifest himself occasionally in the form of a tiger, when he issues forth from chinks in the earth; and they strive to appease him by the most precious of all oblations, that of human life. Their lesser deities are, however, more easily propitiated by the blood of goats, buffaloes, pigs, and fowls, and by offerings of grain and oil. Revelations have prescribed the worship, and ordained the ministers, of each divinity; and expressive symbols are sometimes used, protected by rude temples. Sandi Pennoo, or the god of limits, has many altars (rude stones smeared with turmeric) on the highways, and each requires an annual sacrifice, cither a goat, a buffaloe, or a human victim. Loha Pennoo, or the god of arms, has in each Khond village a grove dedicated to him, sacred from the axe, in the centre of which his symbol, a piece of iron, is buried; and he is invoked whenever arms are taken up. The Gram Pennoo, or village god; Peetabuldee, the great father god; and various others, have all their respective symbols and offerings. Dhoongwori Pennoo, or the conservative principle, is also worshipped; and the prayer of his votaries is, “May we continue to live as our forefathers; and may our children hereafter live like us!" The earth god, or Bera Pennoo, is regarded, first, as the supreme power of the universe; and secondly, as the deity who presides over the productive energies of nature. 66 The Khonds consider that he send the periodical rains; rules the order of the seasons; and promotes or retards the fecundity of the soil, the growth of all rural produce; and that he has the health of the population, and the safety of their flocks and herds, in his keeping. His nature and powers are revealed in the following tra dition" The earth," say the Khonds, was originally a crude mass, unfit for cultivation and the habitation of man. The earth god said, Let human blood be spilt before me! A child was sacrificed. The soil, forthwith, became firm and productive— and the deity ordained that man should repeat the rite, and live." The Khond, therefore, enjoys the ordinary bounty of nature on condition only of deprecating by human blood the malignity of the power by which her functions are controlled. The public sacrifices to this power may be described as consisting of cereal offerings, health offerings, and offerings on account of the patriarchal families. Private atonements are made when any extraordinary calamity marks the wrath of the deity towards a particular house. The occasions for sacrifice are, therefore, very numerous; but it does not appear possible to ascertain the annual average. The victims are called Merias; and they are uniformly procured for the rites by a class of Hindus called Panwas, who either purchase them under false pretences, or kidnap them. They are often bought on speculation, and kept in reserve to meet sudden demands of atonement. Victims of both sexes are equally acceptable to the earth god; and children are, for convenience' sake, preferred. Brahmins and Khonds are held to be unacceptable offerings; but the word of the procurer is the only guarantee required. It is sufficient that the victim be "bought with a price," an unbought life being an abomination to the deity. Children brought into a Khond village are frequently permitted to attain years of maturity in ignorance of their real situation. They are eagerly welcomed at every threshhold, and are regarded as consecrated beings. A wife is sometimes given to a Meria youth; and the children are born to the fearful condition of their sire, with few exceptions. From the sacrificial festivals no one is excluded. They are generally attended by a large concourse of people of both sexes; and continue for three days, which are passed in the indulgence of more than Saturnalian licence. The first day is spent in drunken and obscene riot. On the second morning, the victim is carefully washed, dressed in a new garment, and led forth from the village in solemn procession, with music and dancing, to the sacred grove. In the centre of the grove is fixed an upright stake, to which the victim is bound. He is then anointed with oil, and adorned with flowers; and reverential honours are paid to him throughout the day. In some districts the ceremony differs: the victim is exposed on a couch, and small rude images of beasts and birds in clay are made and distributed in great numbers at the festival; but no explanation is given of the meaning of the practice. On the third morning, the doomed wretch is refreshed with a little milk and palm sago; and the assemblage issue forth with stunning shouts and pealing music to consummate the sacrifice. As the victim must not suffer bound, nor exhibit any shew of resistance, the bones of his arms, and sometimes of his legs, are broken. The acceptable place of sacrifice discovered during the preceding night by parties sent out for the purpose into the fields is then resorted to. The priest and his assistants now take the branch of a tree, cleave it open towards the centre, and insert the victim's throat or chest within the rift. Cords are then tightly wound round the open extremities of the stake, and the crowd throw themselves upon the sacrifice, shouting “We bought you for a price!" and with fierce clamour, strip the flesh from his bones. For three days afterwards, the inhabitants of the village remain dumb, communicating with each other only by signs. At the end of this time, a buffaloe is slaughtered, and tongues are loosened: this is but one of the various ways in which human life is sacrificed by the Khonds! But we are glad to learn that the Madras Government, under the administration of Lord Elphinstone, has resolved to put an end to these atrocities; and that, in furtherance of this determination, Lieut. Macpherson has been again despatched to the Khond country. MISCELLANEOUS. Major-General Lord Saltoun, C. B., K. C. H., whose services in the Peninsula and at Waterloo were eminent, is appointed to succeed Sir Hugh Gough in the China expedition. His lordship takes out with him the 98th regiment, and detachments of other regiments in addition, to the amount of two thousand men. The 87th regiment, from the Mauritius, and the 50th regiment, from Calcutta, will also proceed on this service, and a company of artillery embarks immediately from England, to augment his lordship's reinforcement. All the men-of-war destined for these distant operations are to lend their aid in conveying men and stores; and we give a list of ships which are applicable to the service, and which we think will be called upon→→→ namely, the Belleisle, Apollo, Resistance, and Sapphire, troopers; the Malabar, 72; L'Aigle, 50; Isis, 50; Belvidera, 42; Pique, 36; North Star, 26; Spartan, 26; Hazard, 18; and Heroine, 16.-Hampshire Telegraph. Capt. J. H. Grant, the 9th or Queen's Royal Lancers, has been appointed major of brigade to Major-Gen. Lord Saltoun, G.C.H., upon the staff of the army in China. The North Star, destined for China, is ordered to take on board, in addition to her armament, two shell guns. She is also to be supplied with an additional number of rockets and other ordnance stores. Asiat, Journ. N.S. VOL.36.No.144. (3 E) |