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BRAHMINS.

ages of existence has hardly modified in any degree, and which is still as powerful over millions of our fellow subjects as it ever was.

No one has been able to penetrate the dim antiquity of the Vedas, the first of Hindoo sacred works, one which, according to Menu's code, none but a Brahmin can read, or attempt to expound to the people; but from those books the sacred character of the Brahmin was assumed. The Brahmins were the scribes (as priests) of the ancient Aryan race, of which those works are the poetic and sacred traditions; and they were collected by them into their present form. By the institutes of Menu, they were created their guardians and expounders; and these privileged offices were protected by criminal laws of the utmost stringency and cruelty. A person who read the Vedas not being a Brahmin, should have boiling oil poured into his mouth, and the like. The persons of Brahmins were also defended by enactments framed in a like spirit. No Brahmin could be put to death for any crime, however heinous its character might be. If any lower caste person molested a Brahmin, he was to be put to death. If a magistrate even listened to reproaches against a Brahmin, hot lead was to be poured into his ears. The protection thus afforded under the law, together with their own priestly exclusiveness, preserved the Brahmins in the position they have always occupied in India, and are likely to maintain, for a period which no one can venture to define. It is true that many classes of the lower orders of the population have now their own priests - men of their own body, or selected from mendicant classes, as Bairagees, Jogies, Goosains, &c., some of whom may have been Brahmins. Also, that they are not the exclusive expounders of the Vedas, or of the Purans; and that any one who pleases can now study Sanscrit, and read them himself or to others, without the fear of boiling oil being poured down his throat. It is true, also, that there are many heretical sects in India, of large number and influence, as the Sikhs, of the North-West; the Jains, and the Lingayets, of Western and Southern India; all of whom deny the sacred character of Brahmins, and defy their power. Nevertheless the Brahmins, while little affected by these heresies, still hold in thrall all other Hindoo sects; nor can any material ceremony of life be performed without them. In a community of ritualists like the Hindoo, the occasions in which Brahminical aid is indispensable, are almost infinite. They are the mediums of all prayers, oblations, and offerings. A caste priest even might order them to be made; but they would not be effectual if offered by him, nor would he have means of offering them. Such ceremonies begin ere the child of any inferior class is born, and will continue till he dies, even at an advanced age. At birth, during childhood, during boy or girlhood, in betrothment and marriage, in fulfilment of vows, in domestic feasts, in sickness, in death, and for the repose of his soul, the assistance of Brahmins is indispensable, under any point of view, or any circumstances whatever. With the regulations of caste, the enforcement of