were constructed by the inhabitants of the different streets, and when the whole was in perfect readiness, these images were paraded on carriages round the town. All the inhabitants of the town and its neighbourhood, male and female, were summoned to attend, and while the pageant moved forward, the females, even of the higher ranks, were compelled, by an order from the viceroy, to dance and sing; they were followed by the men 'in like manner, singing, clapping their hands, and dancing.' On the following day, the corpse, which, on a carriage framed for the purpose, had been the principal object in the procession, was drawn into an extensive valley, where four cables were fastened to the axle tree, two each way; these were held by the people, who every now and then uttered a loud shout, and 'pulled both ways at the same time.' The first trial was decided by the breaking of one of the cables; a second terminated in the same way, and to the advantage of the same party; in a third contest, neither party gained the victory. During these strange ceremonies, an interval had been filled up with the exhibition of fire-works, and the discharge of the large rockets, some of which were from seven to eight feet in length, and from three to four in circumference, made of strong timber, and secured by iron hoops and rattan lashings.' By one of these a boy was killed, and three or four persons injured. On the last day,

The corpse was burnt in a temporary house, erected for that purpose, in the shape of a Kuim, with a stage in it upon which the coffin was set to be burnt. This was performed with small rockets, fixed upon ropes with rings of rattan, so as to slide along them from the top of a hill, to the coffin, which was placed on the top of another hill. The rockets, being discharged, slided along the ropes, over the intermediate valley, to the coffin, which was set on fire by them, and with its contents, quickly consumed.'

Article 5. An account of observations taken at the Observatory near Fort St. George, in the East Indies, for determining the obliquity of the Ecliptic, in the months of December, 1809, June and December, 1810. By Captain John Warren. Though creditable to the skill and diligence of its writer, this paper, consisting chiefly of figures and results of calculation, contains little that is interesting to readers in general.

Article 6. On the notions of the Hindu Astronomers, concerning the Precession of the Equinoxes and Motions of the Planets. By H. T. Colebrooke, Esq. The author of this essay is well known to the literary world, as one of the most acute, laborious, and successful inquirers into Asiatic literature and science; and this learned and comprehensive dissertation displays an extensive acquaintance with the points which it

professes to discuss. As from its peculiar character it is not easy to abridge, we shall give part of Mr. C.'s general inference in his own words.

We may then safely conclude, that on the subject of the precession of the equinoxes, the Hindus had a theory, which, though erroneous, was their own; and which, at a subsequent time, found advocates among the astronomers of the west. That they had a knowledge of the true doctrine of an uniform motion in antecedentia, at least seven hundred years ago, when the astronomers of Europe also were divided on the question. That they had approximated to the true rate of that motion much nearer than PTOLEMY, before the Arabian astronomers, and as near the truth as these have ever done since.'

In a subsequent passage, we find the following amusing account of the Indian theory of Astronomy.'

The Hindus, as is well known, place the earth in the centre of the world, and make the Sun and Moon, and minor Planets, revolve round it, apparently in concentric orbits, with unequal or irregular motion. For a physical explanation of the phænomena, they imagine the planets driven by currents of air along their respective orbits (besides one great vortex carrying stars and planets, with prodigious velocity, round the earth, in the compass of a day). The winds or currents impelling the several planets, communicate to them velocities, by which their motion should be equal, and in the plane of the ecliptic; but the planets are drawn from this course by certain controlling powers, situated at the apogees, conjunctions, and nodes. These powers are clothed by Hindu imaginations, with celestial bodies invisible to human sight, and furnished with hands and reins by which they draw the planets from their direct path and uniform progress. The being at the apogee, for instance, constantly attracts the planet towards itself (alternately, however) with the right and left hands. The deity of the node diverts the planet, first to one side, then to the other, from the ecliptic. And, lastly, the deity at the conjunction, causes the planet to be one while stationary, another while retrogade, and to move at different times, with velocity accelerated or retarded. These fancied beings are considered as invisible planets; the nodes and apogees having a motion of their own in the ecliptic. This whimsical system, more worthy of the mythologist than of the astronomer, is gravely set forth in the Suryasiddhanta; and even BHASCARA gives into it, though not without indications of reluctant acquiescence; for he has not noticed it in his text, and only briefly in his notes.'

Article 7. On the height of the Himalayah mountains. By H. T. Colebrooke, Esq. In the eleventh volume of the Researches, Mr. C. in his essay on the sources of the Ganges, had placed some of the great features of Indian Geography in an aspect entirely new; and among other points adverted to, had quoted and supported the opinion of Lieut. Webb in favour of the extraordinary height of the mighty range of the VOL. XI. N.S.

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Himalayah. In that paper, we find Mr. Colebrooke expressing his conviction, that without supposing the Himalayah to ex'ceed the Andes, there is still room to argue, that an extensive range of mountains, which rears, high above the line of per'petual snow, in an almost tropical latitude, an uninterrupted 'chain of lofty peaks, is neither surpassed nor rivalled by any other chain of mountains but the Cordilleras of the Andes.' In the present volume, Mr. C. resumes his important inquiry, and having furnished himself with further materials and more correct and extensive observations, he feels himself authorized to an unreserved declaration of the opinion, that the Himalayah is the loftiest range of Alpine mountains which has yet 'been noticed; its most elevated peaks greatly exceeding the 'highest of the Andes.' Part of the evidence which is brought forward in illustration and support of this extraordinary position, is certainly liable to reduction, but taken altogether, the facts and observations which he has collected, go very far, as we think, to the establishment of his opinion, with some little deduction as to the full extent of the attributed heights. Our readers will not be astonished at this expression of hesitation, when we apprize them of the stupendous altitude assigned to these towering summits. Chimborazo, the monarch of the Andes, and the highest mountain previously discovered, is short of 21,000 feet above the level of the sea; while Dholagir, the loftiest of the Indian range, is here stated to be nearly 27,000 feet above the same plane. To various other peaks in this majestic range a scarcely inferior height is ascribed. The authorities for these calculations, are of a very respectable kind, and supported by documents obtained from men of talent, enterprise, and science; but there were some circumstances of uncertainty connected with part at least of the observations, which it will require further and more advantageous opportunities wholly to remove. Appended to this essay is a kind of supplement to a paper contained in a previous volume of the Researches; we merely mention it in this place, as we shall have occasion to refer to it in another part of this article.

The eighth communication we have before referred to. The ninth contains the translation of a Sanscrit Inscription on a stone found in Bundelchund, by Lieut. W., Price. This inscription, of which the original is also printed, relates to a race of Rajas who are represented as successively endowed with every virtue under the sun; and certainly, for any thing we know to the contrary, the representation may be perfectly correct. But their ministers, moreover, are affirmed to have been of the same happy moral structure, only inferior to the high standard of their incomparable masters; neither can we contradict this assertion, and reasoning from analogy, we think it quite as likely to be true as the former.

We are now come to the most interesting, and in some respects, the most valuable article in this volume; Mr. Moorcroft's journey to Lake Manasarovara in Undes, a province of little Tibet.. This journey was undertaken from motives of public zeal, to open to Great Britain means of obtaining the materials of the finest woollen fabric,' the hair of the shawl goat, and Mr. Moorcroft is stated to have succeeded in this object, though it does not appear whether the climate and pas turage of British India be suited or not to the habits of the animal. But in addition to this primary' intention, he has been enabled to throw great light on some important points of Indian geography. The geography of Upper India has been, till within a very few years, exceedingly obscure and erroneous; in particular, the trending of the Himalayah,' and the origin and the course of the Ganges, have been the subjects of great uncertainty, and gross misrepresentation. Down to the first publication of Major Rennell, the maps of this part of Hindostan have been copied from D'Anville, whose materials were chiefly derived from the map and details of a journey performed, at the command of the Chinese monarch Kanghi, by two Lamas, who had been studying geometry and arithmetic in one of the colleges of China. These envoys seem to have been very imperfectly qualified for their mission; their scientific attainments were probably very small, and their spirit of enterprise much on a par with their other capabilities. They were, it is true, prevented by an invasion of the Eluths, and by imminent personal hazard, from accomplishing the main object of their journey, but they do not appear to have been assiduous in their endeavours to accomplish that which was really within their power; they even neglected to ascertain the latitude of the temple which was the limit of their travels. They were not, however, deficient in that kind of industry which consists in picking up gossipping information, and they carried home an abundance of materials for the construction of a chart so grossly erroneous, that the inferences" from it, even with the corrections of the shrewd and scientific D'Anville, and his successor, passibus equis, Rennell, have misled inquirers, and made the maps of that quarter mere patches of blundering guess-work, until nearly the present day. Anquetil du Perron was the first to pronounce the work of the Lamas unworthy of credit; but he was, in his turn, misled by relying too much on the imperfect observations of the Jesuit Tieffenthaller. Major Rennell made many valuable corrections and additions to the preceding maps, but his information did not enable him to adjust and ascertain the different positions of the more important points. In Arrowsmith's six sheet map of India, published in 1804, of excellent execution, upon which we have hitherto relied implicitly, (and which, we should remark, is the

only large one to which we can immediately refer,) all these regions are represented in the most erroneous manner, though much additional information is grafted on the stock of Rennell. There appears to have been a complete confusion of four great rivers, the Indus, the Setleje, the Yamuna (Jumna) and the Ganges. In his map of Asia, the Indus is carried by Arrowsmith beyond the 40th degree of latitude; and the sources of the Setleje and the Yamuna, are placed between the 34th and 35th degrees. With respect to the Ganges, a much wider range of confusion has been taken; nearly a degree above the celebrated point of Gangowtri, the river is represented as dividing into two considerable branches, the northernmost running up till it takes a westerly course, and passing by the city of Leh or Ladack on the 65th parallel of latitude; the southern stream, the Ganga of the Hindoos, turns off abruptly, meanders above and below the 34th, and finally leads us up to its source in the lake Maparmah, or Mansahror near the 34th degree of latitude, and between the 81 and 82 degrees of longitude. It is too formidable a task, to attempt the description of the strange distortions of geographical surface necessary to the adjustment of these incredible errors, to the ascertained position of known places; but we shall state, for the information of our readers, the general facts as now established by the observations of Captain Raper (11th vol. Researches) and of Mr. Moorcroft. The imaginary course of the Ganges seems to have been made up, partly of its own current, and partly of the streams of the Indus and the Setleje; its real sources, as appears now to be satisfactorily ascertained, lie in the southern face of the Himalayah, and nearly on the 31st parallel, a little above which lies Gangowtri, not on the 33d, as represented by Arrowsmith. It seems also to be sufficiently established, that the supposed southern branch of the Ganges, above Gangowtri, is in reality the Setleje, originating in the lake Rawan Hrad, lying nearly on the 31 of lat. and the 81° long. a little to the west of the celebrated Mapang or Manasarovara lake, and between the northern face of the Himalayah, and the southern aspect of Mount Cailas, the accredited residence of the Hindoo god Mahadeva, who is said to prefer so cold and bleak a residence, in consequence of a feverish habit, the effect of a dose of poison. And it should also appear that the northern and extreme branch of the supposed Ganges, is really the main or north eastern branch of the Indus. When all these points are cleared up, should they be established by a somewhat more direct evidence, it will be found that the mighty streams which we have mentioned, with the addition of the Sarayu (Sarju) of the Brahmaputra, bave their origin within a very small distance of each other. We have been the more particular in pointing out these important discoveries, because they give an entirely