of a stream, the Ganges being always preferred, if within reach. The funeral rites are performed immediately after death, when a pyre is raised, and decorated with flowers, and the deceased, after having been bathed, perfumed, and adorned also with fresh flowers, is laid upon it, having been conveyed to the spot, preceded by music. The pile is then lighted by the nearest relation, and scented oils, with clarified butter, are poured on the flames, the friends and relatives sitting on the banks of the stream to watch the burning. On these occasions, as well as at all other religious ceremonials, liberal presents are made to the Bramins, and alms given to the poor.

Tombs are seldom erected by the Hindus, except for those who are slain in any remarkable battle, or for widows who have devoted themselves to death; but rites to the dead are performed every month, in any lonely glade, or on the banks of a stream, whither the relatives of the departed bring offerings of rice-cakes and clarified butter, which they set down on the edge of the water, invoking the manes to come and partake of them.

At this period, the domestic manners of the great were probably influenced, in a higher degree, by those of their Mohammedan conquerors, than at any former period. Women of rank never went abroad without being closely veiled, or shut up in a covered palanquin; but since the downfall of the Mussulman empire, they have not adhered very strictly to this custom, although they have still their separate apartments, and do not mix in society with the opposite sex. They were attended by great numbers of female slaves, whose condition was, in general, superior to that of free servants, as they were considered a part of the family, and often treated by their mistresses in the light of humble friends, as we similarly find them represented in most eastern tales.

The towns of India were, in general, populous, and full of shops, which were always open to the street, and sometimes consisted only of a small booth or verandah, in front of the dwelling. The customers stood outside in the street while they made their purchases. The upper part of the house was usually let to a private family, as the shopkeepers only came to their places of business in the morning, and returned home at sunset. They were, generally, co. fectioners, fruiterers, grain-sellers, druggists, and braziers; but there were also many dealers in cloth, silks, shawls, and stuffs, of various descriptions, who kept their goods in bales, to preserve them from the dust. The streets were, in general, unpaved, narrow, and crowded; the houses high, and built of brick, stone, or other material, according to the part of the country in which they were situated. In the houses of the Hindu nobles, the interior wood-work was richly carved; but there was no furniture, except a thin cotton mattress spread over the floor, covered with a white cloth, on which, at their entertainments, the guests sat in rows, opposite to each other, around the room, while the master of the house was seated at the upper end, raised above the rest by a second mattress, covered, perhaps, with a carpet of embroidered silk, and, if he were a prince or great

chief, a high embroidered cushion formed his musnud, or throne. A quilted silk curtain supplied the place of a door, and the apartment was lighted at night by torches, held by men, on occasions of ceremony; though for ordinary purposes, brass lamps were used. Entertainments were very rarely given, except at weddings, and a few of the great festivals, when it was customary to hire female singers and dancers, parties of whom were continually roaming about the country.

It was the custom among the Indians to offer presents to their guests, such as shawls, bracelets, ornaments for the turban, or, on a first introduction among people of rank, the gift was frequently a handsome sword, a horse, or even an elephant, which last was considered as the most complimentary.

The carriages used in India were of various kinds. Palanquins, carried by bearers, were the most general, but the principal inhabitants in some of the cities rode in a four-wheeled vehicle covered with fine cloth or silk, and drawn by two small buffaloes. The howdahs were of various forms, some being like pavilions with silk curtains; others like chairs; while some were merely flat cushions; so that any seat fixed on the back of an elephant was called a howdah. There was also a state conveyance called a naulkeen, which bore some resemblance to a throne, and was carried with poles; but this was never used by any other than sovereign princes, or their representatives.

CHAPTER X.

REIGN OF THE EMPEROR AKBER.

S Akber was yet too young to take the government into his own hands, it was intrusted, during his minority, to a Turkish nobleman, named Behram, who had been his father's most valued friend, and who succeeded in maintaining the throne for the young monarch against the princes of the late reigning family. Behram was an able minister, but fond of absolute authority, therefore not very ready to bring forward his royal charge, who was kept for some years under more restraint than suited a high spirit impatient of control.

Akber was handsome in person, courteous in manners, and gifted with all those princely qualities that are sure to render a monarch popular. Skilled in all manly exercises, and courageous even to madness, he delighted to exhibit his prowess in taming wild horses and elephants, or in braving the dangers to which huntsmen are exposed in the East, from the ferocious nature of the animals they chase. Tiger-hunting was the favorite sport of the young sultan, who, when engaged in this perilous pastime, was ever the inost daring of the party, and, in the eagerness of pursuit, was frequently separated from his train-the only times, perhaps, when he found himself perfectly at liberty. It was on one of these occasions that he executed the bold project of freeing himself from a state of tutelage that was becoming every day more irksome to him. Galloping off alone to Delhi, he took possession of the palace as sole master, and issued a proclamation, declaring that he intended, from that moment, to take the government into his own hands.

Finding plenty of friends to support him, he sent a formal dismissal to the regent, who was so incensed at being thus unexpectedly deprived of office, that he revolted, and collecting a body of troops, attempted to make himself master of the Punjab, but being defeated by the royal army, he repaired to court, and kneeling at the foot of the throne, solicited pardon for his rebellion, which was graciously accorded. The sultan then offered a government of some importance to the humbled minister, who, however, declined the proffered favor, on the plea that he desired to expiate his fault by making a pilgrimage to Mecca. Having received the royal permission, he set out on his journey, but never reached the holy city, as he was assassinated on the way, by an Afghan chief, in revenge for the death of his father, who had fallen in battle against the Moguls.

The empire of Delhi, at this period, comprised only the country around that city, and Agra, with the territory called the Punjab, which includes all the land watered by the five great branches of the Indus, and constitutes the kingdom of Lahore. These dominions were too limited to satisfy the aspiring mind of the young sultan, who, from the earliest period of his reign, seems to have formed the grand design of uniting the whole of India into one vast monarchy. With this view he judiciously endeavored to conciliate the Hindus, by bestowing offices of state, without distinction, on the native as well as Mohammedan nobles, and he formed an alliance with one of the greatest of the Rajput families, by marrying the daughter of Baharamal, the raja of Jeipur, a powerful state in Rajputana. The capital of this state was one of the handsomest cities of Hindostan, being embellished with many fine buildings, among which was a magnificent palace, built entirely of white marble, and surrounded by beautiful gardens. This building is said to have been the work of an Italian architect, employed by a predecessor of Bahara-mal, in the fifteenth century.

But it was not by conciliatory measures alone that a country containing so many independent states was to be brought under subjection to one ruler; therefore Akber very soon appeared in the field, and, in a few years, had largely extended his dominions on every side. The Rajputs, who held a great many principalities, made a desperate struggle to maintain their independence, but the arms of the sultan were uniformly victorious, and that once-powerful class of men, as their governments were overthrown and their princes made subject to the Mogul empire, mingled, by degrees, with the mass of the people, and were known in after-times rather as agriculturists than warriors. The chiefs of the conquered states were always treated honorably and enrolled among the nobles of Delhi, while their territories were united to the empire, and placed under its regulations; so that, in course of time, one uniform system of government was established throughout the greater part of Hindostan.

He

Akber distinguished himself no less as a legislator than a conqueror. made many beneficial laws, and relieved the people from a great number of

burdensome taxes, which had been imposed by different princes to support either their wars or their extravagance. Among the most oppressive of these were a capitation tax, and a toll levied on pilgrims going to any of the holy cities, both of which were abolished by the sultan, who was blamed by some of his councillors for encouraging the idolatry of the Hindus, by allowing them to make their pilgrimages toll-free. Akber, however, silenced these objections by saying that he held it a sin to place obstacles in the way of any man's devotions, whatever might be his mode of performing them; and as long as he occupied the throne this indulgence was continued to the Hindus, but the tax was afterward revived, and has only lately been abolished by the British government in India.

As so many imposts were removed by Akber, it became necessary to increase the rents of land, which were raised to about one third of the produce, and usually paid in money; but if any husbandman thought he was rated too high, he was allowed to claim the right of paying in kind, and was thus protected from extortion on the part of the collectors. Wherever Akber established his sway he made great reforms in the courts of justice, which had long been very badly regulated, and in many places had become altogether inactive. They were now revived in every city; judges and cazis appointed; the laws restored; the severity of the penal code was greatly mitigated; and the use of torture entirely prohibited.

In the meantime, the sultan was steadily and successfully pursuing the object he had in view. The great kingdom of Guzerat, which had been in a state of anarchy ever since the assassination of Bahadur, was finally subdued, and annexed to the Mogul dominions, in 1573; so that, in twenty years from the date of his accession, Akber had made himself absolute sovereign of all the country then known by the name of Hindostan. Among the many conquests achieved by this great prince was that of Cashmere, a small but beautiful province, situated in an extensive plain among the Hinducush, a chain of the Himalaya mountains. A long succession of Hindu princes had ruled over Cashmere previously to the fourteenth century, when the last of them was superseded by one of those Turkish adventurers who, about that period, founded so many petty states; and the country was ruled by his successors until the invasion of Akber, when it was annexed to the empire of Delhi, and a jaghir, or feudatory estate, in Behar, was granted to the vanquished king, on condition that he should furnish a certain number of troops to the emperor, in the manner of a feudal vassal. There were many such feudatories during the sway of the Moguls; and to them was first applied the title of zemindar, a Persian word, meaning a holder of land, and since used to designate those high officers or agents who are answerable to the government for the revenues derived from the lands.

Cashmere is described as the most enchanting spot in all Asia. It consists of a broad, luxuriant valley, clothed with perpetual verdure, and watered by gentle cascades falling from the mountains. Fruits and flowers abound