Page:A Statistical Account of Bengal Vol 1 GoogleBooksID 9WEOAAAAQAAJ.pdf/119

104 brisk traffic was carried on in small wares, especially in betel-nuts, black pepper, and the red powder that is scattered about at the vernal festival of the Hulí. A pandit in my employ, who had visited the melá, asserted that an impost was levied by the Custom officers of Government, of sixpence per oar on each boat; but no such charge appears to have been authorized, except in the case of the Ságar Island Society, who were permitted to make some such charge in consideration of the clearings and tanks made by them. The mendicants, however, petitioned against this privilege, and it was withdrawn from the Society. The petition was not disinterested, as they claimed a right to levy the charge on their own account,— a practice that seems to have grown up from long use, and to have been silently acquiesced in by the pilgrims. The fair lasts several days, but three days are the limit of the religious festival. The first ceremony is the propitiation of the ocean, by casting into it various offerings with short ejaculatory prayers; the oblations are commonly cocoa-nuts, fruits, or flowers. The most appropriate gift is that of the five gems (panch ratna), consisting of a pearl or diamond, an emerald, a topaz, and a piece of coral, along with a cocoa-nut, an areca-nut, and the sacred thread worn by Bráhmans. These are wrapped up in a cloth, and cast into the branch of the river which communicates with the sea, and also at the confluence. The jewels are in general not worth more than a rupee or two. There was a time when the offerings were of a less innocent description, and children were cast into the sea. This horrible and unnatural practice was wholly unsanctioned by anything in the Hindu ritual, and its suppression by the Government of Bengal had the cordial concurrence of the Bráhmans. The act was not, like the oblation of fruits or jewels, intended to obtain the favour of the deified ocean, but in satisfaction of a vow: as where a woman had been childless, she made a vow to offer her first-born at Gangá Ságar, or some other holy place, in the confidence that such an offering would secure for her additional progeny. The belief is not without a parallel in the history of antiquity, sacred or profane; but it was the spontaneous growth of ignorance and superstition, not only unprompted but condemned by the Hindu religion. It will easily be credited that the occurrence was rare, and that no attempt has ever been made to infringe the prohibition.

‘On the first day, bathing in the sea is to be performed; it takes place early in the morning, and is repeated by some at noon; some