Page:History of the Indian Archipelago Vol 2.djvu/277

 INDIAN ISLANDERS. 238 be looked upon as a convincing proof that the an- cient Javanese lived under a despotic government, but that the tyranny of the priesthood was not established in the revolting manner in which it prevails in India. On the subject of religious purity and pollu- tions, the observances of the Javanese appear not to have been very rigid. In their Niti Sastra there is a passage which recommends to perso72S of rank not to eat dogs, rats, snakes, lizards, and caterpil- lars. The practice of using these disgusting ani-* mals as food must have been frequent, or the in- junction were unnecessary. The ancient Javanese believed in the doctrine of the transmigration of souls, and in that of future rewards and punishments, but of all the practices recommended by the Hindu religion, penances and austerities, and the sacrifice of the widow on the funeral pile of the husband, are those alone which the ancient Javanese seem to have carried to an excess which vied with that of their masters, or rather indeed surpassed it. * nal ceremony, no doubt, prevailed in the different islands. The sacrifice of the hog, however, an animal which abounds in incre- dible numbers in every country of the Archipelago, was pro- bably general. The followmg curious account of a sacrifice of this nature is extracted from Pigafetta.-— *' Puisque je
 * A great diversity of religious practice in matters ot exter-