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Rh

Where with his frugal meal content, And hands of slaughter innocent, Milk, and some vegetable root, The golden dal, the silvery rice, The plantain's, or the mango's fruit, The Hindoo's simple wants suffice. Oh! who that sees the meanest thing Endued with life, the Bramin's care, Can fancy human suffering, And human sacrifices, where 'Twould be a crime to crush the snake That sheds its venom o'er the brake? Yet here the river's crystal flood With living victims is prophaned, And here with streams of human blood The temple's reeking courts are stained, While blackening o'er the fair blue skies The smoke's polluted volumes rise, From those impure, unhallowed fires, Where by a living corse's side, In fierce and torturing pangs expires, Untimely doomed, the shrinking bride.