Page:The Cry of Nature.pdf/169

 By wicked evaſions, and perfidious quibbles like theſe, the Hindoos have alſo in ſome inſtances learnt to elude the pious and ſalutary precepts of their law.

"Whenever a Hindoo has occaſion to croſs the Carramnaſſa, or the accurſed river, which in the dry ſeaſon is fordable, he gives a Mahomedan a piece of money to carry him over upon his back, that his feet may not be wet with the accurſed river, which is a thing forbidden by their religion. In this and many other inſtances the letter of the commandment is obſerved, while the ſpirit of it is loſt; for I think, one cannot doubt but that the intention of this law was to keep them within their own provinces." Letters from the Eaſt Indies. (24.)