THE HINDOOS AS THEY ARE A DESCRIPTION OF THE MANNERS, CUSTOMS AND INNER LIFE OF HINDOO SOCIETY IN BENGAL. BY SHIB CHUNDER BOSE. Sivachandra Vasu WITH A PREFATORY NOTE BY THE REV. W. HASTIE, B. D., PRINCIPAL OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY'S INSTITUTION, CALCUTTA. London: EDWARD STANFORD, 55, CHARING CROSS. Calcutta: W. NEWMAN & Co., 3, DALHOUSIE SQUARE. 1881. PRINTED BY W. NEWMAN AND CO., AT THE CAXTON PRESS, I, MISSION ROW, CALCUTTA. The Right of Translation and Reproduction is reserved.] XX. SICKNESS, DEATH, AND SHRAD OR FUNERAL CERE- MONIES 246 . 272 . 293 PREFATORY NOTE. Babu Shib Chunder Bose is an enlightened Bengali, of matured conviction and character, who, having received the stirring impulse of Western culture and thought during the carly period of Dr. Duff's work in the General Assembly's Institution, has continued faithful to it through all these long and changeful years. His extended and varied experience, his careful habit of observation and contrast, his large store of general reading and information, and his rare sobriety and carnestness of judgment, eminently qualify him for lifting the veil from the inner domestic life of his countrymen, and giving such an account of their social and religious observances as may prove intelligible and instructive to general English readers. In the sketches which he has now produced we are presented with the first-fruits of "the harvest of a quiet eye" that has long meditatively watched the strange ongoings of this ancient society, and penetrated with living insight into the springs and tendency of its startling changes. Although I had no special claim to any right of judgment upon the present phases of Hindu life, the writer took me early into his confidence, and from the apparent quality and sincerity of his work I had no hesitation in encouraging him to persevere, recommending him, however, to leave historical speculation to others and to confine himself to a faithful delineation of facts within his own experience. While his manuscripts were passing through my hands, I took pains to verify his descriptions by frequent reference to younger educated natives, who, in all cases, confirmed the accuracy and reliability of the details. The book will stand on its own merits with English readers, whose happily increasing inter |