DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.640#0270
THE HINDOO MYTHOLOGY. 153
this blessing, and Kamakshya (Kalee) has given the com-
mand.' After the reading of this incantation, the thieves
sit down to eat and drink the things that have been offered;
and when nearly intoxicated, they gird their garments
firmly round their loins, rub their bodies well with oil,
daub their eyes with lamp-black, and repeat an incantation
to enable them to see in the dark; and thus proceed to the
spot: when they cut a hole through the wall, plunder the
house, and sometimes murder the inhabitants.
Some time ago, two Hindoos were executed at Calcutta
for robbery. Before they entered upon their work of
plunder, they worshipped Kalee, and offered prayers before
her image, that they might be protected by the goddess in
the act of thieving. It so happened, that the goddess left
these disciples in the lurch; they were detected, tried, and
sentenced to be hanged. While under sentence of death,
a native Catholic, in the same place and circumstances, was
visited by a Roman Catholic priest to prepare him for death.
These Hindoos now reflected, that as Kalee had not pro-
tected them, notwithstanding they had paid their devotions
to her, there could be no hope that she would save them
after death; they might as well, therefore, renounce their
cast: which resolution they communicated to their fellow-
prisoner, who procured for them a prayer from the Catholic
priest, translated into the Bengalee language. I saw a copy
of this prayer in the hands of the native Catholic who gave
me this account. These men at last, out of pure revenge
upon Kalee, died in the faith of the Virgin Mary: and the
Catholics, after the execution, made a grand funeral for
them'; as these persons, they said, embraced the Catholic
faith, and renounced their cast, from conviction.
*
Agum-vageeshti, a learned Hindoo, about five hundred
vol. i. x
this blessing, and Kamakshya (Kalee) has given the com-
mand.' After the reading of this incantation, the thieves
sit down to eat and drink the things that have been offered;
and when nearly intoxicated, they gird their garments
firmly round their loins, rub their bodies well with oil,
daub their eyes with lamp-black, and repeat an incantation
to enable them to see in the dark; and thus proceed to the
spot: when they cut a hole through the wall, plunder the
house, and sometimes murder the inhabitants.
Some time ago, two Hindoos were executed at Calcutta
for robbery. Before they entered upon their work of
plunder, they worshipped Kalee, and offered prayers before
her image, that they might be protected by the goddess in
the act of thieving. It so happened, that the goddess left
these disciples in the lurch; they were detected, tried, and
sentenced to be hanged. While under sentence of death,
a native Catholic, in the same place and circumstances, was
visited by a Roman Catholic priest to prepare him for death.
These Hindoos now reflected, that as Kalee had not pro-
tected them, notwithstanding they had paid their devotions
to her, there could be no hope that she would save them
after death; they might as well, therefore, renounce their
cast: which resolution they communicated to their fellow-
prisoner, who procured for them a prayer from the Catholic
priest, translated into the Bengalee language. I saw a copy
of this prayer in the hands of the native Catholic who gave
me this account. These men at last, out of pure revenge
upon Kalee, died in the faith of the Virgin Mary: and the
Catholics, after the execution, made a grand funeral for
them'; as these persons, they said, embraced the Catholic
faith, and renounced their cast, from conviction.
*
Agum-vageeshti, a learned Hindoo, about five hundred
vol. i. x