‘No doubt’, said Salamat Ali; ’and had they ever had a real prophet among them he would have revealed better things to them.  Strange people! when their women go on pilgrimages to Gaya, they have their heads shaved before the image of their god; and the offering of the hair is equivalent to the offer of their heads;[7] for heads, thank God, they dare no longer offer within the Company’s territories.’

’Do you.  Mir Sahib, think that they continue to offer up human sacrifices anywhere?’

’Certainly I do.  There is a Raja at Ratanpur, or somewhere between Mandla and Sambalpur, who has a man offered up to Devi every year, and that man must be a Brahman.  If he can get a Brahman traveller, well and good; if not, he and his priests offer one of his own subjects.  Every Brahman that has to pass through this territory goes in disguise.[8] With what energy did our emperor Aurangzeb apply himself to put down iniquities like this in the Rajputana states, but all in vain.  If a Raja died, all his numerous wives burnt themselves with his body—­even their servants, male and female, were obliged to do the same; for, said his friends, what is he to do in the next world without attendants?  The pile was enormous.  On the top sat the queen with the body of the prince; the servants, male and female, according to their degree, below; and a large army stood all round to drive into the fire again or kill all who should attempt to escape.’[9]

’This is all very true, Mir Sahib, but you must admit that, though there is a great deal of absurdity in their customs and opinions, there is, on the other hand, much that we might all take an example from.  The Hindoo believes that Christians and Musalmans may be as good men in all relations of life as himself, and in as fair a way to heaven as he is; for he believes that my Bible and your Koran are as much revelations framed by the Deity for our guidance, as the Shastras are for his.  He doubts not that our Christ was the Son of God, nor that Muhammad was the prophet of God; and all that he asks from us is to allow him freely to believe in his own gods, and to worship in his own way.  Nor does one caste or sect of Hindoos ever believe itself to be alone in the right way, or detest any other for not following in the same path, as they have as much of toleration for each other as they have for us.[10]

‘True,’ exclaimed Salamat Ali, ’too true! we have ruined each other; we have cut each other’s throats; we have lost the empire, and we deserve to lose it.  You won it, and you preserved it by your union- -ten men with one heart are equal to a hundred men with different hearts.  A Hindoo may feel himself authorized to take in a Musalman, and might even think it meritorious to do so; but he would never think it meritorious to take in one of his own religion.  There are no less than seventy-two sects of Muhammadans; and every one of these sects would not only take in the followers of every other religion on earth, but every member of every one of the other seventy-one sects; and the nearer that sect is to its own, the greater the merit in taking in its members.’[11]