Constantine republican. [volume] (Constantine, Mich.) 1836-1838, 1836-09-07

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two after our arrival at Bombay, was
strolling about sunset on the beach of Cola.
ba---a small island separated from Bombay
only when the tide rises, by narrow creek,
the passage being perfectly dry at low water
when my attention was arrested by par.
ticular object. A man approached me in
the costume of the lowest order, having on
y cloth wrapped round his loins. Icould
moi. help being forcibly attracted by his ap-
pearance. His skin was perfectly white,
as white as chalk; and when he came near
me | perceived that it seemed glazed as if it
had been scared with hot iron. His hair,
for he wore no turban, was precisely the
color Of his skin, and hung in long stripes
upon his lean and withered shoulders. His
eyes, excepting only the pupils, were of a
dull, murky red, and he directed them per-
pctually towards the ground, as if the light
was painful to him, which, upon inquiry, |
discovered to be the case. His gait was
slow and lettering, and his limbs were
shrunk to a state of attenuation quite CHASTITY.
His ribs were so prominent that they might
be counted at the distance of several yards
and the whole anatomical development was
so singuarly conspicuous that he seemed to
stand before me living skeleton. He did
not, at first, venture to approach within Sc
veral yards of me. | advanced, but he
gently retrea;ed, beseeching me to give
miserable man few pieces to save him from
death, as he was an object Of universal
scorn, and an outcast from his tribe. His
supplication was piteously imploring. He
bid me not come near him, as he was pol
luted creature, against whom the hand Of
every one was raised, and for whom there
was no pity.
By speaking kindly to him, | in short
time obtained his confidence, when he stood
still and allowed me to stand close beside
him. Iasked him the reason of his extraor-
binary appearance. He told me that he
had been for years martyr to the leprosy,
which, though at length cured, had left up.
on him the brand of irremediable pollution.
The very hue of his skin had changed from
deep brown 10 a cadaverous and sickly
white, and no one mistake that he had been
leper. In India, lepers are held to be &C.
cursed of the Deity; they are, in conse.
quence, universally stunned, and many
yearly die in an abject of restitution truly
deplorable, from the universal abandonment
to which their dreadful visitation exposes
them. Though this poor man was of the
lowest caste, none of the members of his
tribe would hold intercourse with him, and
he was cast forth wanderer, where he
could find none but such as were laboring
under similar infection, who felt any SYM
patty in his wre;chedness.
Nothing can be more melancholy than
the thought of human creature so situated.
Not only.an outcast from general society.
but Stunned even by the most degraded Of
his tribe, he has no home but such as he
makes for HIMSELF apart from the haunts of
men, who frequently drive him into the
jungles, where he becomes the prey ofwild
beasts, or when he refuses to withdraw him.
self beyond the remotest neighborhood of
human habitation, in violation of every law
both human and divine, the members of his
own family will frequently put the wretched.
ed creature to a cruel death. So attached
are the Hindoos to life generally, which they
consider the greatest boon of Heaven, that
they seldom relinquish it by a voluntary
death, except when the fanatlcism, which
with is positive frenzy, urges them to some
deed of self.immolation, in order to obtain
the immediate possession Of an immortality
of bliss--But although these acts of frantic
devotion are not uncommon, yet the cir
cumstances of Hindoos putting themselves
to death merely to get rid of the burden of
a sorrowful existence, is comparatively rare.
The leper will hear about him the curse OF
the leprosy, with all its attendant mseries,
and put forth his complaint to the unconscious
winds; yet, even in the midst Of privations
and bodily sufierings which it is appalling
to contemplate, he will cudure his load OF
misery, and cling to life with pertinacity
scarcely to be conceiyed.--Oriental An.
mails.