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Praying Machines.--Penance at Calcutta

of the temple, small kürdä placed close to each other, in rows, by way of ornament; and not only over the gates, but like. wise in the fields, frames set up expressly for these prayingmachines, which, instead of being moved by a string, are turned by the wind, by means of four sails, shaped and hollowed out like spoons. "Other similar kürdä are fastened to sticks of moderate thickness; a leaden weight is then fastened to the cylinder by a string, which, when it is once set a-going, keeps it, with the help of the stick, in constant motion. Such like prayer-wheels, neatly wrought, are fastened upon short sticks to a small wooden pedestal, and stand upon the altars, for the use of pious persons. While the prayer-wheel is thus turned round with one hand, the devotee takes the rosary in the other, and at the same time repeats penitential psalms. "A fourth kind of these kürdä is constructed on the same principle as those which are turned by wind, only it is somewhat smaller, and the frame is adapted to be hung up by a cord, in the chimneys of the habitations or huts of the Monguls. When there is a good fire, they are likewise set in motion by the smoke and the current of air, and continue to turn round as long as the fire is kept up. "A fifth kind of kürdä is erected on a small stream of water, upon a foundation like that of a mill, over which a small house is built to protect it from the weather. By means of the wheel attached to it, and the current, the cylinder is in like manner kept in a constant circular motion. These water kürdä are commonly constructed on a large scale, and maintained at the joint expense of the inhabitants of a whole district. They have a reference to all aquatic animals, whether alive or dead, whose temporal and eternal happiness is the aim of the writings contained in them, in like manner as the object of the fire. fire. Kürdä is the salvation of the souls of all animals suffering by fire."