in modern history, according to the common acceptation of the term, denote the professors of the religion of the bramins or brachmans, who inhabit the country called Hindostan, in the East Indies, from the word stan, a "region," and hind or hindoo; which Ferishtah, as we learn from Colonel Dow's translation of his history, supposes to have been a son of Ham the son of Noah. It is observed, however, that Hindoo is not the name by which the inhabitants originally styled themselves; but according to the idiom of the Shanscrit which they use, jumbodeep from jumbo, a "jackall," an animal common in their country; and deep, a large portion of land surrounded by the sea; or bhertekhunt, from khunt, i.e. "a continent," and bherrhut, the name of one of the first Indian rajahs. It is also to be observed, that they have assumed the name of Hindoos only since the era of the Tartar government, to distinguish themselves from their conquerors the Mussulmans. The term Gentoo or Gent, in the Shanscrit dialect, denotes animal in general, and in its more confined sense mankind, and is never appropriated particularly to such as follow the doctrines of Brama. These are divided into four great tribes, each of which has its own separate appellation; but they have no common or collective term that comprehends the whole nation under the idea affixed by the Europeans to the word Gentoo. Mr Halhed, in the preface to his translation of the Code of Gentoo Laws, conjectures that the Portuguese, on their first arrival in India, hearing the word frequently in the mouths of the natives, as applied to mankind in general, might adopt it for the domestic appellation of the Indians themselves, or perhaps their bigotry might force from the word Gentoo a fanciful allusion to gentile or Pagan. The Hindoos, or Gentoos, vie with the Chinese as to the antiquity of their nation. They reckon the duration of the world by four jogues, or distinct ages; the first the Suttee jogue, or age of purity, which is said to have lasted about 3,200,000 years; during which the life of man was 100,000 years, and his stature 21 cubits; the second, the Tiratog jogue, or the age in which one-third of mankind were reprobate; which consisted of 2,400,000 years, when men lived to the age of 10,000 years; the third, the Dwaper jogue, in which half of the human race became depraved, which endured to 600,000 years, when men's lives were reduced to 1000 years; and fourthly, the Collee jogue, in which all mankind were corrupted, or rather diminished, which the word collee imports. This is the present era, which they suppose will subsist for 400,000 years, of which near 5000 are already past; and man's life in this period is limited to 100 years. It is supposed by many authors, that most of the Gentoo shasters, or scriptures, were composed about the beginning of the Collee jogue: but an objection occurs against this supposition, viz. that the shasters take no notice of the deluge; to which the bramins reply, that all their scriptures were written before the time of Noah, and the deluge never extended to Hindostan. Nevertheless, it appears from the shasters themselves, that they claim a much higher antiquity than this; instances of which are recited by Mr Halhed.

The doctrine of transmigration is one of the distinguishing tenets of the Gentoos. With regard to this subject, it is their opinion, according to Mr Holwell, that those souls which have attained to a certain degree of purity, either by the innocence of their manners or the severity of their mortifications, are removed to regions of happiness proportioned to their respective merits: but that those who cannot so far surmount the prevalence of bad example, and the powerful degeneracy of the times, as to deserve such a promotion, are condemned to undergo continual punishment in the animation of successive animal forms, until, at the stated period, another renovation of the four jogues shall commence, upon the dissolution of the present. They imagine six different spheres above this earth; the highest of which, called suttee, is the residence of Brama, and his particular favourites. This sphere is also the habitation of those men who never uttered a falsehood, and of those women who have voluntarily burned themselves with their husbands; the propriety of which practice is expressly enjoined in the code of the Gentoo laws. This code, printed by the East India Company in 1776, is a very curious collection of Hindoo...