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OF THE HINDUS.
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The regular celebration of this festival here terminates, but of late years a supplementary observance forms a plea for a second day's holiday in Bengal. The Bengalis have a great passion for throwing the temporary images of their female divinities into the Ganges. It is a rite especially appropriate to Durgá, at the end of the Durgá Pújá; but it has been extended to other goddesses, and amongst them to Saraswatí, at this season. Accordingly, on the sixth lunar day, the image, which is commonly of plastic clay painted, is conveyed in procession to the river side, stripped of its ornaments, and tossed rather unceremoniously into the stream.
There are some remarkable varieties regarding the seasons of this festival, in different parts of India, whether it be considered as dedicated to Saraswati or to Lakshmí. The Srí panchami, when applied to the former, is observed in Hindustan in Áświn (Auyust - September), and when to the latter, in Márgasírsha (October - November), as we shall have future occasion to notice, or the present, the fifth of Mágha, is held to be the proper Srí panchamí, and dedicated, not to Saraswatí, but to Lakshmi. There is, however, both in Upper India and in the Dekhan, a festival on the fifth of the light balf of Mágha, which is no doubt the original and ancient celebration, -- the Vasanta Panchami, or the vernal feast of the fifth lunar day of Mágha, marking the commencement of the season of Spring, and corresponding, curiously enough, with the specific date fixed for the beginning of Spring
