surprised at the conclusion they adopt?

Jackals are the night scavengers of Indian cities, and no sooner have
the inhabitants retired to rest than their hideous half-bark,
half-wailing notes jar upon the ear. Even in Calcutta, a large and
populous city, one is not exempt from their howlings, but in Benares
they are a recognized institution, and are molested by no one. These
creatures voraciously gobble up everything that is left exposed, good or
bad,--vermin, decayed food, offal, every refuse,--thus rendering a
certain necessary service in a climate so hot as that of India. The
natives are not permitted to keep any sort of firearms, so they could
not shoot the jackals if they desired to do so; but animal life is held
sacred by them, and no native will spill blood except in self-defense.
They seem to have no craving for animal food, supporting their bodies
almost entirely upon rice. It may also be that a fellow feeling makes
them kind, for they live, eat, and sleep more like wild animals than
like human beings, unhoused and unclothed. The degraded condition of
eight tenths of the population of India is almost incredible. Slaves to
ignorance, slaves to idolatry, they are also political slaves; nor is
there, so far as we can see, any better prospect for them in the near
future.

Cawnpore is situated on the Ganges, about two hundred and twenty miles
west of Benares, and was reached by cars over the Oude and Rohilkund
Railway, the characteristics of the route being very similar to that
from Calcutta to Benares. Almost the sole interest of this locality to
the tourist is created by its connection with the mutiny of 1857, and
the several fine monuments which commemorate the prominent features of
that event. It is true that the interest in scenes where great crimes
have been perpetrated is, more or less, of a morbid character. Mr. Lee,
who was a subordinate officer in the English army at that memorable
period, now owns and keeps, with his family, the principal hotel, acting
also as an efficient guide to visiting parties. He points out the
various places of special interest, giving vivid and eloquent
descriptions of the sad events, in which he was himself an actor. There
is something very impressive in Marochetti's noble monument over the
spot which was, at the time of the mutiny, a capacious well, and into
which the women and children of the English prisoners, living and dead,
were cast, by order of that inhuman wretch, Nana