he sleeper on the waters," a name singularly
appropriate to a place where the ashes of the dead are consigned to the
bosom of "Mother Ganga."

A visitor observes a number of platform-like structures of masonry that
are decorated with roughly carved figures of men and women standing hand
in hand. Upon these, until British rule put a stop to the custom,
thousands of fanatical wives underwent suttee and were burned alive with
their dead husbands. It is but seldom that a cremation is not in
progress at the burning ghat. From the deck of a native boat moored not
forty feet away I saw in a single hour eight corpses in varying stages
of consumption by fire. The traveler hardened to gruesome spectacles by
much journeying in Africa and Asia experiences but little of the
sickening sensation through witnessing a primitive incineration at
Benares that is caused by a visit to the Parsee towers at Bombay. The
Benares operation is sanitary and practical, and something may be said
on the side of sentimental appropriateness in having a corpse borne to
the riverside by one's relatives and friends, and there consumed by the
burning of a pyre constructed by the hands of these. The dramatic
entities become apparent to every thoughtful spectator, probably.

A clatter of brass cymbals reaches the ear, and a cortege appears at the
top of the ghat, while desultory cries of "_Rama, nama, satya
hai_"--"the name of Rama is true"--are heard. The corpse, fastened upon
a simple bier of bamboo sticks and carried on the shoulders of four
relatives, is swathed in white if a male, or in red if a female. The
bearers hasten almost frantically down the decline and clumsily drop
their burden in the water, feet foremost, and make certain that the
current will have undisturbed play upon the corpse without sweeping it
away. The mourners repair to the place where dry wood is sold and enter
upon spirited bargaining for fuel sufficient to consume their relative,
whose body is being laved and cleansed of spiritual imperfections not a
few rods away by the sacred Ganges. Only six or eight logs are required.
The dealer demands three rupees for them--and the grief-stricken Hindus
offer one. A bargain is finally struck at two rupees, with a stick of
sandal-wood for the head of the pyre thrown in.

[Illustration: BENARES BURNING GHAT, WITH CORPSES BEING PURIFIED IN THE
GANGES]

The logs are quickly conveyed to the burning-ground, a satisfactory
site for the sad offic