mage to this
place.

[Illustration: INDIAN CART.]

I said that nearly two million people visited Allahabad during the Kumbh
Mela, which I attended. They came from all parts of India, men and
women, young and old, but especially the old, of all classes from the
beggar to the prince, of all castes from the despised coolie to the
haughty Brahmin. They came on crowded railroad trains, or on elephants,
camels, horses, asses, in ox-carts and in boats on the rivers, but most
of them on foot along roads and pathways, across fields and meadows, the
living ones carrying the ashes of the cremated bodies of their dead
relatives to throw them in the holy river. Many of them had traveled
great distances and been on the journey for months. Old men who did not
expect to return to their homes, but were in hopes of finding a grave in
the sacred waters, and had said good-bye to everything which bound them
to life; cripples and invalids expecting to be cured on the banks of the
Ganges, congregated in large numbers at this sacred place. Fanatical
penitents came crawling on hands and feet; holy Fakirs had measured the
way by the length of their own bodies for scores of miles. The penitent
Fakir who travels in this manner lies down on the ground with his head
toward the place of destination, makes a mark in the ground in front of
his head, and crawls forward the length of his body and lies down again
with the feet where he had his head before; a new mark, another movement
ahead, etc., and so he keeps on, one length of his body at a time, until
he reaches the holy river. During this journey the Fakir is surrounded
and followed by a large concourse of people who furnish him with food
and drink, and regard him as a saint. There are instances of men having
traveled over five hundred miles in this manner. Every day and hour the
crowd was increased by new arrivals, until the river banks, the fields
and roads swarmed with countless masses,--a most wonderful gathering.
Thousands of Brahmins offered their services to guide and bless the
pilgrims, most always for a valuable consideration; thousands of
peddlers sold small idols, flower wreaths, rosaries, and other sacred
objects at high prices; others peddled rice, fruit, thin bread and other
provisions, and thousands of barbers cut the hair and shaved the temples
of the pilgrims. There, in the shade of some mango trees a Hindoo prince
had gone into camp with his elephants, horses, soldiers and servant