ful I had
yet seen.

The next morning at sunrise a Mohammedan dragoman or interpreter took me
down the river in a boat, and in the course of an hour we passed,
according to the estimate of the interpreter, over twenty thousand
bathing Hindoos. Every two miles are built ghats, or broad flights of
steps down to river, some of these being eighty feet high. Along the
edge of the water Brahmins are squatting about twenty feet apart under
large sun shades made of palm leaves in the form of an umbrella. These
Brahmins have a certain inherited right to these little spots where they
have thus raised their sun shades for the purpose of collecting an
offering from every bather. Men and women bathe side by side. They all
go into the water in their thin cotton suits, and everything is
conducted with order and decorum.

After the bath flowers are offered to the river, and oils and fruits to
the Brahmin.

A short distance above the edge of the water is an open place for the
cremation of the bodies of the dead, and on the river close by are
scores of boats and barges loaded with wood which is cut into small
sticks and is used for the funeral-pyres. We stopped a few minutes here
while three corpses were brought on biers. They were covered by a white
cloth with a red dye-stuff scattered over the chest. The body was first
immersed in the river and then placed on its pyre, which was kindled by
the nearest relative of the deceased. After the cremation the ashes were
scattered on the river by the Brahmin, who, of course, charged a round
sum for these highly important services.

We next went up the high steps and visited several temples and other
objects of interest of which I shall give a brief description.

The Hindoo temples are not so large as our churches, but only from
fifteen to forty feet square, and their style of architecture is
frequently very pleasing to the eye. They contain no seats or pulpits,
and the ceremonies consist exclusively of offerings, prayers, and signs.
People come and go incessantly, there is no silence or devotion, but all
is noise and turmoil. The Brahmins glide quietly around everywhere and
watch closely so that no one escapes until he or she has parted with as
much loose change as possible, and it frequently happens that the
Brahmin and the worshiper get into a loud quarrel about the fee which
the latter is to pay for the benediction.

We ascended an eight-foot-wide street paved with large flag stones,