after they have bathed in the waters of the Ganges; and
mourning relatives burn the bodies of their dead after these have had
the sacred water poured over their faces.

[Illustration:

Hindoos Bathing in the Ganges at Benares.
This is a View of the Dasaswamedh Ghat, the Most
Popular Bathing Place in the Sacred City. Note
the Holy Men Under the Umbrellas, Who
Take Tribute of All Bathers]

The visitor who wishes to see the pious Hindoos bathe in the Ganges goes
to the river in the early morning soon after the sun has risen. He
descends one of the large ghats and takes a boat, in which he may be
rowed down the river past the bathing ghats and the one ghat where the
dead are burned. The scene is one that will never be forgotten. Against
the clear sky is outlined a succession of domes and spires that mark the
position of a score of sacred shrines, with two slender minarets that
rise from the mosque built by the great Moslem Emperor, Aurunzeb. The
sunlight flashes on these domes and spires and it lights up thousands of
bathing floats and stands that line the muddy banks of the river. The
floats are dotted with hundreds of bathers and the number of these
increases every few minutes. They come by hundreds down the great stone
stairways to their favorite bathing places, where, after a thorough
bath, they may be shaved or massaged or may listen to the expounding of
the Hindoo sacred books by a learned Brahmin sitting in the shade of a
huge umbrella. A characteristic feature of this hillside is the number
of these large umbrellas, each of which marks the place of a priest or a
holy man who has done some marvels of penance that give him a strong
hold on the superstitious natives and induce them to pay him well for
prayers or a sacred talisman.

With my boat moored near the bank and directly opposite the Manikarnika
ghat, the favorite place on the river, I watched the stream of bathers
for nearly an hour. The fanatical devotion that will induce a reasonable
human being to bathe in the waters of the Ganges seems incredible to
anyone from the Western World. The water of the sacred river is here of
the consistency of pea soup. The city's sewer pipes empty into the
Ganges just above the bathing ghats, and the current carries this filth
directly to the place which the Hindoos have selected for their rites.
The water is not only muddy and unclean, but it offends the nose. Yet
Hindoos of good family bathe