revent overswelling, and
water is then pumped on or poured from buckets to within a few inches
of the top. Fermentation now commences, and continues for fourteen or
fifteen hours, varying with the temperature of the air, the wind,
the nature of the water used and the ripeness of the plants. When the
agitation of the mass has begun to subside the liquor is racked off
into the lower vat, the "beater," and ten men set to work lustily
beating it with paddles (_busquets_), though this is sometimes done by
wheels armed with paddle-like appendages. Meanwhile, the upper vat is
cleaned out, and the refuse mass of cuttings stored up to be used as
fuel or as fertilizing material. After an hour and a half's vigorous
beating the liquor becomes flocculent. The precipitation is sometimes
hastened by lime-water. The liquor is then drained off the dye by the
use of filtering-cloths, heat being also employed to drain off the
yellow matter and to deepen the color. Then the residuum is pressed in
bags, cut into three-inch cubes, dried in the drying-house and sent to
market.

The dry-leaf process depends also upon maceration, the leaves being
cropped from the ripe plant, and dried in the hot sunshine during two
days, from nine in the morning until four in the afternoon.

On the next day, at an early hour in the morning, my companion and
I betook us to the Plain of Alms. I have before mentioned that
Allahabad, the ancient city of Prayaga, is doubly sanctified because
it is at the junction of the Jumna and the Gauges, and these two
streams are affluents of its sanctity as well as of its trade. The
great plain of white sand which is enclosed between the blue lake-like
expanses of the two meeting rivers is the Plain of Alms. In truth,
there are three rivers which unite here--the Ganges, the Jumna and
the Saravasti--and this thrice-hallowed spot is known in the Hindu
mythologic system as the Triveni.

"But where is the third?" I asked as we stood gazing across the
unearthly-looking reaches of white sand far down the blue sweep of the
mysterious waters.

"Thereby hangs a tale," replied my companion. "It is invisible here,
but I will show you what remains of it presently when we get into the
fort. Here is a crowd of pilgrims coming to bathe in the purifying
waters of the confluence: let us follow them."

As they reached the shore a Brahman left his position under a great
parasol and placed himself in front of the troop of believers, who,
wi