Show Oi CITY Y OF Scenes on the Banks of the Sacred Sacred Sacred Sa Sa- Sa- Sa cred Ganges Bathers In the River The River The Devotion of the Hindus The Hindus The Regeneration of India Religious India Religious Ideas Along Waterway London At At Benares you realize reaUze that Hinduism is a living thing and It presents itself with a beauty and pathos which are astonishing to the visitor who has thought of it only as antiquated idolatry Just now the tho Ganges Is low and th tim tho long flights of steps the are bare almost to the bottom but In the ruined colonnades and embankments and a n. temple actually sudden into the water the power and ravages of the river In flod fiod are seen We Ve embark on ona ona ona a miniature boathouse boathouse and scat seat ourselves ourselves our our- ourselves selves on the roof and we are s slowly I rowed up the stream as far Car as the covered tree terrace where Warren Hastings took refuge refuge from the outraged outraged out out- raged people of the city then down own the stream to the mosque with its tall minarets which erected to flout the tho Hindus and r rebuke buke their Idolatry But neither Warren Hast Hastings Hast flast- ings nor neither Moslem nor Christian neither east cast nor west has made any appreciable change inthe in inthe inthe the customs the rites the religions Ideas which find their picturesque expression ex ex- pr In that mile or more of river front The bank Is steep and rises to the height of pf feet On it r rise se temples with their carved and gilded summits jumbled together with palaces palaces pal pal- aces ces flat roofed piled high on solid saUd and Imposing battlements and a medley med mcd- ley icy gf steps and terraces and gateways gateways gate gate- ways through which the river is reached from the city The buildings are yellow or terra cotta colored gilded and otherwise so that the e ef- ef is hardly less beautiful than titan that I of the Grand canal Sacred bulls are tethered In many places to which the people salaam Everywhere are the gay colors in which India delights Garments of bright orange blue magenta magenta mag mag- enta iris colors and dazzling white make the whole scene cene brilliant in the morning sun The recline under their umbrellas um urn- comfortable and serene exactIng exacting exact exact- Ing toll from the bathers who come comeI comedown comedown down to the water at the allotments I S B f ij nB jm i Mosque on aan Banks of the Ganges I I Here fore a long row of women with a man jr r two t crouches on the very brink brinl and nd a u. Brahmin priest naked but for a aloin aloin loin cloth passes from one to another nother tad and gives them the sacred mark They put the water of the river on his feet and kiss them then they drink the I water which has touched him from their hands One woman rises up her arms straight above her head and makes obeisance The priest gives them s some directions mutters directions mutters his mantras mantras and and waves his hands in to token token ken of dismissal Though it is not easy to distinguish the ordinary washing and bathing from the sacred function there is enough of the manifested ed act of worship worship wor war ship to gIve to the scene an air of Men and women are aro mix mix- J e-J I J but no one regards any anyone one else Each ach Is engaged In his his' own ablution ph physical or spirit spiritual Here a woman crouches splashing the water on her face faco and making mystical marks on forehead and breast Here a man stands ii In the water revolving and folding his hands together each time me meIn In his bis revolution as he faces the sun Hero Here Is another man in a red cloak standing up to his Ills waist and mutter mutter- a whirring sound There bostan ho bo stan stands s daily from 3 a. a m. m to noon and d has done lone so for tor nine years His nc nyc are aro bleared with the sun all expression ex ex- has left his face He is like a a. a mechanism of devotion Il In another place young men mut- mut toting their prayers plunge into the stream and return to their little matted There must be three dips to accomplish the tho necessary necessary purgation As the bathers return through the narrow street they shrink from contact with the tho passerby for If it itI J I they touch they must return and reI re- re v I Deat their washing |