Show IV af banar scones scenes on the banks of the sacred ganges Ganue bathers in the Ri river the devotion of the hindus tho the regeneration of india religious ideas along waterway london at bonares you realize that hinduism la Is a living thing and it presents pre sonta itself with a beauty and pathos which are arc astonishing to the visitor who has thought of it only as aa antiquated idolatry just now the ganges la Is low and the ho long flights of steps the gnats are baro bare almost to the bottom but in the ruined colonnades and embankments and a temple actually into the water the power and ravages of the river in flod are seen wo we embark on EL a miniature boathouse and seat peat our selves on the root roof and we are slowly rowed up the stream as far as aa the treo tree co covered vered terrace where warren hastings took refuge from the tha outraged people of the city then down the stream to the mosque with its tall minarets mina which erected to flout the hindus and rebuke their idola idolatry A but neither warren hast ings ingo nor neither moslem nor Christ christian chrisafin fin neither east nor west has haa made any appreciable change in the customs the rites the tha religions ideas which find their picturesque expression pres slon in that mile or more of river front the bank Is a steep and rises to the tha height of feet on it rise temples with their carved and glided gilded jumbled together wit with ah pat pal sees ices flat roofed piled high on solid and imposing battlements and amed a medley of steps and terraces and gateways through which the river Is reached from the city the buildings are yellow or terra cotta colored gilded and otherwise so that the effect la Is hardly less beautiful than that 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 dr bright orange blue magenta iris colors and dazzling white make the whole scene brilliant in the morning sun the bandits recline under their umbrellas br ellas comfortable and serene exacting toll from the bathers who come down to tho the water at the allotments IF 1 17 ZA mosque on ranks banks of the ganges tore hero a long row of women with a man r two crouches on the very brink and a brahmin priest naked buttora but for a loin cloth passes from one to another iland gives them the sacred mark they put the water or of the river on his feet and kiss them then they drink the water which has touched him from their hands ono one woman rises up her arms straight above lier her head and ma makes kes obeisance the priest gives them some soma directions mutters his bis mantras mantra s and waves his bis hands bands is in token of dismissal though it Is not easy to distinguish the ordinary washing ands and bathing from the sacred function there la Is enough of the manifested act of wor phlp to give to the scene an air of solemnity men and women aro are mixed but bout no one regards any one else each Is engaged in his own abl ablution ution physical or spiritual here hera a woman crouches splashing the water on her face and making mystical marks on forehead and breast here a man stands in the water wa ter revolving and folding his hands together each time in hta his revolution as he faces the sun hero here to Is another man in a red cloak standing up to bis waist and muttering with a whirring sound there he stands dally daily from 3 a in m to noon andaas and lias done so BO for nine years his eyes are bleared with the faun eun all ex pres slon has left lils his face ile he Is like a mechanism of devotion in another place young men muttering ut bering their prayers plunge anio into the stream and return to their little matted mattea platforms there anast must be three dips to accomplish the necessary purgation As the bathers return through tho the narrow street they shrink from contact with the passerby lor for it they ibey touch they must return and repeat at their washing |