Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1879-07-04

ed 10 witness mock fights with
out blows or blood shed in the settle
ments OF all difficulties that had occurred
among them the preceding year. | have
seen crowds of people elsewhere but none OF
such number ever before-not even at the
Derby races in England. Very few of
the upper classes were seen, and very few
women, and they with their faces covered.
Monday, March 10th, 1s...-Benarcs was
in the eyes of the IIindoos the most sacred
place in the world, the only place where 10
die within ten miles of it absolute remission
of all sin is guaranteed. From all parts of
India all who can afford to come here to
die in sight of the holy waters, making this
their last abiding place on earth. Many who
are possessed of great wealth build for them
selves castles on the hanks of the river that
they may he ever in sight of it while living,
and at death he burned upon its banks and
have their ashes mingle with its waters. That
we might with our own eyes sec the llindoos
and their temples and witness their CeremC-
mics. we left our hotel for a half hours drive
for the river. On our way we met and over
took crowds going towards and returning
from the place of their sacred ablutions,
mainly on foot Some were in curious little
two-whcelcd carriages all made of bamboo
except the wheels, drawn by the smallest
animal we ever saw attached to a vehicle for
: tl,,,,
ordinary goat. The donkey is as peculiar as
the carriage. II is ornamcntcd in fanciiul
way by having projection of comical form
twenty int hes above the donkcy's shoulders.
We also met rudcly carriages drawn at
a slow pace by the bison, and lines of camcls
bearing their burdens. On arriving at the
river we engaged a boat To take us along the
frontage Of the city. distance of about
three miles 1t is high up from the waters
edge SO that the principal temples, mosques
and palaces are built with flights of stone
steps l,ading down some twenty, others more
than fifty. iect To the river. There are less
tl.ln Il half dozen passage ways from the
street to the river: otherwise it would I've an
unhrokcn line of granite cdiiiccs for the
whole distance OF three mile. Al along the
line Of stone steps leading f.om ,,ic temples
mosques and palaccsto the ri"Cr are shrinCs -
every variety of dcsg r. q'aG,l .yIilar
scNtlgnual and oclagonal -maI. a.. them
tastciully oruam,u'cd with ,lumns minarcts
and spires in irci-worh. rcprCsenji.-s the
gods they worship, the a'.ima', they hold
sacred. and hidcuus monsters and demons nf
every form imaginable As We slowly
moved along the river we had = good view.
the best that can I've obtained Of The TEN llcs
and mosques. with myria-iS of shrncS and
palaces with Oycrhanglug ,orriUur>; stlr;s
upon terraces and in every nook and corner,
many of them with the tops of the domcs
and turrcis tipped with gold or silver, break
ing what would otherwise hr long monuin-
nous lines of granite steps. The structures
themselves are mostly of q1adran%unr form
oG unequal height. Some oi their fronts on
the river juttin" out more than others have
ucta@unal towers extending from the base
far above the top, ~urmounicd l.y u dome or
"A series Of turrcts. Standing about on the
steps and terraces, nr passing uP and down
them, were pilgrims who had made long
journeys to battle in the Gangcs. We passed
one Ilindoo temple after another and
slrincs single and in clusters until
we came to the burning god" where we
halted for a while to see the burning of the
dead on the river beach. There were three
burning piles in which the bodies were near
" consumed and other corpsrs partial
ly covered with blanket were
lying one side TO hc disposed of
in the same way. \ little farther along
we arrived opposite the Mahomcdan "Au-
runrzehc Mosuur." "A massive structure of
unique design, towering up from the waters
edge "A huge pile Of stone and mortar TO the
height of eighty feet and crowned with
domcs and turrcts II has two minarcts
only eight and "A quarter feet in diameter
that extend UPWARDS To the beirht of one
hundred and lorty-seyen feet and two inches
to the pinnacle, where il is but seven and
A half feet in diameter. They have stair
cases within the shafts of one hundred and
thirty steps
After havinr comnl,ted our hoat ride thc
whole, lcnrth of the riiy We returned to our
starting nlacr. On our way hack we found
that the comnonv of h,ihcrs had materially
increased in Numbers We saw clusters of
r,fts made of Lamboo with c,rvinrs which
vern occuni,.d I,. ,,ri,s,s .,nJ rr,h,,;ns I,ha
hichest JIirJno 1.,itsl ,,Io ,,,,. ,.,tin,r ,i,;r
ia,hs a, i,;s,rc r. dis,i,,,,,;sI hon, From,
,he Io,vcr ca.,cs ,Io,, haJ s;rn,,,,. s,r;n,,
nass;n% ovar on" ohan,dar % S I ~nInr [
iLo onr,si,o i L..
who bad ne,cr ,as,cl nnl.,, had a
STRING of heads aronnd their nccks Aswc
passed along we saw. within twenty feet of
where there was The greatest crowd of
hathrrs. dead man floating down the river
without anpnrcntIv ATTRACTING the attention
of any of them. After arriving at the land
ing we visited the Manmundis Ghut. a
contradictions and Astronomical observatory.
founded in 1850 II contains many curi,i,s
old instruments and devices for defining the
limited movements Of the north star a sun
dial vertically suspended so that before and
after meridian time will be indicated ON on
positc sides; large board on which was
irocpd in 4, rII1,. way TN, man nf the world
with few stars here and there. and lines in
dicating rontcs of travel Connected with il
were mysterions nircrs of unr,rotus which
were worked hy the pric,ts to
ascertain when safe Journeys could
he made bv those applying To them
for information upon the subject.
Lying about the place were blocks of stone
with figures Of imaginary objects, carved
upon them, for the same purpose, doubtless.
that the queer shaped bottles of many colors
occupy druggists windows As We were
passing out of the temple by way OF a high
terrace overlooking the river we came near
stumbling over sacred COW" quietly
chewing her cud in high places
In the evening we drove a few miles IRON
our hotel to visit Durga kirna, a temple de-
voted 10 the goddess Durgn. one of the most
sacred temples of the llindooS Il is sur
rounded by colonidc Just out idr of which
Is large tank Of water apprua, he'd l.v .ton,
steps ON all sides The lod., men g. The
idol is similar 10 that OF Kali nut, al, ,hc
arrangements for sacrificing til" gu.f. ',iyh
We have already described. 1h temple il
self stands upon columns cabrratriy tht,d
and is surmountcd by q dome in IT,, centre.
with cIp"la on each corner IpNarls Of
unc thousand monkeys are Ir rtcr,d ,hrrp
having free acccss 10 all tnr holy places