Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-05-05


absolutely nothing" These were the
words of a young Engllshman with whom
1 fell in on the journey to the city of
which he seemed to have such a contempt,
l found it true that one large interest of
mine at AllahaDad had disappeared-Sir
Alfred Lyall, whom had hoped to see,
was in a distant part of the province.
Many of the English residents must
have gone with him, for in the great
English club there / found two gen.
tlemen enjoying a kind Of solitude.
Yet it was precisely at Allahabad,
where absolutely nothing was to be
seen," that was destined to behold the
most remarkable scene that my eyes
have yet rested upon, for l happened to be
there at the time of the annual festival
called "Manwayash," that is, the june
ton of the waters. 1t is here that the
Ganges and the Jumna meet; and to the
eyes Of faith there is a third river, the
Saraswati, which unites with them. So
far as geOgraphers know the Saraswati
river falls from the Himalayas and is lost
in the desert, though a passage in the
Nedas recalls a time when it fiOated to the
sea. According to the Mahabharata the
Saraswati now Sarsuti) was dried up by
the curse of holy Utahya because the god
Varuna aducted his wife. The devOtees
Of to-day know better, however, and say
that the SarasWati mingles beneath the
surface with the waters of the Ganges
and the Jumna, the three forming the
most sacred OF the seven sacred streams
that fall from the right foot of Nishnu
according to Vishnaites); from the brow
Of silva according to Sivaites).
A STRANGE COLLECTION OF RELICS.
Inside the fort at Allahabad there is a
subterranean temple, or the remains of
one, in which is a sacred fountain be-
lieYed to be fed by the waters of Saras-
watt. Around it is a strange collection
of sacred relics and curiOsities-the
Bleeding Tree, an upright log, at whose
base are two footprints of Nishnu; lingd,
said to have been cut through at blow
by the MOslem AurunZeb, wherein from
one side flowed milk, from the other
blood; footprints Of Rama and Of his wife
Sta, and many remarkable images of
Khrisna, one or two of which in the dark
ness appeared to be inclining to become
Buddhas. Emerging from this sub
terranean hiding-place of images suf-
ticiently rude to seek cOneealment, ones
eyes are greeted by the sight Of superb
Pillar of AsOka, with its moral laws in
good preservation, finely pedestaled and
surrounded by a parterre of flowers. care
fully tended by English hands. 1t is two
or three miles from the fort to the juno
ton Of the rivers, but it was necessary
there to leave my carriage and move on
foot through the dense crowd that covered
the plain to the shores. 1t was estimated
that the number present there during the
two days festival was more than half a
milliOn-a small estimate. The long files
Of pilgrims, coming in from every quarter,
and their professions cOnYerging, as
they went to the sacred water,
reminded me of the armies l saw
gathering on the plain before
Gravelotte on the morning of its memOra-
bic battle. As these people were, TO my
eye, all alike and dressed alike, had to
fix on little touch of red in the headdress
of my guide in order to follow him as he
pressed on rapidly before me, elbOwing
and showing aside, in a way that distressed
me, people who must have felt themselves
more in their place than l was. As we
drew near to the sandy prOmOntOry be-
tween the sacred rivers the baZaars null
tiplied, and many hundreds of gay BAN
ners fiOated in the air, on which were pic
tuTed all manner Of tOtems, nOndescripts
all the symbols had ever seen, with
more that puzzled me for the first time.
Az ACRE OF BLACK HAIR.
On one side was an acre of ground,
where a large population squatted on the
ground and were having their heads
shOrn by BARRIERS. That acre was fairly
carpeted with black hair, and / learned
that every hair sacrificed in that sacred
spot meant a considerable number of
years in paradise. No woman, however,
was sacrificing her glory in that way,
nor did the women initiate the zeal of the
many male pilgrims, who were careful to
cover themselves with mud before they
plunged into the waters-in many cases
approaching the sacred stream by long
series of prOstratiOns, the last of which
buried their fOreheads IN thick mud. l
was told that priest beside each OF these
muddy pilgrims besOught the river deities
to purge the pilgrim OF sins even as the
waters washed that mud from his body.
The rivers are very shallow at their juno
ton and continuous procession OF pill
grims was wading from bank to bank. All
the banks far and near were black with
the swarm of people. There were lines of
barges also, and i'm the centre of the river
an island made up of bamboo boats, from
which Hindus We're leaping every moment.
was soon on one of these barges, moving
about and watching the ecstacies of these
people and listening to their loud inYOca-
tons as they immersed themselves.
| None of them were actually naked,
though the men rarely wore more
than the regulation Fl leaf insisted upon
by the government. The women seemed
to think themselves sufficiently clothed in
their transparent wrappers. There was,
! however, no sign of any conscious or
| recognized indecOrum in the. scene. On
| the other hand, there was no sOlemnity
whatever; all were merry, laughing, noisy
as so many Ostend bathers on an equally
warm and sparkling day. The women
| changed their clothing on the bank; and
/ the men. after dressing, were dressing
! themselves with forehead ash-marks, put
| on carefully before oval hand-mirrOrs.
| There were very few children.
A WONDERFUL SCENE.
Tho Gppup was very wonderful. the riV-
/ ers in each direction were alive with these
! glad, dusky, diving deYOtees. AS l gaZed
/ | remembered that those rivers had known
/ very different scenes from that. My Wis
/ ion wandered back over five hundred
| years, when on those waters fiOated the
| 100000 Hindu wOrshipers slain by Tim
! our, because they did not believe in his
| prophet; nay, my memory need only wan
/ der back twenty-seYen years to recall
| with a shudder that which | read, that
/ here four hundred and fOrty-siX bodies
/ embarked in those boats flOated dead I'M
| der the murderous fire ordered by
/ Mana Sahib. A large portion Of
/ the grounds now had the appearance of
a great pleasure fair. 1t was a combi-
nation of Nigni-NOvorOgOOd and a Meth
! odist camp meeting. There were little
/ villages intersected by small pathways,
| with eXtemporiZed shanties, each Of
/ which had its little shrine or symbol;
| there We're innumerable Fakirs covered
/ with ashes, their fOreheads fairly fres-
coed with symbols, receiving much wor-
| ship and good many coppers. In one
enclosure to which my guide took me ac-
/ cidontally, there were probably proceed
ings which did not love the light, for some
| person in authority angrily warned him
/ in words Of which | only heard "Babu''-
| evidently myself. My guide moved away
| rapidly, but not before l had seen enough
| TO suspect the celebration there of one of
those left-handed Tantras of which Brah-
manism is ashamed, but can only hide.
SACRED COWS.
/ There were many low, broad tables
about the grounds, which did service as
chairs also, supporting the fruits, grain
and sugar-cakes, sold for refreshment of
both men and gods, and the sellers with
| their families as well. There were little
| burnt offerings for ancestors always going
| on. Many priests were performing some
| kind of ceremony over devOtees, who bent
their heads to the ground; the priest
| covered the low, bent head with his skirt,
muttered prayers or charms with open
! eyes, in a perfunctory way, received his
| cOppers and passed quickly on to the next.
| At various points boys were ringing little
| bells, apparently to attract the people to
| some priest prepared to do something for
| them. A very large number of sacred
cows were led about, highly decorated
/ with mystical symbols and chains of coins,
or limitations of them. besides ribands
| about their horns. Those who led these
little slate-cOlored animals expected pice,
which were given, however, chiefly to
| those who led about cows that exhibited
| some defOrmity. The number of these
was large enough to be zOOlogically inter
esting. The monstrosities consisted of
| little legs or tails coming out of the ami