The Arizona sentinel., 1886-07-17
DEATH IN BENARES.
The Heartless Offices Performed
 by Venerable Brahmans.
Hermlts Cast Into the Ganges-Bodies Burned and the Valuables Raked from the Ashes-A Talk with
 Two Native Students.

Benares-please do not call it Ben Airs, it is pronounced Bunn-ah-russ, with the accent on the second syllable Benares is an ancient and, in some re- spects, an interesting, even fascinating, city. The ghats along the river are my favorite promenades. In the evening am sure to find curious crowd assem- Iled there. The native noblemen are conspicuous among their followers by the bright-colored silks and satins that they wear. One sees more of Oriental magnificence at Benares than in any h. dian city under direct British control. In the native states, however, where the rulers are not unostentatious black coats, but Princes who, when they dress at all, dress like Solomon in all his glory, there is much more gaiety and display. No one can form any idea of the picturesque side of Eastern life who has not visited Haidarabad in the Dec can, or one of the great Rajput ca pitals. Benares is city of the Brahmans, and one will not often observe here that su- perb mixture of pride and politeness, the frank and gallant bearing that everywhere characterizes the Rajput (kshattriya or warrior), who is the true gentleman of India, however the Brah- man or Kayasth "Babu" may arrogate that title. Here on the ghats at Benares, however, l meet with great courtesy from all, from the fat Raja waddling by in his flowing silk robes to the poor washerman spreading his clothes out to dry on the mud of the river bank.
 I was walking along the ghats last night with two young students, tribe very common in this city, and gathered from all parts of India. One was named Srishti-followed by great many syllables which can not remember; the other Bhutta-with other strange sounds that failed to catch. These two dis cussed Hindu theology with me as we strolled along, and, in the true Babu fashion, insisted on talking English, though they did not know it very well. One would begin sentence and stick fast in the middle of it; the other would carry it on till the first got his breath again, after which they would finish it in chorus. What they meant, however, was always rather uncertain. They knew great deal, these young Babus; they knew that Christopher Columbus discovered America, and could tell how many wives Henry VIII. had, and what he did with them all. Nevertheless, they accepted these statements with a cer- tam reserve. For instance, the Puranas said that the world consisted of one great continent, Jambu Dwipa Now, If America existed there must be two continents. Hence it seemed likely that Christopher Columbus had been laboring under a hallucination, and that America was a fiction after all. This conclusion 1, being an American, refused to consider as final. Probably, said, America was Suvarna, the Golden Land, which (again according to the Puranas) lies beyond the Black Water (the ocean.) This rash theory they re- fused to accept without confirmative evidence. ''Was there gold in Amer ica?" they asked, and when I said there was great deal, they were happy and began to form a more favorable opin- ion of Christopher Columbus. We did not get on as well in theology. When l asked them if they were worshipers of Vishnu or Siva, they became myster- Ous. Shiv (Siva) they said was every where; they were Shiv, 1 was Shiv, ''even that dog, mangy though he might be, was Shiv.' My Elder is informationed to this from Kunnelcut, said Bhutta, by which I understood him to say that h:s elder brother had learned these panthe;stic ideas from our coun- tryman, Colonel Olcott, the prophet of Esoteric Buddhism. Kunnelcut was, he added, very wise man, but not, he thought, high-caste Brahman, as peo- pie said. He asked me if Kunnelcut wore the sacred thread round his neck, but was unable to say.
 Meanwhile we passed the Mosque of AurangZeb, high on the cliff above. Its minarets, though only one hundred and fifty feet high, seemed to tower in infinite distance up into the sky, and could hardly believe that 1 had climbed up to that dizzy point few days before. Further on was the little pool of greasy water with steps leading down to it, which is said to be the sweat of Vishnu, and great bathing place. Above it were the high, dark-red spires of the Nepalese temple, the largest in Benares, with gilt flags flying at the top-they fly all the time, in windy weater or quiet, being merely triangular sheets of tin. Then we came to the Burning Chat, where the bodies of the dead are ere mated. With unusual frankness for Babus, my friends remarked that the Western custom of burial, which I de- scribed to them, was very barbarous idea. "But that is what you do with your Jogis" (hermits), said in self defense. They told me, however. that