The National tribune. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1877-1917, 1889-05-30

d buiSk bIASh StuohS IlstS.
The boat goes onward, and we are now oppo-
site this smoke. 1t comes from 10 fires built
there ON the bank of the river. They look
like bonfires or campfires till we near them
aud then we see that upon each pile of wood
lies corpse, and that the smoke is blackened
by the oil and fat of human bodies The Hin
docs believe in cremation, and every Hindoo
wonld like to have his body burned on the
banks of the Ganges After the burning the
bones aud ashes are thrown into the river and
the soul of the man so burned is supposed to go
straight to Heaven. The cremation of India
is more simple than that of either Japan or
SIAM The bodies are burnt in the open air.
and the wood is laid over hole in the ground,
in which straw is put. After laying perhaps a
dozen sticks of cordwood crosswise so as to
make pyre about three feet wide and six feet
long the body wrapped in thin cotton cloth, is
stretched out upon it. just above the hollow
where these 10 bodies were burning around
fire. sat some of the most repulsive Hindoos |
have yet seen. These were the Donls, whose
business it is to furnish FIRE for the burning of
the dead, and who, according to Hindoo rites,
though of the lower CASTE can start soul best
towards Heaven. One of them is worth half
a million dollars, and he made his money in
this way. There were seven men aud three
women being burnt as our boat passed this cre-
nation ground. While we were directly oppo-
river, and the hollow formed channel through
which it rushed. 1t caught the cord wood of
the dead and famed it into blaze. There
was a cracking of frying flesh. The smoke
became denser, and you could see the hot Juice
drip down from the bodies in streams 1t was
horrible sight and all the more horrible from
the acts of the relatives of the bodies, who
| stood around and stirred up the fire in order
that it mi ght burn thebrighter. Some of them
held their hands out before it, and some pulled
| up their gowns and warmed their bare thighs
and calves by the heat of their fathers and
| brothers. 3i
| Only one side of the Gauges is used here for
| bathing and burning. On the other grows the
! green grass. The river is 800 feet wide, and
| looking over the stream yon see rich plains
! spotted with trees reaehingou until they fade
1 away into the horizon. Most Of the buildings
on the banks of the river are temples, and
| there are nearly 1,500 temples of various kinds
| in the city. The mostof them are shabby and
| dirty. They have few architectural beauties,
and it is their horrible rites and their filthy
worshipers alone that make them worth seeing.
| One is known as the Monkey Temple, and it is
dedicated to Durga, the goddess of all ills and
of suffering and death. Just in front of the
| temple, on plain stone, there is sort of a
| forked post upon which goats are sacrificed
| every Tuesday to this goddess. She is supposed
to love blood, and she has a necklace of skulls
under her blood-dripping mouth There was
blood in pools about the sacrifcial altar, and I
| saw priest, bloody-handed, take a goat and
/ bending its neck over this forked stick cut it
| off with one blow of cleayer. The blood
| spurted and the goddess was, doubt not ap-
! peased. The monkeys are sacred to the god
Ram. There are hundreds of them here. Sleek
aud fat, they run over the temple, climb the
trees which surroud it and take candy from
the hands of the worshipers who come to pray.