Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1891-06-12

In the same street and not far from the
| temple OF Blsheshmar is another. the tenn
pie OF Anapurna, the goddess of plenty.
erected about 10 years ago. There are
four shrineS. In ore is an image of Gan
esh, the god of wisdom, in human shane
| bat with the head of an elephant. In an
other Is Hanumsn, the monkey god. who
| aided the dei6ed hero Ram to CONQUER Ra-
man, the demon king of Ceylon. and to
| recover his queen, Sta, who had been car
ried off by him. The third shrine con-
talns an image of Gauri, wife of Mahaden; ;
the fourth an image of the sun in char
lot drawn by seven horses and surrounded
by glory representing rays of light.
The temple of the goddess Durga is at
the southern end of the city. Here very
many blood sacrifices are offered. They
have no connection, in the minds of those
who offer them, with sin or the means of
atoning for it, The goddess is supposed
to delight in the diseases and death OF
mankind. As she thlrsts for blood. it is
given to her, in the hope that she NAV be
appeased and induced to spare the life of
man, woman or child whom she had
doomed to death
A colony of large tailless MONKEYS, num-
berlng many thousands and all regarded
as living gods and goddesses, is connected
with the temple. They wander around all
over the neighborhood, through the tenn
pie, and are seen in the bazaars, upon the
Hat roofs of houses, in the gardens, and
everywhere. The visitors to the temple
feed them literally with grain, fruit and
sweetmeats. The gardens and even the
shops OF the open bazaarS are often ruined
by them. If a European or a Mohamme-
dan were to kill one of the monkeys it
would probably lead to a disturbance of
the peace Of the city. A similar colony
or, rather, two such colonies of monkeys
are found in the city of Muttra, few
hundred miles north of Benares. The
two colonies are of one species aud seem to
have divided the city between them. The
natives of Muttra are not able to dis.
tlnguIsh the monkeys of one colony from
those OF the other when they meet any of
their simian fetlow-citizens. Not so with
the monkeys, however, for if any mem
Der of one colony ventures to invade the
territory of the others, a desperate battle
begins, IN which all the monkeys of the
two colonies engage.
One of the most interesting sights for
foreigners In Benares is an observatory
erected about 10 years ago, and still in a
good state OF preservation. 1t was built
by the order of Java Singh, a Rajputana
chief and raises high above one of the
gahlS or flights of stone steps from the
river to the top of cliff. The instruments
were also constructed under the guidance
OF Java Singh. They are of vast size, built
OF solid masonry, and covered with fine
and durable plaster, which gave to the
surface of the instruments when new the
appearance of enamel. One of these in
straments is called ''Yantra Samrat," or
prince of instruments" 1t consists of
a wall thirty-six feet long, four and one
half feet broad, exactly in the plane of the
meridian. The wall slopes from the
southern end, where it is six feet four and
one-half inches high, up to the northern
end, where it is twenty-five feet three and
one-half inches high and points directly to
the north pole. In the center of the wall
are stone steps to ascend to the top of it.
On the eastern and western sides of this
wall there is mural quadrant five feet
eleven inches broad and seven and one-half
feet thick. Both sides of the arcs are
marked with divisions of six degrees each,
each of which is subdivided into SIX equal
parts, and each two inches in breadth
The radius of the lower edge of each of the
arcs Is nine feet eight and one-quarter
inches. BY means of this instrument the
distance from the meridian and the de-
cllnation of any planet or star and
also the right ascension of the star may be
known