The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-01-20

The city is one of the oldest in the
world. Twenty.six centuries have
passed since Rome was founded, but
before Romulus was heard of Benares
was an ancient town; long before the
shepherd boy of Bethlehem tended his
fathers Hocks on the Judaean hills; be-
fore Jerusalem became the city of the
Lord pilgrims visited this sacred shrine.
In the earliest Hindoo records it is
spoken of as the great city. Kasi, sup
ported by SILVA upon its trident, to
him its shrines are dedicated. Memphis,
Babylon and Ninevah were its contem-
poraries, but they have all disappeared,
while Kasi remains the Hindoo's claim
to attest the preserving power of this
mighty god. Here Brahmans and Bud.
dhists learned in philosophy held discus
sions as keen as ever were heard in Athe-
MAN groves.
Thus was this wonderful place twenty
five centuries ago, and so is it now true
that the seminaries have vanished, its
scholars gone, yet Romans, Hebrews,
Greeks, Asyrians, Egyptians, with their
religions, have disappeared as nations,
but the Hindoo still exist, their religion
remains, and Benares is now as it has
been from the earliest ages, q city Of
temples.
The first thing ne visited upon reach
ing Benares was the monkey pagoda,
where Hunnooman is ~worshiped in the
form of a monkey, because he bears an
apish form. Monkeys are kindly cared
for and the grand temple of Hunnooman
is their favorite resort. On approaching
the paeoda the animals were seen sitting
upon the walls and roof, hanging in
strings, chattering and screaming from
the neighboring trees and grinning at us
from different hooks and corners. By
the gateway were old devotees, who
have c%ocoanut shells in their hands in
which they expect you to drop money,
rice or something good to eat. These
poor, half starved wretches esteem
themselves to be very holy.
Inside the temple was a court yard
about fifty feet square, containing a pa
CODA in tie centre. There was nothing
particularly attractive about it. Look
ing through the door of the pagoda a
hideous idol was seen, before which a
lamp was burning. We took our time
looking upon the architecture of the
place and then returned to the hotel.
The eliminating sight of Benares is
the panorama of the city from the Gauges
when the people are bathing. We made
our arrangements the evening before,
and ear.v in the morning, soon after
sunrise, drove to the river, where q native
boat, provided with easy chairs, awaited
our coming. We hoated slowly down
with the current and had an excellent
opportunity Of beholding the city from
the river. All about us were canoes and
sailing vessels, with high, pointed prows
and wide sterns, slender masts, bamboo
wards and sails OF India mating. Stately
stone steps called ''ghats' led down to
the banks of the river, and thousands OF
the natives, old and young, were bathing
in the stream. Bathing is Il religious
rite. To erect a ''ghat" by which
worshipers can reach the sacred stream,
is regarded as a m%eritorious act which
the gods will remember and reward.
The crowd which we approached was
very large. Old men were scrubbias
their hands and faces, cleansing their
mouths and washing their boards; moth.
ers were sousing their babies and scrub
bling them we'll with sacred mud. Others,
laughing and chatting, were swimming
about in the water. Here youth, beauty
and fashion alike make it q resort, and
human nature manifests itself much the
same by the flowing Gauges as by the
seaside at Newport or Bar Harbor.
We passed the place where the bodies
of the dead are burned. After being
cremated, or partly So, they are cast into
the stream to be borne out to the ocean,
so the spirit of the departed floats upon
the eternal tide until absorbed forever
into the self.existing Brahma (or more