The Abbeville press and banner. [volume] (Abbeville, S.C.) 1869-1924, 1892-08-17

There is also temple of food-th
Aunapurna-presided over by goddess
She has express orders from Bisheshwu
to feed the inhabitants of Benares.
The temple Of Shukareshwar or planet
Venus is filed by men and women pray
ing for handsome offspring. Near the
temple of Venus is the curious image oi
Ganesh. 1t stands twenty feet high and
has solid silver hands, feet and cara, and
huge elephants trunk tor nose.
Benares is quaint old city, so full oi
all forms of worship from oulls to snakes
and idols to things that cannot be men
toned. But Benares is noted for other
things, the Hindoo woven silk and
cleaning gold and silver. The hut in
which it is made is dirty, without win
dows or doors. The loom is worth, with
all its wood and knotted strings and
trappings, say one or two rupees, thirty
to sixty cents, and yet within that un.
clean hut, squatted upon the earth floor,
sits the weaver, facing his cheap, simple
trap and weaves such costly, priceless
fabrics, silks that stand on edge, SO stiff
they are with golden threads. Silken
goods and embroidery in such won.
drous patterns that kings and princes
stop to buy; goods that put to shame
the richest products of Western
civilization, all made by the clever
slender fingers and the deft Indian
hand aud foot upon this cheap
claptrap Of loom. In gold and silver
and brass tableware the people Of
Benares excel. In fact the brass work
is not equaled in any part of the world.
They draw designs without patterns,
and inlay gold and silver thread into the
brass in most exquisite forms. Tney sit
on the floor and hold the cup or brass
plate with their feet and toes and work
with their hands.
The burning CHATS at Bsnares are the
most curious in the world. When 9
Hindoo becomes ill he seeks Benares If
it is possible, for is it not the holiest
spot on earth2 Is not the we'll of
knowledge there, and will not one drink
of its putrid water impart all that can
be known2 Are not all the holiest heal
ing temples in Benares and is not the
sacred Ganges there9 Nothing more can
be desired. Many and many sick man
walks to the holy priest, who takes him
to the sacred river, bathes him in its
purifying waters, fills his eyes, ears,
nose and mouth with its sacred sand. III
the poor fellow happens to survive this
treatment, then he is possessed Of an
evil spirit and becomes an outcast-loses
his cast and Is forever lost. But ninety
nine in hundred die, as they should,
and are then burned with appropriate
ceremonials. The body Is wrapped In
pure white linen and solemnly carried
to the burning CHAT on the edge OF
the Ganges. Here the body is placed
on a funeral pyre constructed at
the waters edge of logs Of wood. The
feet dip into the sacred water, and the
eldest son of the deceased applies the
torch to the head and to the feet on each
side successively as be walks with the
priests in solemn procession three times
around the corpse. Not to have q son
to perform the last funeral rites to his
father precludes the possibility Of g
high class funeral service; hence the
Hindoos keep marrying wives until son
is born. After the body is consumed by
the flames the spirit is seen soaring
heavenward in the smoke, the ashes arc
carefully gathered'u and strewn on the
placid waters of the sacred Gauges.
Thus the earth is not polluted, the spirit
is seen going to heaven sand all the
earthly remains are carried on the sacred
water to the bosom OF the ocean. With
the very poor and With those who die
without male issue the funeral ceremony
is imperfectly performed. The body Is
not burned to ashes, in fact 1t Is but
scorched and allowed to slide into the
Ganges, and may often be seen floating
off. As the river abouuds in crocodiles
the body seldom goes very far before 1t
is consumed by these manestera. such
is one of the many scenes witnessed