Morning journal and courier., 1893-12-12

was 6 longish drive from our hotsI to the
 burning ghat, but the last half or more of
 1t was crowded with interest For it uRs | along the bank of the sacred Ganses. and | thousands of devout Hindus were wor- | shipping. Only 6 mile or two inland was | government house. Upon the gates of | government house crouch two colossal Hons-in stone. The British lion Is more manageable in stone than In alien jungle flesh. The British lions of the Calcutta government house gates are very impres- sive, but 1t Is rare to see them without na- tive crows perched insolently upon their hard heads.
 Inside those gates all was a subdued | well-bred hubbub; for Lady Lansdowne was to hold a draSing-room that night, Anglo-lndian Calcutta was athrob. Euro pean dressmakers and native dhersis were
 exceedingly busy. Here, where ws were,
 on the banks of the Ganges, were myriad human creatures to whom government house was but an architectural intrusion. They were enwrspt in the observance of
 their racial customs, and to them our European customs wsre less than noth-
 Ing. It was little like 8 country fair, and greatly unlike. I learned then and
 there that specialization was not & nine teenth-century development. The banks
 of the Gsnges were divided into booths,
 not by walls, but by occupAtional differen-
 tiations. We stopped our underfed
 horses were glad to stop-ws stopped and watched & dance to us meaningless,
 though it more awkward than sueees- tive. That may have been because was
 ignorant of its religious meaning. Then we saw hundred people clustered about
 q naked tskir. His unbarbered hair was braided into disgustingly many plaits. nTnEn fnh haS .A H.
 white. He lay naked upon innumersble
 spikes tthey were dull-edged spikesD, and
 as he blsd tin reality he did not bleed,
 he balanced himself so beautifully the
 surrounding Hindus prayed to Allah and praised the fakir. We saw enchanted pigs. We passed inspired fortune.teIlers. We stopped to water our horses at 6 sa-
 cred fountain; can't imagine to what it was sacred, for l saw our disreputable
 steeds drink of 1t, and l saw many to- l theeore- afflicted lepers fill their chattees from it. A pile of common stones based
 the fountain. The lspsrs touched them reverentially with their hopeless stumps When the ghsTri wslla and the sice
 said we had reached the burning ghat | We found our inQuiring minds intercepted | by crude brick wall. I have said that | the Hindus burn their dead in the open That is true. But in Calcutta the Ht-du has grown thrifty, and be hedges his burn | ing ghst with B wall, the closed door of
 which is sternly suggestive cf bsckshish. The sics pounded upon the door with the
 butt of the whip kindly loaned by the | ghsrri wslls. An old Hiudu-he was
 sucking sugar. cane-opened the door after
 dignifed pause. We gave him & rupee, deferentially, and psessd in. I stumbled \ upon something and gave a dainty little | European ahrisk. Tbs. something sat up ' and rubbed its eyee. It was one of the burning ghGt coolies, and it had been hay | ing sleep. l marked the holy mud thrice | with my Louis Quinza heels, and I stood
 beside & smouldering funeral pile. A crack not unlike the report of pistol-drove me back. The heat had broken through
 the dead mans skull Our brain is our | best servant or our mightiest master in | Europe In the land of The Hindu it, or
 its easement. is the last human part to | protest sgainst the rxtingulshmsnt of | death.
 The funeral pile of poor Hindu looks | very like an ordinary kitchen-ysrd wood | pile. But If you go up to 1t you discover | something very like 6 human form-a | glowing, chsrred mass, but proudly dis | tinguished from every other shape, ani- mate or inanimste. In the ssst | tried to look at things reasonably, not from any exaggerated sympathy with the subiugatei native, but because I wished to get from | the east the utmost available information
 aud mental capital. When I pulled my
 self together, after shrinkiDg from thu | first funeral pile had ever seen, 6 phrase
 flashed to my memory, Purified az by \ fire" That Is just what the Hindus do. They purify their dead by fire. The body
 is burned until absolutely nothing remains
 but a handful of ashes-Ashss wholly free from any unclesa or poisonous matter.