The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1894-12-17
BURNING OF midas DEAD.
TaImaes Tells Of His Visit to BenaTeS,
The HindOO Mecca.


Ganrss-The Ashes Thrown Into the
Rfver-Bodies Thrown Into the Stream
Only Partly Burned When the Rela-
tfves Of the Dead Are Too Poor 20 Buy
suHeient Wood to Cremate Them Com
pletely-Three Hundred Million Gods
Worshipped by the Hindoos.
Brooklyn. Dec. 1s-Rev. DR.. Talmage to-
day delivered the third OF his series
Of 'Round-theworld sermons through the
press. the subject being the Burning OF
the Dead and the text: They have
hands, but they handle not. feet have they.
but they walk not, neither speak
they through their throat. They that
make them are like unto them" Psalm
us: Z. S.
The life Of the missionary Is a luxurious
and indoIent life: Hinduism is a religion
that ought not to be interfered with.
Christianity is guilty Of an impertinence
when 1t invades heathendom; you must
put in the same line Of reverence Brahma,
Buddha, Mohammed and Christ. To re-
flute these ISLANDERS and blasphemies now
so prevalent and TO spread out before
the Christian world the contrast between
Idolatrous and Christian countries, I
preach this third sermon in my " Round
the-World" series.
In this discourse take you to the very
headquarters Of heathendom, to the very
capital Of Hindooism; for what Mecca is
TO the Mohammedan and what Jerusalem
is to the Christian, Benares, India, is 10
the Hindoo. We arrived there in the even
ing, and the next morning we started out
early, among other things to see the burn
ing of the dead. We saw II, cremation,
not as many good people in America and
England are now advocating IT, namely
the burning of the dead in clean, and
orderly, and refined crematory, the hot
furnace soon reducing the human form
to a powder to be carefully preserved in
an urn; but cremation as the Hindoos
practice it. We got into a boat and were
rowed down the river Ganges until We
came opposite TO where five dead bodies
lay, four Of them women wrapped in red
garments, and a man wrapped in white.
Our boat fastened. we waited and watched.
High piles of wood were on the bank
and this wood is carefully weighed on
large scales, according as the friends
OF the deceased can afford to pay for it.
In many cases only a few sticks can be
afforded. and the dead body is burned
only little and then thrown into the
Ganges. But where the relatives of the
deceased are well-to-do, an abundance of
wood in pieces four or five feet long is
purchased. Two or three layers of sticks
are then put on the ground to receive the
dead form. Small pieces of sandal-wood
are inserted to produce fragrance. The
deceased is lifted from the resting place
and put upon this wood. Then the cover
Is removed from the face Of the corpse
and is bathed with water of the
1anges. Then several more layers OF
WOOD are put upon the body, and other
Sticks are placed on both sides of IL but
the head and feet are left exposed. Then
quantity Of grease sufficient to make
everything infiammable is put on the
wood, and into the mouth of the dead
Then one of the richest men in Benares
his fortune made in this way. furnishes
the fre, and after the priest has rnumbIed
Few words, the eldest son walks three
times around the sacred pile. and then
applies the torch, and the fire blazes IN
and IN short time the body has become
tne ashes which the relatives throw into
the Ganges. INV
We saw floating past US on the Ganges
fne BODY OF a child, which had only been
partly burned, because the parents could
not afford enough wood While we
watched the floating form Of the child
crow aAghted upon IT. In the mean
time hundreds Of Hindoos were batbinp
IN the river, dipping their heads. filling
thelr mouths, supplying their brass cups.
a.ulsring words of so-called prayer.
such mingling Of superstition and
loathsomeness and inhumanity had never
before seen. The Gauges is to the Hin
200 the best river of all the earth. but TO
me II is the vilest stream that ever rolled
us stencil in horror to the sea. l looked
all along the banks for the nourners for
the dead. 1 saw in two Of the cities nine
cFematlons, but in no case a sad look or
a tear. 1 said to the friends: How is
TINS! Have the living no grief for the
ueadE / found that the women do not
come forth on such occasions. but that
does not account for the absence of all
signs OF grief. There is another reason
more potent. Men do not see the faces Of
tneir wives until after marriage They
take them on recommendation Marriages
thus formed, of course. have not much af-
lection in them. Women are married at
ana 10 years of age, and are grandmoth-
ers at 81. Such unwisely formed family
associations do not imply much ardor of
love The family so poorly put together
VINO wonders that 1t is easily taken apart ?
And so I account for the absence of ali
signs of grief at the cremation of the Hin
docs.
Benares is the capital of Hindooism and
Buddhism, but Hindooism has tranpled
out Buddhism, the hoof of the one mon
ster on the grizzly neck of the other mon
the capital of malodors, and the capital
of indecency. The Hindoos say they have
SOO,OOOoO0 gods. Benares being the head
quarters of these deities you will not be
surprised to find that the making of gods is
profitable business. Here there are car
penters making wooden GODS and brass
workers making brass gods, and sculp-
tors making stone gods, and potters MAX
ing clay gods. I cannot think of the abom-
nations practiced here without a recoil
of stomach and a need of cologne Al
though much is said about the carving
on the temples of this city, every thing
Is so vile that there is not much room left
for the aesthetic. The devotees enter the
temples nineteen-twentieths unclothed,
and depart begging. All that Hindooism
can do for a man or woman it does here.
Notwithstanding all that may have been
said in its favor at the parliament of re-
hgions in Chicago, it makes man a
brute, and woman the lowest type of
slave. / would rather be a horse or
a COW or dog in India than be a woman.
The greatest disaster that can happen to
Hindoo is that he was born at all.
Benares is imposing in the distance as
you look at it from the other side of the
Gauges. The forty-seven CHATS, or flights
of stone steps, reaching from the water
edge to the buildings high up on the banks
mark place for the ascent and descent of