Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1907-07-07

born again they would once more become
man and wife.
The endeavor to give fair representa-.
ton of the conditions in India amid which
missionaries work, and against which they
must strive, is hindered by the simple fact
that were l to write plainly what saw as
the prominent feature of Hindu worship In
Benares this paper would not be permitted
transmission through the mails. The COM
monest object of worship may not even be
limited at; while, so far from writing de-
scription of the sculptures on the walls of
one temple, they may not even be recalled
without disgust. 1t is a distinct ascent to
contemplate the sacred monkeys that fill
one temple-more than 200 of them scamper-
Ing about the trees and the courts-or the
sacred cows and bulls that abound through
out the city. When a wealthy Brahman
dies, bull is turned loose In the city to
wander through the narrow streets and to
pillage, undisturbed, from the baZaars The
molten calf which the backslidden Israelttes
worshiped is also here, to be purchased as
a household god.
II \
At the famous Cow Temple / saw and
heard row that would have attracted a
mob anywhere in Christendom woman
worshiper wanted to go into the inner
shrine, but the priest contended that she
mad not paid enough money. She shrilly
insisted that she had. and tried to force
her way past the priest. The latter there
upon struck her resounding blow in the
. ,"ee, put even this could not deter the in
lehuihg Worshiper, and when l left after
watching the muss for ten minutes the
morse OF the Wrangle still filled the temnle
al,hough the other worshipers seemed to
mind II as little as did the welI-fed cows
that hlled the temple court.
within the compass of one brief article
1t Is impossible to give more than moro
glmpses of the religious life of this ga
cred city and its myriad pilgrims, bent on
making the fOrty-five-mile round of holy
places. The objects of veneration are in
Vulnerable. Here are a dainty pair of feet
carved in high relief-not impressed into
the white marble-which are worshiped
as the footprints of Vishnu. Nearby are
suffice stones, marking the sites where
widows inundated themselves upon their
husbands funeral pyreS. Images of count
less sorts are wreathed in flowers, show
ered with rice. covered with holy water,
ana made obeisance to. A Hindu is not
gong TO take any changes; he worships
Whatever is likely to be sacred. from a
BUDDHIST statue to a Christian church. to
speak only within my own knowledge AS
i Ine said: You never can tell and it is
which l saw a missionary distr;bntins
among the pilgrims on the river hank
were eagerly sought for and read
For theoretical Hinduism the reader
must pe referred TO the encyclopedia; this
Is not the place to attempt even an ont.
line of It's main features, much less a
| description of the principal members of ito
gallery OF innumerable gods. Woven into
the religion is the caste system. which
hopelessly shuts off one for life in the
caste into which he was born, so that a
Brahman is contaminated by the very
shadow of sweeper Theoretically
there are four grand divisions of caste
actually, there are thousands of acastes
and l never heard of European who at
tempted to understand all the caste marks