El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1910-06-25

Not far from the Goiuen Temple is
the Cow Temple, filled with animals
holy to SILVA. This is more like a
stable than a church. Imagine a court
the size of the ordinary barnyard with
a bandstand in the center. Let the
court be walled around with great
stalls, in which a hundred sacred bulls
stand They are white and dove-coIored
and as clean-limbed as a Jersey They
have great humps on their backs and
their ears hang down like those of a
RABBIT They are as fat as butter, and
latter by far than the lean pilgrims,
who honey about them. giving them
1000 Here and there through the court
yard bull or COW moves, munching
flowers and grass handed to it by the
pilgrims l saw one go up the steps to
the altar in front of the god, and bite
at wreath Of flowers Upon a wor-
Slippers neck. The Hindoo thought this
a favor of the gods and he brought
Ganges water and gave it to the bull.
saw one pretty girl hugging a bull.
She was a slender brown maiden whose
form, worthy to be a model for Venus,
was clad in a single strip of dark navy
blue cotton. She had red cashmere
shawl around her head which hid all
but her great black eyes. Her hands
and arms were bare and in the former
she held a garland of bright yellow
flowers. one yard in length She
brought this to the biggest and most
beautiful bull in the stables and
chanted a prayer as she handed it to
him. The dove-colored beast ate the
flowers and as he did SO she threw her
arms around his neck and gave him a
hug 1t made me think of Apis. the bull
OF Memphis, who was worshiped by the
Egyptians, and also the fair 10, whom
Juno turned into a cow because Of the
flirtatlons of Jupiter.
These sacred cows and bulls are to be
seen everywhere. They are bovine gen
tlemen and ladies of leisure who go
| about staring into the shops and crowd
ing human beings out of the wav Now
and then they visit a fruit stand OF
vegetable sellers and take a bit of such
food as they fancy. The people do not
strike them or ll-treat them in any
way They will not eat beef and to
slaughter cattle would not only lose
them their caste in this world but doom
them TO punishment for all time to
come.
Outside the Golden Temple stood men
peddling flowers for the bulls. and also
necklaces, anklets and other jewelry for
women and men. There was a score of
beggars, and the lame. halt and blind
were jostled by the bulls and COWS. One
poor fellow, all skin and bones and
naked except for a 5reech cloth, had
lost his arms at the biceps, and he
wagged the red stumps at me as he
nodded his head to the brass plate on
his knee. He was delighted with the
one-fourth of a cent which 1 gave
him.
On the Holy Gauges
Benares is holy largely because it lies
on the Gauges That river is more to
the Indian than the Jordan is to the
Christian. II a HindoO prays within
100 miles of its banks that prayer will
wipe out the sins of three past gener-
atoms. and if he has his head shaved
he will have a million years in Paradise
for every hair that floats off on the
stream Bathing in the Gauges washes
off sin, and this is so from its source
where the river flows out of the toe
Of the god Vishnu, high up in the Hima-
layas, TO where it empties at last in
the Bay of Bengal
There are hundreds of-places along
the Gauges which are especially holy.
Two hundred thousand pilgrims an
nually visit the mouth Of the river, and
saw thousands bathing in it at Cal
cutta- Some pilgrims make journeys
almost from the source to the mouth, be-
ing years on the way Just now many
are coming to the holy places by rail-
road. and the pilgrimage traffic TO Be
mares is enormous. The city is now
filled with pilgrims. In some respects
the place makes me think of a camp
meeting, a great HindOo watering place
where the people come to rest their
bodies while saving their souls It is in
a sense Of the Ocean Grove or Chautau-
qua OF Hindustan. The town has more
than 100000 people, and poor and rich
visit it from religious motives Many of
the rajahs and princes have villas here
and the river is walled with temples
rest houses and beehives of humanity
belonging to clubs. These buildings
. E
have steps going down under the water
far cut into the stream, which are filled
with bathers washing away their sins.
among the Rathers.
If you have any doubt that the Hin
docs believe their sins are washed away
by the Ganges, come with me to the
river We shall take launch and ride
down among she bathers and see wheth-
er their actions prove their belief The
mornings here are cold and raw. We
put on our overcoats and shiver as we
sit on the deck. 1t is the duty of the
HindO worshiper to take a bath before
breakfast. The sun is just rising. but
we find the stream full The steps are
crowded with worshipers clad in the
tF?innest of cotton. There are shriveled
old men and women, wrapped in a single
breadth of dirty white stuff standing
waist deep in the water and holding up
their long thin, bony arms, while with
chatterinS teeth they mutter prayers to
their gods Now and then they duck
down into the water, coming UP gasping
and looking colder than ever. Such
bathing for you and me would mean
death. It may mean death to them, but
here death is salvation.
There are also plump girls and young
men. The nut-brown skins of the maid
ems shine as the water trickles over
them, and their bright eyes flash at us
as they whisper their prayers. They
raise their arms toward heaven, showing
gold and silver bracelets. and some have
gold rings from their wrists to their
elbows and thence to their shoulders.
Some wear gold nose rings, and others
have ear ornaments which hang to their
shoulders Not a few hide their faces
They may be high-caste Hindoo maid
ems. Women, as a rule do not battle
with the men, They are huddled off in
groups by themselves. They come down
in parties, each carrying a brass Jar
to take back some water to aid them in
their worship at the temples.
As we go down the river we see that
the bathers keep on their clothes as
they enter the water, although these
clothes are often no more than a breach
clOut. The HindoOs think it indecent to |
go naked into the Gauges, and they