Year: 1878

Ganges is Il sacred stream. Brahmns make
their most solemn oaths upon the water of
the Ganges, and when they are thus bound to
promise, they are little likely to break it.
Long pigrimages are undertaken to the
banks of the holy river, and il is considered
blessing. to die within sight Of its flowing
current Its tributary, the Jumna, is scarce
ly less elevated in character, and those who
dwell along its shores possess a sanctity great
" envisd by their less fortunate counhymen.
The Ganges and Jumna unite their waters at
Allahabad, and here we find one of the holi-
est spots OF lhe land of Vishnu and silva. The
Hndoo writers say that three streams unite
here, one Of them coming from heaven and
being invisible to mortal eyes. The devout
Indian accepts this statement without mo-
ment's hesitation, and there is not one in all
the land who doubts the existence Of the trip
lie river 70 doubt where his own religion is
concerned is not characteristic of the Hindoo,
however much he may be skeptical concern
ing other faiths than his own. The most as
tonishing miracles are set forth in the Indian
mythology with all imaginable gravity, and
the faithful recount them with the calm con-
seriousness Of the most complete belief 1t
has been often said that the slow progress Of
our missionaries in India is due in some meas
uro to the comparative tameness of our Bibli-
cal accounts. as that all your God has
done Z" said Ilindoo after listening to the
story Of Christ's life why, our gods have
done thousand times as much. Krishna
brought a whole mountain five hundred miles
in minute to hold over his head as an uln-
brella, and Humayoon carried a hundred
islands to place in the channel between Hin
dostan and Ceylon, so that another god might
walk across without wetting his feet. When
one of the gods was sick they sent another to
get some bark from a tree on a mountain in
the Himalayas he forgot the name Of the
tree and so he took the whole mountain on
his shoulders, and carried it so quietly that all
the villages on it were not disturbed in the
least. They took the bark from the tree, and
then he went back again, and though he had
thousand miles to travel each way, the
mountain was only gone four hours from its
place There is no use attempting TO awak-
en- these people from their superstition by re-
lating the miracles in our sacred writings, for
for every one of ours they have hundred at
least.


The meeting of the waters at Allahabad is
u holy place, and many thousands of people
go there annually to bathe in the sacred
stream, and perform the ceremonies which
shall secure their happiness forever. Janua-
ry and February are the great months for the
pilgrimage, and it was my fortune to arrive at
Allahabad carly in the latter month. The
train dropped me at the station, and in COM
pany with a German friend l sought shelter
in a neighboring hotel. Crowds of pilgrims
were in the third-class carriages of the train,
so that when We issued from the station we
found ourselves in dense mass of the native
population When the construction of rail
ways in India was first proposed, the Hindoo
priests opposed it bitterly, as they saw that
the new mode of travel would be certain to
find favor in the eyes of pilgrims, as it would
greatly facilitate the performance of pill
Tluripn tha pnutiny the rahplg de-
stroyed every locomotive that fell into their
| hands; they were afraid to approach near the
| 'lightning dawk" as the locomotive is called,
| and so they stood off at q distance and batter
ed it with artillery. When the railways were
| opened, the priests declared that pilgrimage
| performed by steam would have no value, and
| that any one who wished to be saved must ad-
here to the old method But somehow the
| people would not be persuaded that the inno-
vation was altogether evil; they adopted rail
way travel at once and at this day nearly all
their pigrimages are performed by it. The
| locomotive and its train have struck a heavy
blow at the power of the priests in India.


Luckily for us it was a special as well as q
| general feast-day. For twelve days in the
month Of February there is worship at an al
tar inside the fort of Allahabad, and we ar
| rived on one of these occasions Crowds of
men and women, chiefly the residents of ALA
| DhUuu, were NtuullB lntlI why " Tue lOIN
| For Hindoo crowd they appeared unusually
well, as they were in clean garments, which
| formed pleasing contrast to the shabby at
| tire of the native when there is nothing to re-
| qure him to be well dressed. Many of the
men wore red turbans, and many of the wom-
| en- were in red or purple garments, so that
| the uniform white which one sees in South
eln India was relieved for the better. The
women had evidently taken much pains with
their attire, and sported such profusion of
| ornaments that some of them seemed fairly
laden down. Their most prominent decora-
ton, in the eyes of an Occidental is the ring
| which pierces one side of the nose and hangs
| over the mouth. 1t varies from one to four
inches in diameter, and it must be vast in
| convenience TO the wearer. Fashion is arb
| itrary in her commands and is implicitly


obeyed, whether in one country or another.


I trust it will be long before the Oriental ring
takes root, or rather nose, in America and is
| considered a sine Qtd non by the fair ones of
New York or Boston.


The worship at this altar consisted in plac


ing flowers upon the shrine, and then moist
| ening them with water from the Ganges. So
| great was the crowd that we were unable to
| get near the entrance of the little cave where
| the worship was performed, and after little
| elbowing amid the scowls of the faithful who
did not relish our presence, we turned our
| footsteps toward the river or rather to the


junction of the two rivers. There was .
double stream of people, one going to and the
other returning from the point where the wa
tiers meet, and l am safe in saying that the
crowd was more dense than one finds it in the
| busiest hours of the busiest day on Broadway.
| There were pilgrims from all parts of India,


and the various castles were mingled without
much order or regularity. The most noticea-


BILE in the crowd were the .Jakirs or holy
mendicants. They were in marked contrast


to the general cleanliness, as they were all
more or less dirty Generally mOre), and gave
a spectator the impression that dirt and di-


vinity are closely associated in the Hindoo
mind. Many were sprinkled with ashes from


head to foot others were besmeared with ho-
ly mud that formed a sort of veneering upon
their bodies, and others again were streaked


with paint as though an artist had been try
ing his brushes upon them. Some were
creeping upon hands and knees, and bowling
at each advance, in accordance with their
VOWS, and others were rolling over and over
in the dust with a result the reverse of sol
emn to an inhdel spectator. We met one fell
low who held his right arm in the air he had


held it thus for years, until it had become i'm


movable and useless; the finger nails were


grown to the length of several inches, and one
of them had penetrated the palm of the hand
| and actually protruded on the back. Some


of the fakirs had their breasts torn and bleed
ing, and others had lacerated various parts of
their bodies so that blood was flowing in visi-


BILE streams All were clad in the scantiest
manner possible and evidently their tailors'


bills were of little moment. gift of comb
to one of these holy men would have been
quite superfuous, as their hair WAS matted in