Street Scenes durin(j a Fedival. 433 



unintermitteiitly . Wherever the procession passed the by- 

 standers stood with hands reverentially folded. Many had the 

 thresholds of their houses gaily adorned with flags and illumi- 

 nated with paper lamps, others let off" sky-rockets. From time 

 to time, the procession halted for a moment, the female 

 dancers formed two rows, and some of their number went 

 through a sort of dance, in which they performed a set of 

 stereotyped motions with their hands, and chaunted the praises 

 of the god in a most monotonous chorus. Thousands upon 

 thousands of Hindoos joined the procession, so that we could 

 hardly make way through the crowds. The yelling, heat, 

 odour of oil, and stink of sulphur were absolutely intolerable. 

 As often as the procession paused, the noise was redoubled, the 

 confusion became tenfold. Itinerant confectioners, who offered 

 for sale all sorts of sweetmeats, prepared either from the kernel 

 or milk of the cocoa-nut, drew back reluctantly when the eye 

 of a stranger was directed towards their piled-up delicacies, 

 through dread lest a mere glance from him should blight their 

 stock in trade. On the other hand, we remarked some of 

 these vendors pressing forward with eagerness to satisfy the 

 curiosity of strangers by offering small samples of their 

 eatables, so as the more easily to propitiate and get rid of 

 these dangerous guests, and leave the poor Hindoo in peace 

 and unharmed ! As Christianity makes but slow progress 

 among the Hindoos, and as the tendencies of the English 

 residents in India do not point, as of yore among the Spaniards 

 in America, towards the violent conversion of the heathen 



