84 BENAllES. 



After the fatigue of the previous week, I was not 

 sorry to get a long rest in the comfortable compart- 

 ment of the East Indian railway, which admitted of a 

 good stretch ; and after a journey of nineteen hours, I 

 reached Benares, the holy city of the Ganges, remark- 

 able for the bigotry of its population, Hindu, as well as 

 Mussulman, about one-fifth belonging to the latter 

 faith in the town, and only one-tenth in the country 

 districts ; for, although the Mohamedans have put an 

 end to the supremacy of the old Brahminical emperors, 

 the religion of Brahma has remained unshaken in 

 India. 



The position of Benares is decidedly the most 

 picturesque of any town in India. The river here 

 forms a curve, and from it rises a town in the form of 

 an amphitheatre, approached by flights of stone steps, 

 called ghats, to a height of thirty feet and more, running 

 along with continuous breaks for nearly three miles. 

 The buildings facing the river are mostly temples and 

 palaces, thickly studded with domes and minarets, 

 gilt or gaudily coloured. Upon the steps there are 

 erected shrines of every variety, filled with idols ; and 

 here and there the scene becomes varied by funeral piles 

 where the Hindus burn their dead, and throw the 

 ashes into the sacred river. These ghats are always 

 crowded, especially in the morning, with devotees in 



