90 INDIAN NAUTCll. 



heads, arms, or legs ; and walking along the narrow 

 streets one meets with unceasing sounds of discordant 

 instruments issuing from religious institutions and 

 Hindu temples. 



About two miles from the town is the little village 

 of Secrote, where the British officials reside, and the 

 military cantonment. 



The bazaars of Benares are well worth a visit, for 

 it is the great mart for shawls, silks, diamonds, and 

 a particular kind of brass-ware handsomely engraved, 

 a kind of intaglio, and much superior to the Moorish 

 trays and nicknacks. 



The mercantile and agricultural classes in this 

 province are said to be wealthy, of which one notices 

 many indications ; and sugar, opium, and indigo 

 factories are numerous. 



Before leaving Benares, it fell to my lot to witness 

 a grand nautch, which, to my mind, did in no respect 

 come up to those I had seen in Upper Egypt, where 

 good features and faultless figures, picturesque posing 

 and grouping, and harmonious music, although quaint, 

 form an agreeable supplement to the actual dancing or 

 graceful movements of the body. The dancing syrens 

 I saw in India are as a rule plain-looking, and their 

 performance consists of eel-like sideling, moving their 

 arms gently round the head and arranging, displacing 



