WORSHIP OF THE GANGES. 



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Among a superstitious people, it is not wonderful that 

 the grand objects of nature should be personified and excite 

 a feeling of devout veneration. Great rivers, from their 

 mysterious sources, their broad expanse, and their unceas- 

 ing motion, tend to inspire ideas peculiarly solemn. They 

 are accordingly very favourite objects of Hindoo worship. 

 There is scarcely in heaven or earth a name more sacred 

 than Ganges. Its waters are said to descend from above, 

 and to purify from every stain the man who undergoes in 

 them a thorough ablution. To die on its banks, moistened 

 by its stream, is deemed a sure passport to paradise. 

 Journeys extending to thousands of miles are undertaken 

 for the purpose of beholding and bathing in its sacred cur- 

 rent. Many rash devotees even yield themselves to a 

 voluntary death amid its waves, fancying that they thus 

 secure complete felicity in the future world ; others devote 

 their offspring to a similar destiny. In the courts of Ben- 

 gal a portion of the waters of the Ganges is produced 

 upon which witnesses are required to make oath, — this form 

 of attestation being esteemed of all others the most bind- 

 ing, though some scruple to employ an object so holy for 

 this secular purpose. The JVerbudda, the Godavery, the 

 Kistna, the Cavcrv, and almost everv stream that rolls 



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