8 MODERN PIG-STICKING 



It is here you may 



See the vision splendid of the sunlit plains extended, 

 And at night the wond'rous glory of the everlasting stars. 



Throughout this country the old river saunters, 

 changing its course from year to year, sweeping 

 away now this village and now that noble bagh, 

 but always making new soil for the fresh jhow 

 sprouts to grow. And if near it on a still night 

 you shall ever hear the splash of the falling bank 

 amid the cry of the flighting wild-fowl and the noises 

 of the dark. 



The Ganges changes its course in an extraordinary 

 way, cutting a channel in the soft sandy soil accord- 

 ing to its will. I have known it shift its course 

 nearly a mile in one place in a single year. When- 

 ever the river abandons an old bed, shoals form, 

 sand silts up; and, starting with the young jhow 

 shoots, fresh jungle and solid land are formed where 

 but a few years previously was deep water. 



The river itself is a never-failing source of delight 

 with its stately stream of water, its great stretches 

 of sand, and its ever-changing shades of purple 

 and of white. There are no villages actually on 

 its banks ; for it is a terrible neighbour, and none 

 may curb the Ganges in its flood. Save the boat- 

 men at a ferry you will see no life there, only 

 sulky muggurs on the shoals, great gaggles of wild 

 geese, and Brahminy ducks, whose sad, harsh cry 

 makes the solitude still more desolate. 



The natives always sing when they go through 

 the river or pass any of its streams, " Gunga ji 

 ki jai " (Ganges Victorious), in a long-drawn 

 refrain with a great lilt to it. The river is one 

 held sacred in the minds of many millions of men. 



