84 SPORT AND TRAVEL 



ditional entry into the highest heaven. That is why 

 the ghats along the river bank present one of the 

 liveliest scenes to be beheld in the world, for thou- 

 sands and thousands of naked natives are bathing 

 and washing their clothes in the filthy water, and 

 that is why the death rate of Benares is so enor- 

 mous and the funeral fires along the Ganges are kept 

 busy day in and day out ; for from far and near come 

 the aged and infirm, in all stages of illness and 

 disease, dragging themselves to the sacred water for 

 a last purification before passing on to a certain 

 paradise. 



On the morning of my arrival I entered a boat 

 and rowed slowly up-stream, a few yards away from 

 the line of ghats on which were taking place the 

 same morning ablutions which have been per- 

 formed for centuries by the followers of the Hindu 

 gods. Never have I seen such an enlivened sight. 

 The ghats extended along the river in apparently 

 endless succession great flights of stone steps 

 descending to the water, separated here and there 

 by some crumbling ruin fallen from above, and sur- 

 mounted by tier upon tier of temples, mosques, 

 palaces, dwelling-houses, and ancient buildings of 

 every description, which rose in a crowded jumbled 

 mass high above the stream below. Along the ghats 

 themselves crouched thousands and thousands of 



