BENARES 87 



but move the heart, for such wretchedness, igno- 

 rance, filth, and poverty as one sees at every step 

 cannot well exist in the same degree elsewhere. At 

 every step there is a temple to one or another of the 

 Hindu gods ; to Siva, the vicious, the cruel, or one 

 of his horrible wives ; to Vishnu, or Krishna, or to 

 Ganesha, the elephant-headed, or to one of the 

 thousands of other deities which are worshipped in 

 this terrible city with the blindest and most abject 

 superstitious awe. 



There is no reverence in the Hindu worship, it is 

 merely the propitiation of cruel, unjust gods, in 

 order that their chronic anger may temporarily be 

 soothed and evil thus averted. A Hindu may com- 

 mit murder one moment, but by worshipping at 

 Siva's temple and drinking at the "Well of Know- 

 ledge" the next, he obtains complete absolution; 

 and if he dies immediately thereafter within the 

 sacred precincts of the city, he goes at once to para- 

 dise. No wonder that in Benares disease is rife. 

 The " Well of Knowledge*' is a hole filled with stag- 

 nant, putrid water, every drop of which must be 

 rank poison ; yet an old priest is continually ladling 

 it out to pilgrims and inhabitants alike, and day 

 after day the crowds throng about the well for 

 " purification" by drinking from this most filthy 

 and infectious source. 



