BENARES, CALCUTTA, AND MADRAS. 85 



the whole city. And is he not monarch of all he surveys ? These 

 brutes become so accustomed to servile reverence that they are 

 bold and insolent, and whoever does not make way for them will 

 very likely get trampled upon, if not knocked down. The most 

 daring European never ventures to strike a Brahmin bull in this 

 city, nor even to swear at him if the natives know it. Any Hindoo 

 would rather kill ten Christians than one Brahmin bull, and it 

 would no doubt be safer for a Christian to kill ten natives than one 

 of these brutes, provided he escaped the British authorities. 



This reminds me of another sacred animal, some sj^ecimens of 

 which I saw in Allahabad, and here again in Benares. I refer to 

 the fakirs. Allahabad was full of them. I shall never forget an 

 apparition that I encountered suddenly one day in the bazaar of 

 that city while Carlo and I were out on a shopping expedition. 

 We were standing at a grain stall buying some rice, when there 

 suddenly appeared at my elbow a man (in external foim at least) 

 entirely naked, except a \erj small and very dirty rag around his 

 loins, and a staff in his hand. He was tall, lank, and bony, his 

 beard was tangled, full of dirt, and came far down his hairy breast. 

 His long, matted hair hung around his shoulders like a bundle of 

 untwisted hemp ropes. His body was mangy and caked with dirt 

 of a year's standing, apparently, his claws were long and dirty, and 

 he was certainly the most disgusting object I ever saw in human 

 form. 



" Carlo," said I, "what kind of an animal is this?" 



" That Hindoo holy-man, sir. He never wash he-self ; all same 

 one pig." 



The fakir was going around collecting money of the shop-keep- 

 ers. He said never a word to any of them, but walked around and 

 held out a piece of cocoanut shell, into which the bazaar-meu 

 dropped their " pice " without a word. He went about it quite like 

 a landlord collecting his rent. And this was one of the fakirs, 

 those holy men (there are nearly ninety thousand of them, it is 

 said) whose feet and garments are kissed by men and women, and 

 who are, in popular estimation, saints ! 



The Hindoos are essentially beast- worshippers. They reverence 

 the Brahmin bull, the monkey, peacock, crocodile, cobi-a and other 

 serpents — and these are the least objectionable of all their gods. 

 We can forgive them for worshipping all these, because they are 

 cleanly and respectable animals ; but for their reverence of such 

 degraded, filthy, naked, and unclean beasts as these fakirs, there is 



