464 



THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC MAGAZINE 



My first visit was in the heat of sum- 

 mer, and the swollen dances lapped the 

 fallen masonry and threatened to tear US 

 away from the scene; but in winter the 

 ghats or stairways where the bathing 

 goes on are much higher and more im- 

 pressive and the river is easily navigable 

 with little effort on the part of the oars- 

 man. 



A POPULAR placK tx which TC 



)IK 



Benares is a popular place in which to 

 die. Thousands of Hindus arrive with 

 one foot in the grave, happy to be able to 

 put the other into the sacred river until 

 death comes to bless them who die here. 

 Funeral fires are always burning, not 

 only on the regular burning ghat, but at 

 other places along the stream. The pro- 

 cession of corpses seldom ends. Embers 

 from the pyres drop like lava on the na- 

 tive sweets and fruits which are sold 

 along the roadways. 



Occasionally there is a happy touch to 

 the scene. On one occasion I saw two 

 young women, who by any standard 

 would be called beautiful, stepping down 

 into the brown flood, wfilch harmonized 

 well with their satin-skinned bodies ; but 

 just behind them came several widows 

 with shaven heads and shrunken breasts, 

 their whole bodies bleached as though 

 widowhood were an anemic disease 

 which robbed one of health as well as 

 happiness. 



The widows who come to the Benares 

 ghats are almost convincing arguments 

 for suttee or progress. Caught between 

 the two millstones of a law which makes 

 their death on the funeral pyres of their 

 husbands criminal, while it does not save 

 them from unending bitterness, they can 

 w r ell curse the lot that has been forced 

 upon them and pray that Mother Gunga 

 will some day understand and take them 

 to her swelling bosom. 



Benares is famous for its brasswork 

 and its kincobs or kamkhzvabs, resplend- 

 ent silken fabrics woven with gold and 

 silver thread, thus becoming veritable 

 cloth of gold. India is using less of 

 these fine textures, but it would seem that 

 the West might adopt them for many 

 things. A handbag of Benares brocade 

 surpasses in loveliness the best bead bags 

 that I saw in the luxury shops on Kart- 

 nerstrasse in Vienna. 



