OF THE CITY OF BENARES. 479 



It should be remarked that the concourse at this eclipse was very 

 small, and by no means to be compared with that of November 1825, 

 when forty or fifty lives were lost in the press of the bathers on the Ghats." 



Hence it is not unreasonable to conclude, that the accession to the 

 population on such occasions sometimes even surpasses a hundred thousand 

 persons. 



The gross amount of the principal articles of food consumed, 

 affords a tolerable method of computing or checking the comparative 

 magnitude of places inhabited by similar races of men ; and if these data 

 could be ascertained with sufficient accuracy, the absolute population 

 might even be calculated therefrom. 



'n' 



Grain would appear to be the best test to employ in such an estimate, 

 being the most bulky, as it is the most universal article of food ; but since 

 it is not subject to a Town Duty at Benares, the quantity annually im- 

 ported cannot be easily ascertained. 



Salt is nearly of equally general consumption, although on a com- 

 paratively minute scale. As far as my own enquiries furnish data,* one- 

 ninth of a maund per man per annum, is a fair average consumption; 

 and this rate, upon a population of one lac and eighty thousand, would 

 yield an annual total of twenty thousand maunds ; now this is in close 

 accordance with the Custom House Returns, allowing a fraction for salt 

 smuggled into the Town out of the regular channels. 



Upon other articles, such as ghi, tobacco, &c. less reliance can be 

 placed, because they must be esteemed luxuries rather than necessaries. 



* Among the labouring classes, I found the rate per man, three seers; which is, according to 

 themselves, a minimum. Sipahis, and servants consume from four to six seers: Mahajans gave 

 me an average of nine or ten seers; with the richer classes it may be double or treble this amount 

 from wastage, and some allowance must be made for cattle and other sources of consumption. I 

 have assumed four and a half seers as the mean. 



