130 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
alone., it has been computed that there is a popula- 
tion of at least two millions who subsist entirely by 
begging; thus, supposing each person to obtain no 
more than eighteen pence a week, it would amount 
to upwards of seven millions sterling annually, and 
this, too, extracted for the most part from the labour- 
ing classes, which are extremely poor. Begging holds 
a conspicuous place among the religious duties of the 
Hindoos ; indeed none among their community can 
attain to the supreme rank of spiritual distinction, ex- 
cept through this honourable occupation. The Yogues, 
who are so highly esteemed for their sanctity, are 
universally mendicants, and so complete is their in- 
fluence over the minds of the vulgar, that these latter 
esteem it an enviable privilege to be permitted to ad- 
minister to the necessities of those holy men. It is 
considered a positive degradation for a devotee of any 
repute to submit to the drudgery of an honest trade. 
Thus it is that these sacred persons are the most in- 
dolent, arrogant, and too often the most licentious 
wretches alive. It is impossible to help feeling that 
the mendicant fraternities belonging to a branch of the 
Christian church must have derived their origin from 
these Eastern idolaters. The coincidence is too strong 
to be accidental. The begging friars may certainly 
claim the sanction of heathen, though they cannot of 
apostolic, antiquity. 
At the time we visited Benares, the population was 
computed at upwards of five hundred thousand souls. 
The number of brick and stone houses in this exten- 
sive city was calculated at twelve thousand, and of 
mud houses at sixteen thousand. Since that period 
