HINDOO IDOLS. 
137 
their noses into every body’s hand and pockets for 
grain and sweetmeats, which their fellow-votaries 
give them in great quantities ; the cloisters are no less 
full of naked devotees, and the continued hum of 
f Ram ! ram !’ is enough to make a stranger giddy. 
Near this tower is a well with a small tower over it, 
and a steep flight of steps for descending to the water, 
which is brought by a subterraneous channel from the 
Ganges, and, for some reason or other, counted more 
holy than the Ganges itself : all pilgrims to Benares 
are enjoined to wash and drink here.” 
From the narrative of Fitch, who visited Benares 
during the latter part of the sixteenth century, it will 
appear that the superstitious reverence of the Hindoos 
was then precisely similar to that which now so fre- 
quently shocks the Christian traveller at once by its 
impurity and extravagance. Fitch’s narrative is full 
of minute descriptions of idols which he saw in the 
different td$!fples, and of the various modes of worship 
daily offered to them Some of his details are cu- 
rious. Of these idols he quaintly says, Some be 
like a cow, some like a monkey, and some like the 
devil ; many of them are black and have claws of 
brass with long nails, and some ride upon peacocks 
and other fowls which be evil-favoured, with long 
hawk’s bills, some with one thing and some with 
another, but none with a good face. They be black 
and ill-favoured ; their mouths monstrous, their ears 
gilded and full of jewels ; their teeth and eyes of 
gold, silver, and brass.” These are the words of an 
observing man, and they tally in every particular 
with the descriptions given by all subsequent writers, 
n 3 
