190 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
taining for it the enviable privilege of dismissal from 
its carnal prison-house on the banks of those waters 
which are reverenced, according to the belief of all 
pious Hindoos, even by the gods. 
The dying man, under the delusions of his besotted 
creed, submitted without the slightest resistance or 
impatience to the dreadful ceremony of mud-suffoca- 
tion, though it is possible he might have been passive 
rather from physical incapacity than from actual indif- 
ference ; nevertheless, it was evident, from the occa- 
sional motion of his body, that he was still alive. 
When the whole funeral ceremony had been performed, 
the poor wretch was left to the mercy of the stream 
and of the jackals, which latter frequently attack 
these unhappy sufferers before life is extinct. In the 
present instance, we had an opportunity of witnessing 
one of those horrible contingencies to which the expiring 
Hindoo is occasionally exposed, when left to pour out 
his last sigh upon the hallowed banks of the Ganges. 
Shortly after the still living body had been abandoned 
by the humane relatives, we saw several Pariah dogs 
approach it ; one of them seized a foot, another a 
hand, and began to tug, and did not cease until we 
scared them from their prey, to which they no doubt 
soon returned when they no longer found any inter- 
ruption to their horrible carnival. 
Upon these occasions, as soon as the friends are 
satisfied that the object of their spiritual concern is 
actually dead — nay, but too often even before ex- 
animation has taken place — they push the frail frame 
upon which he is extended from the bank, commit- 
ting it with pious resignation to the sacred waters ; 
