216 
SCENES IN INDIA. 
for the Caramnasa,* at the expense of Ramchunder 
Narain, whom I met at the Durbar, and who may 
expect to reap much popularity with his countrymen 
from such a public benefit, not only as facilitating in- 
tercourse, but as freeing their religious pilgrims from 
a great anxiety. The name of the river in question 
means ‘ the destroyer of good works/ from the cir- 
cumstance of an ancient devotee, whose penances, 
like those of Kehama, had exalted him to Indra’s 
heaven, having been precipitated headlong by Siva, 
till his sacrifices broke his fall half-way, directly over 
the stream in question. He now hangs in the air, 
head downwards, and his saliva flows into and pol- 
lutes the whole w^ater in such a manner that any 
person who bathes in, or even touches it, loses the 
merit of all his antecedent penances, alms, and other 
acts of piety, — reserving, however, the full benefit of 
his misdeeds, of whatever description. All Brah- 
mins who are obliged to pass it — and it lies in the 
way to some of the most illustrious places of pilgrim- 
age — are in the greatest terror. They are some- 
times carried on men’s shoulders, sometimes ferried 
over ; but in either case if they are in the least 
splashed or wetted, it amounts almost to a matter of 
damnation, without hope or chance of pardon. The 
people on the bank, who act as watermen, are not 
influenced by these superstitions ; but to Indians in 
general Mr. Shakspear’s bridge wall be most valuable. 
The span of this bridge, which is strong enough to 
bear a field-piece, is three hundred and twenty feet 
* A small serpentine river in the province of Bahar, which 
separates it from that of Benares. 
