88 
THE ORIENTAL ANNUAL. 
habitants would resume their original purity of life, 
hut they did not heed his wishes, nor ceased their evil 
practices, and thus they have continued to live through 
successive generations, the countenance of the god 
Siva being half averted from them. Lately, as it may 
he seen, the excesses and wickedness of the inhabitants 
are again increasing, and now the indignant Siva is 
beginning to display his anger by turning the stone 
edifices into huts of mud and thatch.” 
All this is what has been revealed to the Brahmins 
by the gods; but being desirous of knowing some- 
thing about those evidences of the city’s independence 
of this earth, which the Brahmins had assured me 
were at times disclosed to human perception, I put 
some questions upon the subject ; and for the satis- 
faction of my curiosity was supplied with the fol- 
lowing facts. Frequently, when the monsoon opens 
with a deluge of rain upon the surrounding country, 
not a drop falls within the sacred limits of Benares ; 
while at other times it will shower down abundantly 
upon the city when the parched soil around is vainly 
panting for moisture. At times it will occur, that 
while the tempest and the hurricane are devastating 
the whole country round about, sweeping away the 
villages, uprooting the forests, and levelling the crops ; 
the holy Kasi will remain quiescent and unhurt. The 
lightnings will consume whole towns, the thunders 
shake citadels from their lofty foundations, while Be- 
nares, upheld from injury, remains intact ; or, when 
