134 FLOKAI, CEKEMONIES. 
HINDOO GIRLS FLOATING THEIR 
TRIBUTARY OFFERINGS DOWN THE GANGES. 
BY MISS LANDON. 
As they passed along a sequestered river after sunset, 
they saw a young Hindoo girl upon the bank, whose em¬ 
ployment seemed to them so strange, that they stopped 
their palanquins to observe her. She had lighted a small 
lamp, filled with oil of cocoa, and placing it on an earthen 
dish, adorned with a wreath of flowers, had committed it, 
with a trembling hand, to the stream, and was now 
anxiously watching its progress down the current, heed¬ 
less of the gay cavalcade which had drawn up beside her. 
Lalla Rookh “Was all curiosity;—when one of her at¬ 
tendants, who had lived upon the banks of the Ganges, 
(where this ceremony is so frequent, that often in the 
dusk of the evening, the river is seen glittering all over 
with lights, like the Oton-tala, or sea of stars,) informed 
the princess, that it was the usual way in which the 
friends of those who had gone on dangerous voyages 
offered up vows for their safe return. If the lamp sunk 
immediately, the omen was disastrous ; but if it went 
shining down the stream, and continued to burn till en¬ 
tirely out of sight, the return of the beloved object was 
considered as certain. Lalla Rookh. 
