by Oliver Optic
CHAPTER XXXIII
A STEAMER TRIP UP AND DOWN THE GANGES
Clarke's Hotel, at Secrole, received the tourists, and everything was inreadiness for them when they arrived. Lord Tremlyn had announced the comingof himself and his large party, and a person of his distinction andinfluence could command anything he desired. The rest of the day was givento rest, though in the evening Sir Modava talked to the tourists about thecity.
Early the next morning the party were conveyed to the river, where theyembarked in a steam-yacht which had been provided for their use. It wasmore than a launch; for its standing-room would seat the whole company,while an awning was spread over a portion of the upper deck, from which afull view of the shore could be obtained. The city is on the north shore ofthe river, which has an easterly course in this portion of India, and thehouses are packed in about as thickly as they can be.
"This is the Dasasvamedh Ghat," said Sir Modava, with a smile. "I thoughtyou might wish to recall it after you get home to America. I think it israther pleasant to know the names of places one has visited."
"We could not speak the word now without an hour's practice, and I am surenot one of us will know it when we get to the other side of the Atlantic,"said Mrs. Belgrave.
"You can write it down in your diaries."
"We might as well attempt to copy the top of a tea-chest," added Louis.
The ladies were assisted on board of the steamer.The captain was a very gentlemanly Englishman; and he was all devotion tothe wants of his passengers, who seated themselves on the promenade deck.The steamer belonged to the government; and she was fitted up in the mostcomfortable manner, though it was not so gaudy as the craft of a maharajahwould have been. The ghat was at the western extremity of the crescent towhich Sir Modava had alluded, and from this point the town looked like anamphitheatre.
The river is ordinarily about half a mile wide, but in the season of highwater it is double that width. The captain called the attention of theparty to the ghat as they receded from it, the broad flight of stairs beinga rather wonderful sight to the strangers, though they had seen somethingof the kind before in Delhi and Cawnpore.
The steps are adorned with small temples with plenty of spires. Near thetop of the flight was the Man Munder, the great observatory. Though thebuilding is plain, as a whole, Captain Carlisle pointed out a highlyornamental window, with a profusion of handsome brackets. The stairs on thecity side of the river were unlimited as far as the eye could see. Behindthem was a forest of spires, domes, and cupolas.
"You ought to have left the ghat before sunrise," said the captain, who waswalking up and down the deck, with an eye on the Hindu pilot. "Then youwould have been in time to see the sight of the day, for the appearance ofthe sun is the holy moment for the natives to plunge into the holy river.For miles along the shore the ghats are thronged at the first appearance ofthe orb of day, and there is a continuous murmur of voices. No matter howcold the water is, they dive in and swim like fishes. You can see athousand heads in the water along the shore at any moment. Then theysupport themselves on the surface, and gaze motionless at the sun as itmounts in the sky."
"Are you a sailor, Captain Carlisle?" asked Louis, who thought he wasrather poetic for an uneducated man.
"Not as the commander of your ship would understand it, though I was incommand of a Thames steamer, and fell into the same business when I came toIndia," replied the captain, laughing at the question. "My father was agood Baptist; he wanted to make a minister of me, and I was educated farenough to enter the university; but I concluded that I did not like thebusiness, and took to steamboating."
"But aren't the women as religious as the men?" inquired Captain Ringgold.
"More so, if anything. But they come down to the river before sunrise andtake their swim. If you had been here this morning you would have seen themcoming out of the water just as the men are ready to go in, and you wouldhave observed them in their white garments, dripping like drowned rats.That pagoda you see ahead of us with the bell tower and shining in gilt isthe only temple the Buddhists have in Benares."
"We are coming now to the Munikurnika Ghat. It is a five-syllable word, butyou can easily pronounce it," said Sir Modava, who thought he would "spell"the captain for a time; and he was quite as familiar with the banks of theGanges.
"And it is quite musical," added the captain.
"Pronounce u like double o, and the rest of the letters as in English, andyou can speak it without choking," said the Hindu gentleman. "But there aresome letters in Hindu that have no equivalents in English."
"Moo-ui-koor-ni-ka Ghat," added Louis, pronouncing the word. "But what isit all about?"
"It is the place for burning the dead, such as you saw in Bombay, but on amuch larger scale," replied Sir Modava. "You see that it extends aconsiderable distance. Please keep to the leeward of the smoke, CaptainCarlisle."
"That is what I am doing, Sir Modava."
"These funeral pyres are burning all the time, night and day. The peoplewhose bodies are consumed in these fires, and their friends, believe thatthe souls of the deceased will pass from this spot into paradise, where, ifthey have not been very great sinners they will be transplanted into thebodies of future Brahmins. Many deceased persons are brought even hundredsof miles to be burned on the Munikurnika by the Ganges, as their surepassport to the realms of bliss."
The obliging captain took the steamer near enough to the ghat to enable thetourists to see the process of burning. An occasional puff of the horriblyoffensive odor came to the nostrils of the sightseers; but the captainsheered off, and they got very little of it.
"It smells just like assafoedita. It is awful-smelling stuff; and I wonderif they don't make it out of this smoke, for it hits my nose in just thesame way," said Mrs. Blossom. "I took care of old Jotham Beeling when hehad the apoplexy, and gave the stuff to him. The room smelt then just thesame as it does here."
"You are quite right, madam," said Dr. Hawkes, laughing. "It gets part ofits name from its bad odor; but it is not made out of smoke. Asa is the gumof a tree that grows here. It has a very offensive odor, which gives it therest of the name, from _foeditas_, meaning foul, filthy."
The workmen who were operating the burning were nearly naked, begrimed bythe sooty smoke, and looked like so many imps. They were stirring up thefires with long iron pokers, and throwing vessels of oil upon them. Theboat passed beyond the fumes of the pyres, and came up to the ghat, at therequest of Lord Tremlyn. A multitude of hideous-looking cripples,humpbacks, and beggars made an onslaught on the steamer; and the boys andgentlemen pelted them with coppers, with which they had been forewarned tosupply themselves. It was fun to them, and the mendicants enjoyed it quiteas much.
"There is a procession of pilgrims just arrived," said Captain Carlisle,pointing to the high ground beyond the ghat. "They are coming here all thetime. The Hindus under the umbrellas are Brahmins, who collect the fees forbathing from the steps; and they sell certificates of purification,indulgences, and amulets."
The boat continued on her course, and they did not wait to see the bathing,though the heads of the swimmers were soon in view. A staircase is reservedfor women, who are watched over by the elders of their sex. But they couldbe seen in the distance, frolicking in the water; and they were sohilarious that their shouts could be heard on board of the Sylph, as theboat was called.
The steamer next came to a long row of palaces on the high ground, whosefronts were profusely ornamented with staircases that exceeded in extentand beauty anything they had before seen. Every rajah has a residence here,not permanent, but where he comes to celebrate the religious festivals. Theking of Nagpore has the finest one, with one hundred stairs of whitesandstone reaching down to the water.
"Now we come to a building worth looking at," said Sir Modava, as theypassed beyond the assemblage of palaces. "This is the mosque of Aurungzeb.Those two lofty minarets are one hundred and forty-seven feet high. T
heyare very slender, and look like a couple of needles; but, though they areonly eight and a quarter feet in diameter on the ground, they have spiralstaircases reaching to the top. If you wish to land and go to the cupolayou can do so."
"I pray thee have me excused," interposed Uncle Moses; and Dr. Hawkes said"Me too!" And no one cared to ascend to such a height.
"This mosque was built by the Emperor Aurungzeb, on the site of a Hindutemple of Siva, which he caused to be pulled down, to the scandal of theworshippers of that deity, for it marked the spot where Vishnu himselffirst appeared to man. A flight of one hundred stairs leads to the mosque,which the Hindus formerly ascended on their knees when they went to theworship of Vishnu. But we have gone as far in this direction as we needgo."
The Sylph came about, and went back up the river, landing above the funeralpyres. From the ghat, they walked into one of the crowded streets. Theywere conducted by Sir Modava to a square, which was thronged with natives.In the middle of it was a small round temple, the spire of which wasoverlaid with plates of gold. At the present day this is the holy of holiesof the Hindus. Its principal object of adoration is a plain stone post,which is believed to form a part of the very body of the deity, Siva inthis instance.
The narrow streets, through which the party made their way with difficultywere very clean. They were thronged with pilgrims from all parts of India,dressed in their best garments, loaded with gold and silver ornaments. Themen were carrying great brass trays, piled up with flowers, as offeringsfor the various deities. The little stalls, which were the stores, made thethoroughfares look like bazaars. They passed no end of temples; and all ofthem were small, though they were very pretty, what there were of them.
Emerging from these narrow streets, the company came to a section where theavenues were broad, with handsome houses built upon them. This portion waspracticable for carriages, and half a dozen _culeches_ were drummedtogether after some delay; and the ladies were glad to be seated again, forthey had had a long and tiresome walk through the narrow and crowdedstreets. Sir Modava directed the drivers, and when he said Dourga Khound noone knew what he was to see next. The word means the Fountain of Dourga;and when they came to it they agreed that it was one of the most beautifulbuildings in Benares, though it was painted all over with red, which madeit look rather fantastic.
Sir Modava said nothing about the use of the building, and led the way intothe enclosure. The moment they entered the grounds they realized that theHindu gentleman had worked a surprise upon them; for the yard was filledwith monkeys, and the walls were covered with them. The chatteringcreatures immediately surrounded them, holding out their paws forsomething. Sir Modava gave the most dignified one a rupee, and Lord Tremlynmade a similar gift to another.
"They can't eat silver," suggested Morris.
"The money is for the Brahmin who has charge here. You see they have goneto give it to him," replied Sir Modava, as he opened a large paper packagehe had bought at a store, and proceeded to distribute its contents,consisting of nuts and parched corn, to the members of the monkeycommunity.
For half an hour they fed the animals, which were very tame, and madefriends with them. The live boys were more pleased with this occupationthan in looking at temples and mosques. They all visited the sanctuary ofthe temple, which was said to date back a thousand years. The party greatlyenjoyed the ride back to Secrole, which is the English town of Benares.After dinner Sir Modava told them about the Feast of Ganesa.
"He is one of the most popular deities of India," said the Hindu gentleman."He is the embodiment of wisdom, prudence, and commerce; his presence wardsoff all perils. You will find him over the door of places of business; andcontracts open with an invocation to Ganesa, sometimes given by a pictureof the god. He was the son of Siva and Parvati. His picture is that of ashort, fat man, with four arms and an elephant's head.
"Though he was Siva's son, the father was jealous of him, and struck offhis head. Siva was sorry for what he had done, and wanted to bring Ganesaback to life; but his head was gone."
"Couldn't he put a head on him?" asked Scott very seriously; and the otherboys laughed.
"That was just what he did," replied Sir Modava, wondering what the boysand some of the others were laughing at. "Siva selected a young elephant,cut off his head, and affixed it to his son's shoulders; and that is how hehappens to have such a head. This head sometimes takes the place of thewhole figure on contracts. His festival is celebrated the last of April,with the greatest magnificence. Effigies of the god are made ofterra-cotta, painted and gilded, and borne by processions through thestreets. Priests and musicians surround the idol; and young girls, widowedbefore they are wives, dancing and waving their scarfs in solemn cadence,lead the way.
"When the processions reach the river, they embark in fairy-like boatspropelled by sails or oars, forming a grand aquatic spectacle. At sunsetthe idols are thrown into the river, and the festival terminates with agrand frolic on shore, with fireworks, in which many Europeans take part;and the river is thronged with boats decorated with many-colored lanterns."
The party spent two days more at Benares, and visited temples, mosques, andmany places of interest. They were visited by British civil and militaryofficers, who were extremely kind to them, and offered them every facilityfor seeing the city. After dinner on the last day, Captain Ringgold askedLord Tremlyn to tell them something about Patna; and he evidently did sowith a purpose.
"Patna is the fifteenth city in India in population, one hundred and fortymiles from Benares," replied the viscount. "It extends nine miles along theGanges, and an average of two back from it. The streets are narrow andcrooked. The houses are mostly of mean appearance, and there are but veryfew buildings there of any importance. You laid out your list of cities tobe visited yourself, Captain, and generally very judiciously; but if I hadmade it out I should have omitted Patna. It has a population of about onehundred and sixty-five thousand."
"I asked the question with a view to omit it from the list if there are nosights of importance, and, after what you have said, I shall do so; andtomorrow we will take the train for Calcutta," added the captain.
This decision pleased the party, and at six the next morning the specialstarted with them for the greatest city of India.