The countries of the world, Volume 5; Volume 79

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Page 184 - Hindoos from every province where the Brahminical faith was known. Hundreds of devotees came thither every month to die ; for it was believed that a peculiarly happy fate awaited the man who should pass from the sacred city into the sacred river.
Page 184 - Commerce had as many pilgrims as religion. All along the shores of the venerable stream lay great fleets of vessels laden with rich merchandise. From the looms of Benares went forth the most delicate silks that adorned the balls of St. James's and of Versailles, and in the bazaars the muslins of Bengal and the sabres of Oude were mingled with the jewels of Golconda and the shawls of Cashmere.
Page 278 - We are content with discord, we are content with alarms, we are content with blood, but we will never be content with a master."!
Page 184 - Asia. It was commonly believed that half a million of human beings was crowded into that labyrinth of lofty alleys, rich with shrines and minarets and balconies and carved oriels, to which the sacred apes clung by hundreds. The traveller could scarcely make his way through the press of holy mendicants and not less holy bulls. The broad and stately flights of steps which descended from these swarming haunts to the bathing -places along the Ganges were worn every day by the footsteps of an innumerable...
Page 45 - ... view. I confess that the case is different with me. Faith in the race is a matter of intuition with me. I find here a steady adherence to the traditions of the past, a sober devotion to the calls arising in the various relations of life, an absence of shiftlessness, an honest and at least somewhat earnest grappling with the necessities and difficulties which beset...
Page 45 - ... withal, and an enduring sense of right and wrong. These all form what must be considered an essentially satisfactory basis and groundwork of national character. Among the people there is practical sense; among the gentry, scholarly instincts, the desire for advancement, the disposition to work for it with earnestness and constancy. Amongst the rulers, a sense of dignity, breadth of view, considering their information, and patriotic feeling. Who will say that such a people have not a future more...
Page 184 - Hundreds of devotees came thither every month to die ; for it was believed that a peculiarly happy fate awaited the man who should pass from the sacred city into the sacred river. Nor was superstition the only motive which allured strangers to that great metropolis.
Page 113 - ... daily until the whole of the raceme is sliced away. In procuring the sugar exactly the same process is followed, but the inside of the receiver is powdered with lime, which prevents fermentation taking place : the juice is afterwards boiled down and finally dried by exposure to smoke in little baskets.
Page 96 - ... of windowless houses built of mud, the blank walls of which stared one in the face at every turn, there were fine buildings of brick, beautifully carved and moulded, roofed with tiles, and with latticed windows and porticoes. Instead of female forms swathed in long, shapeless dressing-gowns, and faces hidden by black horsehair veils, there were stout, healthy, and smiling women chatting over their marketing, the bright orange-coloured marigolds in their wonderful coiffures, or their coquettish...
Page 319 - Egypt : Descriptive, Historical, and Picturesque. By Prof. G. EBERS. Translated by CLARA BELL, with Notes by SAMUEL BIRCH, LL.D., &c. Two Vols. With 800 'Original Engravings.

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