out that he was a very low-caste Brahmun (for they, like all other castes, are broken up into subordinate ranks, according to greater or less purity of blood) and could be reinstated by the payment of a fine, in the shape of a feast to his friends; so he finally made up his mind to blow the bugle, lose caste, and restore himself by standing treat, rather than have the greater expense of buying a new bugle. He would not touch his mouth to it, after all, without heating the mouthpiece in live coals, and scouring it with mud and cow-dung to purify it from the pollution of my lips. It may seem strange to some that a Brahmun should be coachman, but in fact they are found in all positions, and very commonly hire themselves out to natives as cooks, since the food which they prepare can be eaten by men of any caste. There are, however, a very large number, particularly among the higher castes of Brahmuns, who subsist wholly on their religious character-living on the charity and hospitality of one family after another. They are a very licentious race, and the customs of society give this tendency of theirs full swing, as, if a Brahmun leaves his shoes outside the door of a house into which he enters, it is unlawful for the owner of that house to enter until invited; and again there can never be any scandal with respect to them since a Hindoo would rather die than say anything to the disadvantage of a Brahmun. In old times, slandering a Brahmun was punished by cutting out the tongue; and death was the penalty for a blow given to one of the sacred caste. Of course these penalties have been inoperative since the government of the country by the Moosulmans, but the offences, which they were designed to prevent, are none the less rare. The dress of the Brahmuns does not differ from that of other natives, except that they all wear a piece of thread over the shoulder, falling to the hip, tied in a particular knot. This thread is put on the young Brahmun when he is about nine years old. Certain religious acts are performed on this occasion, and he is acquainted with a certain mystic sentence called the gayootree, which is in Sanscrit, and although now well known by foreigners, has at least half a dozen different translations. When all this is done, the novice

is said to be twice born. Under the Hindoo system of government, the Brahmuns occupied a position of superiority which is almost incredible. All the other castes existed only for their use and advantage. If a Soodra (or member of the great caste which comprises the mass of the population, and of which the present castes are only subdivisions) presumed to learn by heart any portion of the Shastras, the penalty was death; if he only repeated a few of the sacred words without learning them, he was let off with a dose of boiling oil poured down his throat. The killing of a Soodra by a Brahmun was the pollution of a day; a blow inflicted on a Brahmun by a Soodra, was, as before stated, a capital offence. These and other exorbitant privileges have been lost, both by the rise in importance of the lower castes, by the degeneracy and impure blood of the present race of Brahmuns, and especially by the effects of the Mahommedan invasions which deposed them from their despotic pre-eminence. They are still, however, universally regarded by the Hindoos with a superstitious reverence, and are permitted to enjoy many privileges which they abuse. For instance, monogamy is the general rule among the Hindoos, except under peculiar circumstances, but the Brahmuns, and especially those of the high class called Kooleen, are allowed to marry several women. A Kooleen Brahmun can have as many wives as he pleases, and frequently weds as many as fifty or even a hundred girls, for the sake of the dowries which the parents are willing to give to secure the honour of so high-caste a husband for their daughter. As these Kooleens are frequently poor, they have no home of their own, but stop with such of their wives as they fancy-frequently never seeing the others after their nuptial day. This is, of itself, a fearful source of immorality, second only perhaps to the Hindoo custom of prohibiting the remar riage of widows. In some parts of India the Brahmuns have attained a social position even higher than that assigned to them by the laws of Menoo, as they are looked upon as deities, and called by the same word which is used for a god.

CHAPTER XIV.

BENARES-CONCLUDED

Religious Ablutions-Aurungzeeb's Mosque-View from Minár-Burning GhatMarket Place-Hindoo College-"Native Gentlemen"-European Manners and Morals in India-Ruins of a Boodhist Monastery-Gold Brocade-Opium.

LEAVING the Golden Temple, we returned to the ghat, re-embarked in our boat, and continued down the river. The ghats were still occupied by bathers, though the crowd was now not so great as earlier in the morning. Bathing in Ganges-water is a religious ceremony, which must be performed every morning, by all who live within any reasonable distance of that river. In case of persons who live more than twenty miles from the Ganges, the rule is so far relaxed as to allow them to bathe in any other river which may be more convenient. Next in sanctity to the Ganges, or Gunga as it is called by the natives, is the Nurbudda in Central India, which indeed is believed, by many of those who live on its banks, to be the Ganges itself, or to have a mysterious underground communication with it. Bathing being, as before remarked, a religious ceremony, is accompanied with prayers, joining of the hands, throwing up the water toward the sun, and numerous other rites. When the religious act is complete, the bather thoroughly washes every part of his person, scours his hair with mud, and cleanses his teeth with a piece of soft wood, which he has previously chewed into a brush, using the mud as tooth-powder. As this act is punctually performed every morning by every Hindoo, they are in person perhaps the cleanest people in the world. After bathing they take off their clothing and wash it, frequently putting it on again. without waiting for it to dry. In Bengal, oil is rubbed into

the skin after the bath, but in Hindoostan this is not customary. Men and women bathe together promiscuously, but although all the clothing has to be removed in the water, they contrive to do so without any immodest exposure.

We kept down the river, almost to the end of the town, and landed by the Musjeed of Aurungzeeb, where we landed and ascended the Ghat. The mosque itself is not a particularly handsome building, but the minárs are very fine, rising to perhaps 150 feet above the ground, which is about 100 feet above the river. All mosques in India have one shape, which is distinct from the form usual in other Moosulman countries. They consist of an open portico, forming the western side of a court. The portico is the place of prayer, and is supported by a row of columns on the side which is open toward the court. The other two sides are walled in. In the middle of the western wall is a niche, the kibla, which indicates the direction of Mecca. Close beside the kibla is a stone platform, raised a few feet from the pavement, on which the moolah, or preacher, sits. All this is on the western side of the court. On the eastern side is the main gateway. The court itself is frequently occupied by worshippers, when there is a crowd, In the centre is generally a pool of water, for the purification which the Korán enjoins previous to prayer. At each extremity of the colonnade dividing the open court from the portico, which has been described as the special place of prayer, is a minár. Every mosque has two. They are used as standing-places for the muezzins, who chaunt on their summits, certain Arabic verses which call the faithful to prayer.

We ascended to the top of one of the minárs of Aurungzeeb's musjeed, from which we had a view of all the city, the river, and the country for miles around. In the town itself, there were no buildings which stood out very prominently, except the Hindoo college. The houses generally had flat roofs, and were larger than in other towns which I saw in India. The Ganges had a very deserted look-there being only one or two boats upon it. In China, such a river would be

crowded with vessels. Such parts of the country as we could see were all barren jungul.

Leaving the mosque, we again entered our boat, and returned a short distance up the river. We passed close to the "Burning Ghat," which I had not noticed as we went down, since we had kept in the centre of the stream. It was much like the corresponding establishment at Calcutta, and had quite as foul a smell, but there were not so many hurgilas to be seen. Two bodies were burning and two or three others, lying in the mud, wrapped in red muslin, awaiting incremation.

Landing again, we dismissed our boat and entered the garrhee. We passed through the chôk, or market-place, and the Burra Bazár, or great street of shops. They were, neither of them, very remarkable sights; but, in the afternoon, when I visited them again, were crammed full of people buying and selling-so much so that I had to leave my carriage and make my way through the crowd as best I could on foot. I had cause to regret not having the elephant, with which I should, no doubt, have been furnished, had Capt. Waddy been in Benares, as such an animated scene as the chôk of a large Indian city, at high market time, is much better seen from a howdah than in any other way.

We returned home by way of the Hindoo college, an extensive establishment, built and supported by Government. The material is the same light free-stone, which is so generally employed in Benares; the architecture, a sort of Indian Gothic, badly carried out. The tuition is free, and, as in all government schools, all mention of religion is carefully excluded. The school was not in session, the day being a Hindoo festival. . My companion of the morning offered to take me to see some Hindoos of eminence with whom he was acquaintedwhich I should have been glad to do-but he was afterwards prevented by business. Rich natives generally live in a very retired way, and foreigners do not get on intimate terms with them they are, however, very glad to have acquaintances among the English, and receive visits from them, and are much disposed to adopt English customs in exteriors. There is, in fact, no such thing as intimacy among the natives. They