Page:Burke, W.S. - Cycling in Bengal (1898).djvu/45

 alighting. At Mohunneah, fifteen miles ahead, there is a capital Dâk Bungalow, which we ought to reach by midday, and where we can have tiffin and a lounge till 3 P. M.

Once again on the road, we have but 32 miles between us and Mogulserai. Nowatpore lies about midway, and as there is nothing to be seen and no food to be got here, we shall merely get off for a ten minutes "easy" as we walk our machines through the village. At Mogulserai we strike civilization again,and at Kellner's Refreshment Rooms we renew our acquaintance with the foaming Bass or the soothing peg, comforting beverages which we last saw three hundred and fifty miles down the road. The best plan is to sleep in the Waiting Room of the station, and if we have booked our luggage from Barakar, we can indulge in the luxury of a complete change of kit ere rebooking it to Allahabad.

If we want to see Benares at its best, we must make an earlier start than usual, and the first halting place should be the Dufferin Bridge across the Ganges. Dismounting midway, we see the innumerable temples, towers, minarets and domes, bathed in the roseate beams of sunrise. The gilded enrichments of the architecture touched by the sun lend additional brightness to the picture, while hundreds of bathers, scores of small craft, the gay-coloured cloths of the women, the brass utensils, the bright flowers, the tinkling of bells, beating of gongs and blowing of conches among the sacred buildings, half hidden by the rich foliage growing down to the water's edge, form a picture as intensely Oriental as the most ardent globe-trotter could wish to gaze upon. We mustn't linger long though, for we