Page:History of India Vol 9.djvu/233

 HINDU FUNERAL RITES 189 into some brook of running water. On the spot where the body has been burned, they raise a monument sim- ilar to a mile-stone, plastered with gypsum. The bodies of children under three years are not burned. Those who fulfil these duties toward the dead afterwards wash both them- selves and their clothing for two days, because they have become un- clean by touching the dead. Those ON THE BANKS OP THE GANGES IN BENARES. who cannot afford to burn their dead throw them either somewhere on the open field or into running water.