Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/228

196 against the wall to dry in the sun. Thus prepared, this useful sharney serves for fuel, and cartloads of such cakes are brought for sale from the country to the city. The ashes of sharney are holy, and are sprinkled on the verandah and rubbed on the forehead, and, by sanyasees (ascetics) and such holy men, daubed all over the face and body. But we must cease to enumerate the virtues and uses of this wonderful article, so little appreciated with us, lest the catalogue of its excellencies seems to surpass belief; to the Hindu, its praises cannot be overdone.

The bazaars or trading-streets of Madras present scenes of much life and novelty to a foreigner, more especially toward afternoon, when they are most thronged. With us, the business of the merchant is transacted within his shop; but in India the shop is a mere recess or stall open to the street. The purchaser sees the goods and wrangles over the price with the owner without leaving the common thoroughfare. Hence, the whole passage-way will be an unbroken mass of men, in all the gay colours of Oriental dress, sending up a complete Babel of discordant voices. And not only are sales carried on thus publicly, but mechanics do their