Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/579

Rh sight, the name, or the touch of Gunga takes away all sin, no matter how aggravated. Even to think of this holy river, when far away from it, is sufficient to remove the taint of sin; while to bathe in it conveys blessings which no tongue can tell.

With a stream of such wonderful powers rolling its current at their very doors, it will be believed that Gunga's banks are scenes of daily rites and of idolatrous worship. Many visit it morning and evening merely to look at the river, and so remove the sins of the day or night just passed. Others walk into the yellow stream, bathe, and then, regaining the shore, mould the mud upon its banks into the form of a Linga, the symbol of Siva, and offer to it their morning prayers. Presenting to it flowers, betel, and fruits, again they invoke the god which their own hands have formed. When they have ended, they throw the image away, and return to their homes or business. Surely, as the Psalmist says of the worshippers of idols, “They that make them are like unto them."

In sickness, the body is smeared with Ganges mud as a means of restoration, and, above all, when death seems inevitable, Gunga's shore is the place on which to die. To die immersed