Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/581

Rh and thither on the bosom of the river. To abate this, which, to English minds, appears a nuisance, boats are stationed for the purpose of sinking the floating bodies as they pass.

The Durga-pujah, or festival in honour of the goddess Durga, one of the forms in which the wife of Siva has manifested herself, occurs in the autumn. It is one of the greatest of the many great festivals in the Hindu year, and in Bengal is their chief holiday. So universal is the cessation from business, that even the government offices are closed for a week. The story of the cause and results of this incarnation of the terrible goddess, is described in the Shasters, and translated by Ward. The sum of it is, that a certain giant having by religious austerities obtained a boundless store of merit, conquered the three worlds, dethroned all the gods save the supreme triad, Brahma, Vishnu, Siva, and their consorts, drove them from heaven, and made them fall down and worship him. The wretched immortals found favour in the eyes of the goddess Durga, and she went forth to slay their oppressor, who met her with an army of thirty thousand giants of enormous size, ten millions of horses, a hundred millions of chariots, and one hundred and twenty