Page:Wanderings of a Pilgrim Vol 1.djvu/236

 Government at that time had issued the order to forbid s[)u]tēē, not one word would have been said. The missionaries had nothing to do with it; the rite might have been abolished long before without danger.

Women in all countries are considered such dust in the balance, when their interests are pitted against those of the men, that I rejoice no more widows are to be grilled, to ensure the whole of the property passing to the sons of the deceased.

The Government interferes with native superstition where rupees are in question—witness the tax they levy on pilgrims at the junction of the Ganges and Jumna. Every man, even the veriest beggar, is obliged to give one rupee for liberty to bathe at the holy spot; and if you consider that one rupee is sufficient to keep that man in comfort for one month, the tax is severe.

THE DEWĀLĪ.

16th.—This is the great day of the Dewālī, celebrated by the Hindoos in honour of Kālī, also called Kālee-pooja. This evening, happening to go down to the river just below the verandah to look at a large toon-wood tree lying in a boat, which some people had brought in hopes we should purchase it, my attention was attracted to a vast quantity of lamps burning on Sirsya Ghāt, and I desired the boatmen to row to the place; I had never been on the river before, nor had I seen this ghāt, although only a stone's throw from our bungalow, it being hidden by a point of land.

On reaching the ghāt, I was quite delighted with the beauty of a scene resembling fairy land. Along the side of the Ganges, for the distance of a quarter of a mile, are, I should think, about fifty small ghāts, built with steps low down into the river, which flows over the lower portion of them. Above these ghāts are, I should imagine, fifteen small Hindoo temples, mixed with native houses; and some beautifully picturesque trees overshadow the whole.

The spot must be particularly interesting by daylight—but imagine its beauty at the time I saw it, at the Festival of Lights.

On every temple, on every ghāt, and on the steps down to the